POS innovation is evolving at such a remarkable pace that many operators struggle to understand precisely where their own system sits on the evolutionary scale. For some, the ability to process orders and take payments with a decent level of efficiency is enough.
Unfortunately, that confidence can be misplaced. Although your POS system might still be performing reliably on a day-to-day basis, it may have fallen behind the curve. It may even be obsolete.
So how do you know when your restaurant POS platform has become a relic? And what does ‘modern’ really mean? To understand where we are now, it helps to look back.
Accordingly, we’ll now trace the evolution of restaurant POS platforms, from cash registers to intelligent, interconnected restaurant ecosystems. It’s a story that underlines just how far the industry has come and why platforms like Syrve now represent the next great leap forward.
Our odyssey begins in the final decade of the 19th century.
The first generation of cash registers can be traced back to 1879 and a device known as Ritty’s Incorruptible Cashier. Aimed at preventing employee theft, this primitive device relied on buttons and levers, emitting a ping sound with each transaction.
Despite its ingenuity, the machine proved difficult to produce and maintain. Overwhelmed by the demands of manufacturing, creator James Ritty eventually sold the rights to John H Patterson - founder of the National Cash Register Company (NCR).
Under the stewardship of Patterson, the NCR improved on Ritty’s design by adding key innovations such as cash drawers, paper roll receipts and basic mechanisms for tracking sales. Entirely mechanical and operated by crank or by pressing keys, these early machines could only record total sales rather than individual items. But despite their obvious limitations, they provided the foundation for all future point-of-sale solutions.
Key Advancements
By the mid-1970s, the retail and restaurant sector began to move away from springs and levers towards microprocessors. This was the electronic cash register (ECR) era - an era in which large, boxy POS machines gradually became the norm.
Featuring basic LED displays, these cumbersome machines allowed for faster transactions and could perform basic digital calculations. Operators could also assign fixed prices to individual menu items - a revelation compared to previous POS registers which required every price total to be punched in by hand.
On some devices, buttons were laid out in sections to represent specific categories such as ‘food’, ‘beer’ ‘wine’ etc. This allowed managers to view category-level sales figures at the end of each day. However, integration was non-existent - cash registers remained isolated, standalone systems.
Nevertheless, the electronic cash register brought a certain degree of analytical visibility to restaurant operations. For the very first time, restaurant owners could analyse daily income and basic performance.
Key Advancements
The predominance of standalone tills began to decline in the early-to-mid 1990s as restaurants started to adopt networked point-of-sale setups. This dramatic shift was brought about by the rise of affordable computers and improved local area network (LAN) technologies. This made multi-terminal POS installations far more viable to small and mid-size restaurants.
Multiple POS stations, whether at the bar, service counter or server stand could be linked to a central back-office computer. Handwritten tickets were no longer necessary (although many restaurants continued using them regardless). Instead, orders were transmitted digitally to printers within seconds, marking the first time that core service processes could be automated and streamlined.
It was during this period that POS vendors started to link payment terminals directly to their platforms via serial or network connections. Previously, credit card machines had been standalone devices that relied on dial-up internet. The till handled the sale, the terminal dealt with the payment. But by the late 90s and early 2000s, integrated card processing had become standard.
Gen 3 also took a step forward in terms of data analysis, managers could review reports on sales activity, transaction sources, basic menu performance and payment breakdowns. This was facilitated by the spread of relational databases and basic reporting software.
Despite the many advances, restaurant POS tills were still beset by issues. First of all, the hardware was expensive, as was the maintenance required to keep things running smoothly.
Secondly, operators had to rely on physical hardware and on-premises servers. So when the power went out, so did the data.
Third, everything operated within a closed, local ecosystem. Each venue had its own on-premises server that wasn’t able to connect or communicate with anything outside the building. While private and centralised networks were common in restaurant chains, data syncing could take up to 24 hours. Connections were also notoriously unreliable.
All of this was exacerbated by the fact that in-house integration was still quite limited. Accounting, payroll, inventory and CRM tended to have their own databases. So data was often incomplete and inconsistent, even at store-level.
