Larkspur, Calif.-based Green Beans Coff ee Co., which
operates coff ee service for military bases, markets giſt cards to families of service members, off ering a taste of home even at forward operating bases in Afghanistan and airfi elds throughout the Middle East (greenbeanscoff ee.com). On the other hand, many independent coff eehouses and
small chains may not need the most ultra-sophisticated POS systems available. A more cost-reasonable alternative could be a traditional cash register with embedded, non-proprietary soſt ware, says Bruce Mann, vice president of marketing for CRS, a distributor of POS hardware and related products. "If you couple this cash-register system itself with a
purposely-designed above-store reporting soſt ware, then you have all of your business intelligence typically in a cloud-type environment," Mann says. A variety of third-party applications could compile and manage data from the cash registers. Such a system would save money over completely proprietary systems yet provide more functionality than a bare-bones cash-register system, he says.
GET MOBILE Mobile devices are fast on the
scene, with PayPal, Google Checkout and credit-card systems developing competing mobile payment systems for consumers. For operators, mobile systems bring order-taking out from behind the counter, as handheld devices allow staff to move down the line expediting customer orders. Micros' handheld point-of-sale
terminal, developed for the restaurant industry, integrates with its 3700 and 9700 systems, and its multi-unit Simphony architecture supports handheld devices (micros.com). Coff ee Shop Manager off ers an order-
taking tablet that communicates with the main register. "We clearly see an opportunity for coff ee shop owners to line bust, take orders online, or wait a few tables with such a device," Alexander says. Starbucks Coff ee Co. has lashed
iPhone and Android consumer apps to its sizable tech infrastructure, and expanded mobile payments to Safeway and Target locations. In touting mobile giſt cards for the Christmas season, the Seattle chain claimed 26 million mobile transactions for 2011, including $110 million in Starbucks Card reloads. Its top fi ve cities for mobile apps are New
York, Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago and San Jose. Even so, smartphone consumer apps may take awhile to
reach the neighborhood coff ee kiosk, particularly a location that resists wi-fi installation. Common standards for mobile wallets have yet to emerge, and the $110 million in mobile reloads for 2011 comprised just 4.6 percent of the $2.4 billion in Starbucks' card program. Smartphones also present an appealing target for hackers and
thieves, although punch cards remain easier to crack for customers who tip generously—or who own the right ticket punch. "Th e ability to put a simple app on a phone and use it as a
trigger to a customer account is very easy to do but diffi cult to do securely," Alexander says. "Th e Starbucks Card was stolen off phones in the fi rst few weeks."
LOYALTY AND THE WEB While security protocols develop, growth is likely in Web- based loyalty programs such as Foursquare, which gives free
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