Your restaurant POS is a major investment in the success of your business. It serves as the central infrastructure on which many of your major business processes rely. And because it is so critical to your operation, it’s necessary to protect it.
Consumer grade devices like iPads look nice and are very on-trend, but these are consumer-grade devices. They are designed for consumer environments only. They are not made to withstand the rigors of your environment, and will eventually fail you before you realize the return on investment (ROI) that you deserve.
Here’s what make durable tablets a better option:
Dust and Splash Resistance
In a restaurant, you deal with messes by nature. When food and drinks are being served in high-traffic areas, spills are inevitable. Consumer-grade devices aren’t built to hold up to the hazards that are commonly found in restaurants.
Durable tablets that have been created for tough environments are much more capable of withstanding these rigors. You can tell when a tablet is rugged enough for a restaurant by its Ingress Protection (IP). These ratings define what the device is protected against. Tablets with a rating of IP54 or higher offer reasonable protection against dust, dirt, and water that may harm the equipment.
Download our free eBook: Rugged Tablet Solutions: A Technical Buyer’s Guide
Drop Resistance
A tablet that is sealed tightly enough to keep things from getting inside is important, but what’s on the outside matters too. iPads are notoriously fragile, and the screen can crack and shatter when dropped.
In a restaurant environment, servers, kitchen staff, and others are handling tablets—using them at tables and counters and carrying them back and forth across rooms and around servers balancing heavy trays. There is a not-insignificant chance that at some point, your tablets will get dropped. You want to make sure your technology investment isn’t going to break the first time it hits the floor or counter.
Invest in a durable, rugged tablet that can withstand drops to hard concrete floors and tumbles onto counters. Durable tablets have been designed to resist damage from drops and tumbles that are so common in commercial environments.
RAM and Processing to Handle Business Applications
Your tablet functions as an extension of your POS system. It bridges the gap between your technology and your servers, and as such, it needs to have the capacity to handle the same business operations that your POS does.
Consumer tablets don’t have sufficient RAM or processing power to handle the complex tasks that are required to run your restaurant effectively. They are meant for the simple tasks that consumers have, and as such, there is less risk involved because any malfunction or shortage of RAM is a personal problem for that single consumer.
Commercial-grade, durable tablets come equipped internally with the power and space you need to process transactions, process orders, and take inventory quickly and effectively. They are more reliable, because businesses require that reliability to a degree which consumers might not.
Peripheral Support for Future-Proof Use
Consumer-grade devices aren’t traditionally equipped to include or accommodate the various peripherals that are necessary for additional functionality. Durable tablets made for restaurants are flexible enough to scale with you, and can accommodate necessary peripherals for businesses, such as:
- Barcode readers/scanners
- EMV and MSR card readers
- NFC capabilities for contactless payments
- Biometric support
- 3G and 4G Network connectivity
- And more
Final Thoughts
While any popular consumer device might initially look tempting, and may at first seem like a cost-effective solution, that isn’t always the case, and they may not provide the ROI you are looking for.
It’s important that you take your technology investment seriously, and select a device that has the durability and power to drive you forward, not hold you back.
Choose a tablet that was designed for businesses, like those offered by Touch Dynamic. Our durable tablets are built to last, and can scale with you to support your business growth. For more information on our tablet technology, or what to look for in a tablet for your restaurant, contact Touch Dynamic today.
