With FIRMS, servers carrying handhelds such as Apple iPads enter orders at tableside. Mistakes are minimized. There are fewer tasks pulling them out of their assigned serving areas, and no traffic jams waiting at stationary POS terminals. Food and beverages are delivered by lower-cost expediters.

Servers can process credit cards at tableside, too. The credit card is swiped on the same handheld used to place orders. The customer enters a tip and signs with their fingertip. A receipt is sent to the customer by either email or text message—and a receipt can always be printed onsite.

Your customers will notice the difference. Fewer frustrating waits for the wait staff. More accurate orders, served more quickly. Fast and secure payment processing. The result? Customers have a more rewarding experience, are much more likely to return for repeat visits, and they tell others about your restaurant—positive word of mouth that brings in new and repeat business, all without costly marketing and promotions.

FIRMS requires no proprietary infrastructure or expensive, special-purpose hardware devices. Instead, it takes advantage of commercial, off-the-shelf hardware to lower your costs. These products include:

• Apple iPod Touch 32GB ($299)
• Apple iPad 16GB ($499)
• Epson TM-T88IV 802.11b wireless receipt printer (~$500)
• Epson TM-U220 802.11b wireless kitchen printer (~$500)
• POS-X XC16HD Cash Drawer ($120)
• 802.11G wireless router provided by Lecere ($150)
• Hawking HWREN1 Hi-Gain Wireless-300N Range Extender ($80)

No cables or wires are required to connect devices. The typical cost to purchase hardware for a medium-size restaurant is about $2,500.

FIRMS works with most popular web browsers, and it is independent of operating systems, so you are not locked into any particular hardware. This means you can take advantage of the consumer revolution—an ongoing explosion of popular handheld devices, wireless routers, printers and other products featuring ever-decreasing prices.

FIRMS is an example of modern software as a service: both the application software and your data are securely hosted and managed for you in the cloud—on Internet-based servers which are at major commercial data centers. You have no back-office computers to buy or manage. There is no up-front cost for software purchase or subscription; you pay only for your usage—like a utility.

The following graph shows how each month's fees for FIRMS are calculated, with a sliding scale of rates that start at 1% of the month's net sales (gross sales less taxes and tips) and drop to as little as 0.1% as net sales increase:

Examples of a month's fee for some typical establishments:
A) $182 for a cafe with net sales of $20,000 that month
B) $384 for a pub or wine bar with net sales of $50,000 that month
C) $597 for a full-service restaurant with net sales of $100,000 that month

Another important advantage with Lecere: you are under no long-term purchase, leasing, or maintenance contract. If you sign up for FIRMS and decide you don't like it, merely cancel and we'll discontinue your monthly billing.

In the restaurant front room, staff can focus on the customer and the flow of food and beverages. All service is performed at tableside from the time the customer walks in the door until the customer leaves the restaurant. For example, the credit card never leaves the customer's sight.

Tableside order management and credit card processing means that wait staff can stay in their service area most of the time, leaving them more time to manage the customers' experience, allowing them to serve more tables, and enabling them to up-sell more food and drink to increase restaurant revenues.

Entering orders at the table results in fewer ordering mistakes, omissions and delays. Expediters run back and forth from the kitchen and bar to bring food and drink orders to tables.

Beyond its novel approach to hardware and software, FIRMS focuses on restaurant resources—it is designed to help restaurant managers measure and monitor the efficiency of their business.

FIRMS enables the manager to monitor order status, mitigate delays, and turn tables more quickly. A dashboard feature allows the status of all tables and orders to be tracked in real time and provides immediate alerts for trouble spots.

In the restaurant backroom, modules for labor scheduling, inventory management, customer relationship management, data analysis and reporting, and an online reservation system help the manager increase revenues and cut costs.

Setting up your restaurant's menus, service spots and staff in FIRMS is straightforward—and you can do it yourself with Lecere's easy to use customer website.

The popular, off-the-shelf handhelds, printers and networking products you use with FIRMS are easy to purchase, install and set up—just like what people put in their own homes today. And because everything connects wirelessly to the Internet, you don't need to install networking cables throughout your restaurant.

Better yet, because we run FIRMS and manage your data in the cloud, you don't need a back-office computer to run your restaurant management software, database software, data back-up and anti-virus software—and you don't need an IT pro to set them up and manage them for you.

1. Tableside ordering and credit card processing:
   • Capture customer orders with handhelds (including iPod Touch and iPad) quickly and easily, without running to or waiting for a POS terminal. Orders are sent automatically to kitchen, bar, cashier, other handhelds, bump screens and printers.
   • Swipe cards and capture signatures at tableside (coming soon!).
2. Full POS system functions:
   • Combine, split, or transfer tickets and orders quickly and easily.
   • Control and monitor preparation and delivery of order items.
   • Check order status in real time; receive alerts for delayed items.
   • View/print up-to-the-minute reports including: Sales Detail by Server, Sales Summary by Server, Sales Detail for Restaurant, Sales Summary for Restaurant, Labor Report by Employee, Labor Report for Restaurant, Sales Detail by Item Sold, and Hourly Sales Report.
3. Highly flexible system configuration:
   • Eliminate costly cable installation using a wireless network instead.
   • Configure your system without limits: users, handhelds, printers, bump screens, food-drink menus, items and order modifiers, bar seats and tables, payment methods, revenue groups, and taxes.
   • Assign cash-drawer access to specific users and roles.
4. Remote administration and monitoring:
   • Use a browser or handheld to log into FIRMS from anywhere on Internet.
   • See live reports for sales, activities, and employees.
   • View and change system configuration.
5. Flexible staff training and configuration testing:
   • Train inside or outside of the restaurant using handhelds or browsers.