The ASI Handheld
(patent pending)
Replacing Pencil & Pad
in Full Service Restaurants
 
by Alex Malison, ASI
March 19, 2002
 
 The POS industry strives to provide full service restaurants with computerized systems that increase efficiencies and cut costs in all areas of their business.  But if you analyze the order taking process in a modern (ie computerized) full service restaurant, you will quickly realize there remains one glaring inefficiency on the service side of the equation.  The fact that a waiter must first visit a table to write down – or attempt to memorize – an order, and then travel to a point-of-sale station to record the same order a second time represents nothing but lost time and wasted resources.  (On average it takes a server up to two minutes to transfer an order from the pad to a POS System…and that does not include the time it takes to get to the POS Station.)
 
Key players in the POS industry have long pointed to handheld devices as the answer in eliminating this inefficiency.  And, in fact, the first handheld device for the foodservice industry hit the market nearly twenty years ago.  The potential benefits seem obvious.  The key benefit, already mentioned, is eliminating the need to process an order twice.  But it is easy to identify many other benefits that would accrue – and contrary to popular belief only one of them has anything to do with the distance that must be traveled to get to a fixed POS Station!
 
Basically, a handheld POS System could:

	-		Eliminate the time required to travel to a fixed POS station to enter an order.  (Depending on the size of the restaurant and the location of the fixed POS terminals this can save up to 5 minutes per table.)
	-		Eliminate delays waiting to use a POS station.  (During busy periods it is common to see two or three severs waiting for their turn at the POS terminal.)
	-		Eliminate the need to return to a table to report that a particular item is out of stock (86’d items can be displayed in real time on handheld units.)
	-		Ensure that servers correctly note all selections associated with each menu item (forced modifiers.)
	-		Provide useful information such as lists of menu items, today’s specials, or the ingredients in special dishes.  (This allows servers to easily and accurately answer questions such as “What beers do you have?” or “Does this dish have nuts in it?")
	-		Allow immediate printing of checks upon request.
	-		Allow expeditious settlement of checks at the table.

Yet, in this age of wireless handheld devices, the promise of handheld POS Systems remains unfulfilled except in certain niche markets like stadiums or patio restaurants.  This fact begs the question:  Why haven’t handheld POS systems become commonplace in full service restaurants?   And why is there still no truly viable alternative to the current double-entry paradigm?
 
Before attempting to develop a handheld POS system of our own, ASI decided to answer these questions.  We decided to study not only the potential (and seemingly obvious) benefits of wireless handheld devices.  We also examined the benefits and features of the system we were trying to replace:  the age old pencil and pad. 
 
And upon closer inspection, we found quite a few key features to explain why it’s been so hard to replace the pencil and pad as the preferred system for taking orders:
 

	1)		It’s lightweight and small enough to fit most pockets.
	2)		It’s so easy to use that it requires little or no training (unless we are talking about teaching someone how to write!)
	3)		It need not conform to established systems or codes: The server can write down an order verbatim and later, at the POS Station, take the time required to “translate” the order for entry into the system.
	4)		It’s forgiving:  a server can misspell, or incorrectly abbreviate items and still get the order right when she enters it into the POS system.
	5)		It allows corrections by simple erasure or crossing out mistakes.
	6)		It makes appending information easy (information like seat numbers and names, etc.)
	7)		It allows reviewing an entire order at anytime; items are always visible on the pad.
	8)		It allows switching between checks with a simple flip of the page.
	9)		It can be used for tasks other than order taking.  Servers often write the day’s specials and other miscellaneous notes on the back page.
	10)		It’s a quick reference tool: servers can check seat numbers before food is served (if an expediter printout is not available or got left behind.)
	11)		It’s cheap and easy to replace
	12)		It never runs out of batteries!
	13)		It doesn’t break when dropped, and most importantly…
	14)		It does not require special attention to operate.  The server can look at customer while writing and the customer need not even notice exactly what the server is holding in his hands.

Wow! Quite a formidable system indeed!  It’s easy to see why 20 years of handheld development have yet to produce a viable alternative! 
 
When you analyze the “features” of the pencil and pad, most of them center around “ease- of-use”; they allow the server to keep his attention directed at the customer no matter what he’s doing…and, as we all know, top quality service is a critical piece of the hospitality industry.
 
Yet it is precisely on this point that existing handheld systems fail when measured against the pencil and pad.  The handheld solutions on the market today have not been designed with the customer in mind; instead they tend to mimic the software used at fixed POS stations where the customer is totally out of the picture. 
 
One can understand why POS software developers would base their handheld interface on their existing touch button software.   After all, in the last decade, the transition from keyboards to touchscreen systems has brought tremendous new efficiencies to POS systems.  There can be no argument that the menu-driven touch button approach is of proven benefit at fixed POS stations.  At first glance, it makes sense to transfer a proven user interface from fixed station POS to the handheld.  Moreover, any server worth their salt is already familiar with touchscreen systems, and one would expect little resistance from the wait staff in adopting a related handheld system.
 
But, the menu driven touch button user interface is fundamentally flawed when applied in a handheld device.  It is based on assumptions about screen size that simply do not hold true in handheld devices.  And it is intended solely to improve speed and accuracy when communicating with the kitchen.  Communication with customers was never a consideration in the design of this user interface!!
 
