The FIRMS way: Efficient tableside ordering and payment means fewer servers can take care of more tables (and each can make more tips in the process); lower-wage expediters deliver orders.

The old way: Because they spend so much time running to and from terminals and card swipers, you need more servers—and they are more costly than expediters.

The FIRMS way: Modern, inexpensive handhelds, cloud computing, and wireless networking greatly reduce your hardware acquisition and setup costs.

The old way: Proprietary POS terminals, PCs, networking, and cabling add up fast, and usually mean big leasing and maintenance costs and contracts.

The FIRMS way: Your cost is directly tied to usage—much like a utility bill. When business is quiet, so is your FIRMS bill.

The old way: Software licenses and/or monthly subscription fees are expensive. And they don't get any cheaper when business is slow.

The FIRMS way: You can set up FIRMS yourself without an IT professional. And there's no PC operating system, application software, database, or virus software to maintain, back up or update. We manage all of that for you, hosted at commercial data centers.

The old way: : Pay professionals to set the system up, and then pay more professionals to manage your server and terminals, application software, database, backup and virus software.

The FIRMS way: Servers enter orders at tableside, resulting in fewer errors and reduced waste.

The old way: Servers walk to and wait for stationary POS terminals, forgetting order details on the way, resulting in unhappy customers, wasted food, and slower table turns.

The FIRMS way: Live alerts from FIRMS help you see who and what's really selling and where the hot spots are, allowing you to make more money by tuning your operations to best advantage.

The old way: If you can't adequately monitor and measure your restaurant's operations, it's difficult to make them more efficient and profitable.