Nonetheless, for all their faults, G3 laid the groundwork for the intelligent, fully-integrated POS systems that we know today.
Key Advancements
The 2000s marked a significant turning point. Broadband internet became faster and more reliable, Wi-Fi entered the workplace and the first wave of cloud computing platforms began replacing local servers.
The emergence of Application Programming Interface (API) software was also extremely significant. Essentially a set of rules and protocols, APIs allow systems built on entirely different architectures to communicate and share data seamlessly.
All of these innovations opened the door for a new generation of restaurant POS platforms that could integrate, communicate and operate in real-time. Of all the advancements, it was cloud technology that had the biggest impact.
Cloud technology changed everything. Instead of relying on bulky on-premises servers, POS devices and their data could be hosted online. As a result, transactions, reports and everything that lived on a local computer could be stored securely on a remote machine.
This ability to store vast amounts of data on sales, labour and inventory laid the groundwork for predictive forecasting. Historical trends could be analysed and live performance data recorded, which meant that many POS platforms could anticipate demand before it happened.
So by the mid-2010s, early forecasting tools started to appear, offering simple sales projections. But as computing power increased and AI integrations improved, forecasting became far more sophisticated - all sorts of variables could be factored in such as the weather, local events and daypart performance.
While Gen 3 machines were the first to connect with payment terminals, it was the Gen 4 family that started integrating them fully. As cloud technology matured, payment processors such as Stripe began offering APIs that synced payments directly to orders. This effectively created a seamless checkout experience that simplified reconciliation, while introducing new options such as contactless and mobile payments.
As payments became more tightly integrated, the hardware around them started to evolve too. The next leap was powered by the rise of smart devices.
The meteoric rise of tablets and smartphones from 2009 onwards, revolutionised how servers interacted with POS systems and, ultimately, their guests. Instead of running back and forth between table and terminal, they could take orders and, eventually, process payments tableside.
These same innovations also led to the rise of QR code technology. Once considered a novelty. The use of QR codes surged in the late 2010s. By scanning a code with their smartphone, guests could view digital menus, place orders and even pay the bill, all without waiting for a server. Each transaction fed directly into the POS system.
It was through the use of APIs as well as cloud-based relational databases, that developers were able to start linking stock movements directly with sales in real time. By the mid-to late 2010s, advancements were such that orders processed through the POS could be automatically deducted from corresponding ingredients in the store room.
This removed the need for manual management, which reduced errors and cut back waste. Because of these innovations, restaurant owners now have complete visibility in terms of inventory management and ingredient tracking.
Key Advancements
Today, the combination of cloud computing, mobile hardware, and API-driven connectivity has completely redefined what a POS system can do. APIs, in particular, have played a pivotal role.
Systems that once operated in complete isolation can now communicate with each other fluently. From accounting and delivery platforms to stock control and loyalty programs, these integrations allow data to move effortlessly between tools, creating a single, unified ecosystem.
It's now getting to the point that modern POS platforms actually adapt, learning from data patterns and adjusting to the operational needs of each restaurant. Technology that once tentatively recorded data now actively responds to it. So what will Generation 5 look like?
In 2025, we stand at the threshold of Gen 5, although we’re not quite there yet. But thanks to the building blocks of cloud technology, APIs and, of course, artificial intelligence, a handful of tech stacks have started to exhibit the traits of this next generation, namely predictive forecasting, automated decision support and adaptivity.
Future platforms are expected to move beyond management and into autonomous operations. Whereas Gen 4 was about connecting systems and data, Gen 5 will be about connecting insight and action, effectively closing the loop between what’s happening now and what needs to happen next.
We’ll be exploring this subject in more depth at a later date. But one thing is abundantly clear. Gen 5 platforms won’t merely record operational activities. They will anticipate them.
So where does this leave you? Just how ‘modern’ is your POS system? Here are 10 indications that your point-of-sale solution isn’t a solution at all, but an operational hindrance.