nbsystems.com Blog

Sharp UP 820F Cash Register

Sharp has released the UP-800 series of cash registers. The UP-800 series which inludes the UP-820F, the UP-820N, and the UP-810F cash registers.

The UP-820F and UP-810F are both designed for the food service industry while the UP-820N was designed for use in retail locations.

Regardless of model the UP-800 series register all have an integrated touch screen display along with a large keyboard. A true hybrid POS system. Many options are available like Integrated Credit Card, Gift Card, Bar Code Scanner, Scale, Coin Changer, PC interface and more.

The UP-800 series is available only in black, which is a great look for this machine.

NBS has released Virtual Technician

We are very excited to have released our Virtual Technician product (VT) After being installed on you POS computer VT will monitor and report back any problems are impending problems with your Digital Dining or Keystroke POS system. Often Time VT can even repair a problem before you are even aware of a problem.

For more detail on the VT product for your Digital Dining or Keystroke POS system click here

Keystroke POS and Touch Screen

So there is now a Value Add software package that allows The Keystroke POS system to work with a touch screen. The Touch Screen Software allows you to customize the screen and touch buttons. We have installed the Touch Screen Software in a local Seattle Business and it works very well. It has been installed with great success all over the country. Let us know if you are interested.

Attract new customers

Attract new customers and keep them coming back with Digital Dining Frequent Diner. Digital Dining gives you the tools to create and maintain customer loyalty through reward plans while increasing sales in your restaurant.

By monitoring your customers’ purchasing habits, you can target specific customers to influence their purchasing habits, which can increase your overall sales. For example, high volume customers who rarely visit the restaurant early in the week might be given an incentive to come in on Monday or Tuesday, or customers who rarely order takeout food can be targeted with a takeout promotion.

Benefits using Frequent Dining:

• Frequent Dining is the most cost effective marketing available.  Targeted toward current customers, it gives them incentives to become more frequent customers.
• Digital Dining Frequent Diner allows the restaurant to both identify and reward the approximately 20% to 30% of their customers that typically account for 70% to 80% of their business.
• The customer database stores vital customer information that lets you get to know your patrons and their preferences, and then create promotions that cater to those interests. For example, if you have many customers who enjoy football, you might create a Monday night football event and send invitations to those customers.

Frequent Dining allows you to:

• Create and maintain a customer database of up to one million records.
• Create up to 99 different frequent diner plans  that reward customers based on the dollar value of their purchases, the quantity of menu items purchased , the number of their visits, or by purchases of specific menu items.
• Reward customers with coupons generated at the POS, coupons printed in the back office, or credit redeemable for a purchase.
• Maintain frequent dining plans with automatic customer progression from plan to plan.
• Create customer status reports to inform customers of their purchases toward specific goals (for example, the number of points they have earned, the number of points they need, and so on).
• Monitor customer’s purchasing habits by type of menu items purchased, days of week visiting the restaurant, areas of restaurant frequented, times of day visited and not visited, and volume of purchases 
•  Customize frequent diner reward coupons, customer status reports, guest checks, and prep tickets.
• Track frequent diner customer complaints and issue customized coupons based on specific complaint reasons.
• Generate mailing labels from the customer database based on level of customer purchases, type of items purchased, special interests, special dates, or customer location.
• Design frequent dining plans for a single profit center/sales type or multiple  profit centers/sales types.  
• Generate customer status reports to inform customers of points earned, points needed, and so on.
• Inform servers of a customer’s special needs, preferences, interests, and so on.
• Enter customer numbers (up to 16 digits) manually or with a swipe card (including a customer’s credit card).
• Search the customer database by phone number, member number, name, company name, or credit card number on file.
• Create user-defined reports based on:
• Customer activity and sales
• Frequent diner plan and coupons
• Profit center, sales types, prep types, and prep groups
• Items or item types purchased or not purchased
• Days of week customer visited restaurant, last visit
• Customers’ special interests and occasions

Digital Dining and Credit Card PABP

Digital Dining has successfully achieved compliance with the Payment Application Best Practices (PABP) benchmark. Digital Dining’s application review was deemed successful and a compliant report was submitted by leading third-party assessor, AmbironTrustWave and validated by Visa USA

This set of best practices helps merchants of all sizes and types to protect the consumer card holder data they store, process and transmit. This diligence in inherent in the PABP benchmark, and along the payment chain, means consumers are safeguarded from theft and fraud. The PABP covers a set of 13 requirements that every POS application developer should follow to maintain a high level of security within their applications. Visa USA’s PABP standards:

• Do not retain full magnetic stripe or CVV2 data

• Protect stored data

• Provide secure password features

• Log application activity

• Develop secure applications

• Protect wireless transmissions

• Test applications to address vulnerabilities

• Facilitate secure network implementation

• For Internet-based applications, store cardholder data in internal network only

• Facilitate secure remote software updates

• Facilitate secure remote access to application

• Encrypt sensitive traffic over public networks

• Encrypt internal administrative access

Digital Dining is PCI Compliant

The following versions or better of Digital Dining are PCI compliant

Free Digital Dining Training

Our next Free Training Class on Digital Dining has been scheduled for May 20th 2008. You must be an NBS customer to attend the free training. Click on the following link to register Free Digital Dining Training

Why should I buy KS Support from NBS

When you buy your Keystroke Software Support directly from NBS you are getting twice the coverage. If you buy your Keystroke Support directly from Keystroke you will get updates and phone support from Keystroke only. Keystroke now limits the number of support calls you get based on the level of support you purchased.

If you buy your Keystroke Support from NBS you will now get phone support from both Keystroke and NBS. We do not limit the number of phone support calls. You still get all updates. So by purchasing from NBS you get more then twice the value.

So if you get a letter, card, or invoice DIRECT from Keystroke for a Support Contract call us first (253 839 9636). The price is the same the value is better.

Thanks Randy U

Keystroke. Were is my Manual

Keystroke no longer publishes a manual. There is a full PDF and other information on your CD. But Keystroke by far has the best help file that you will ever find. Wherever you are in Keystroke you can press “F1″. That is the common help key. Other programs will take you to a menu that is very hard to use. With Keystroke it know where you are in the program and will bring up the help file for that section. The help file you see will tell you were you are and how to use it. There will be many linked items that will take you to other related info.

Try it out. Were ever you are in the program press F1 and take a look. There is really not much that you can’t find from there.

Thanks Randy U 

Keystroke. I lost my data

I just lost all my sales history. We get this call more then you would think. The user goes to look at transaction history and sees nothing or only a few transactions. Keystroke stores transaction data in individual data files (kstrn***.dat). Each individual file will terminate at a certian size and open a new one. When you look at transacition history in sales manager it is only showing you the current data file. If you look at the top you will see the date range it is good for. You can move between different files using “CTRL” “Page up” and “Page Down”. This will move you thru the different transaction files. If they are to small we can adjust the size.

Thanks Randy U