Lavu vs. Oracle Simphony POS Systems vs. Order Sprinter

For a small company with little inventory, Lavu is a great simple POS system. For a larger company or a company where items are always changing, I would not recommend Lavu as more transactions increases room for error and ultimately takes away the time one doesn't have to figure out how to reconcile something. Customer service is not always able to fix the problem right away and can take months getting back to you on the reasoning behind a discrepancy in reports.

Incentivized

In my experience, there has not been a resolution on outstanding tickets opened two years ago during the initial implementation. Simple things like time reporting, creating buttons, and marking items as "unavailable" have issues. The system has a lag when servers log out of checks that prevents them from opening the checks on another terminal without a wait that feels like an eternity in the restaurant industry and with direct impact to the guest. Good luck calling support. Most of my experience involves the person I spoke with having no idea how to fix my issue and having to "escalate the ticket." This escalation process will last weeks, months, and in our case, years with no resolution.

• The Lavu system is incredibly easy to use in both front and back of house operations. The format of both sides is very intuitive.
• Lavu makes it very easy to add real life application to teaching inventory control, schedule control, etc.
• The fact that it is cloud based makes life much easier. I can make changes on the fly and they update very quickly.

Incentivized

• Real time sales
• Real time labor costs
• Integration with account software

Incentivized

• Split check credit card transactions, seem to have issues with some of the checks not closing out properly or being charged correctly
• Servers being allowed to run server summary even though they have unpaid checks (not supposed to happen)
• Have had the system go out on a weekend and took 20 plus minutes to get back online
• Calling the help desk on the weekend is a joke, takes 45 to 90 minutes to get help

Incentivized

• Support is awful. Oracle does not directly support end-users and depends on resellers to offer support. So if there is a bug or breaking change, we have to jump through hoops to get something fixed.
• Does not play well with other software or interfaces. There are interfaces but they lack a serious amount of features that are crucial to our business.
• The guest facing hardware does not hold up to constant use very well.
• The backend hardware is lacking in PCI compliance and is not meant for enterprise use.
• The software itself looks as if it is stuck in the early 2000s and there has been no sign of an update in many years.
• Reporting is difficult to set up and use and you have to rely on third-party reporting to get decent usable reports.

Incentivized

Square has a simpler interface but lower quality reporting for accountants.

Incentivized

We've stayed with MICROS mainly due to that's how we've always operated and to switch operating POS systems would be a HUGE learning curve for everyone involved.

Incentivized

• LAVU has fit perfectly into both the business and teaching usage areas for me. I feel I got an extra return on investment.

Incentivized

• Micros has allowed us to leverage our margin by using our own credit processor and loyalty program. We've seen success from both of these platforms (not Micros) and have been able to save money on the extra costs of using Micros.

Incentivized