The touch button approach requires considerable screen real estate for it to be effective.  Because most fixed station POS systems display menu items in groups of approximately 30 buttons, a server can usually find an item with only 2 to 4 touches.  But even at a fixed POS station it may take ten or even twenty seconds to find certain items like rarely ordered vintage wines, etc. 
 
Because it is physically impossible to shrink a standard POS screen to fit a pocket pc, handheld systems that use the button approach require new screen layouts, with fewer buttons per page and lots of “previous” and “next” buttons for navigation.  These layouts not only limit the number of items that can be ordered through a handheld POS, they also increase the time it takes to find each item beyond the time normally taken at a fixed POS Station. 
 
And while taking extra time to process an order at a fixed POS station may not represent a critical problem, at tableside this extra time can seem like an eternity – an eternity during which the server must be fully focused on the handheld.  The menu-driven touch button interface simply cannot be operated while also attending to customers who are asking questions and placing orders.  Navigating through menus (constantly scanning and touching different areas of the screen) requires a server’s full attention.
 
Moreover, because of the screen size limitation, most systems radically limit, or eliminate the space reserved for displaying the items on each order.  Without this visual input and with interruptions from the customer, the server can easily loose track of what he is doing on a touch button handheld.
 
The net result of applying the existing fixed station user interface in handhelds has been to limit the adoption of handheld technology to niche markets like stadiums or patio restaurants where the menus are small and the distance to the fixed POS Station is great.  But this need not be the case.  And my purpose here certainly is NOT to argue that the wireless handheld technology does not work in a full service restaurant.  My intention, instead, is to point out how the difficulties reside primarily in the user interface. 
 
For, in fact, current handheld technology DOES offer full service restaurants an ideal vehicle for the next generation of POS Systems.  The handheld user interface is a classic example of problem whose solution has been staring us in the face:  If we are to succeed in replacing the pencil and pad, we must design a user interface that mimics the pencil and pad – with all their easy-to-use features listed above – not the old menu-driven touch button interfaces of the past. 
 
And this is precisely the approach that ASI took in designing our revolutionary new handheld POS solution.  Let’s look at the elements that make this patent-pending handheld user interface so unique: 

•	The ASI Handheld relies on handwriting as the primary input method.  The system simply “reads” whatever the server writes rather than requiring the server to search for the appropriate touch button.  (Handwriting recognition – not “grafitti” – now provides over 95% accuracy, making it a very reliable method for entering data.)
•	The ASI Handheld offers a simple, unchanging screen layout
	•		The server writes in only one area of the screen and, therefore, can place his stylus on the screen and continue writing while still maintaining eye contact with the customer.
	•		A second area is dedicated to displaying all the items on the order.
	•		A third area is called the “Selection Window.”  The Selection Window represents the most critical and unique aspect of the ASI Handheld.  As the waiter writes, all items containing the letters or codes he has written are displayed in the Selection Window.  As soon as the waiter sees the correct item he may tap it once to add it to the order.  (An item can usually be selected after writing only one or two letters.)  The Selection Window also displays forced modifiers, seat numbers, lists of items within a menu group, and a full range of POS commands
•	The ASI Handheld automatically generates a simple abbreviation system to speed item entry even further.  For example, if a customer orders a “filet mignon,” the server may simply write down the first letter of each word (“FM”).
•	The ASI Handheld includes an incremental lookup function (in the Selection Window) that allows servers to quickly find items.
•	The ASI Handheld includes a “pending item” feature that lets servers freely write down any description of the menu item, even if the correct abbreviation or proper spelling is not known.  This allows the server to move on with an order, resolving any pending items after he has left the table.
•	The ASI Handheld allows adjustments to “pending items” (as well as to other items) with an intuitive and easy to use “tag and change” feature that makes it very easy to correct and/or adjust items entered.
•	The ASI Handheld is optimized for speed allowing quick access to multiple orders.

In summary, the user interface of the ASI Handheld is designed to approximate the feel and functionality of pencil and pad.  It allows servers to take orders at tableside naturally and comfortably.  At the same time, it offers the complete POS functionality required in a full service restaurant.
 
Field tests of the ASI Handheld are demonstrating the effectiveness of this user interface.  Most servers accustomed to existing fixed station POS Systems need only one to two weeks to become comfortable taking orders at tableside.   After about 3 weeks they reach the point of no return.  In other words, if given the choice they always opt to use the handheld instead of going to the fixed POS Station…and this is true not only in large restaurants where the distance to the POS station is great.  But also true in ASI’s smallest beta site where the entire restaurant is less than 2,000 square feet!!
 
More significantly, new servers not versed in traditional fixed station POS systems adopt the ASI Handheld at an even faster pace.  They do not need to unlearn “bad” habits such as searching for items by calling up the group list.  Instead, they naturally learn to write down whatever the customer says to them. 
 
The most important finding at our beta sites is the accuracy of the handwriting recognition software.  While letters that require multiple strokes can be a bit quirky (f, i , k, t, and x), most servers adjust to these quirks quite quickly and have few, if any, problems with handwriting as a data entry tool.
 
With the advent of reliable handwriting recognition software, wireless handheld devices are ready for widespread adoption in full service restaurants.  The enhancements to service and the potential for cost savings are simply too enormous to ignore.  Whether or not the ASI Handheld is the user interface of choice that becomes widely adopted throughout the industry remains to be seen.  But the overall benefits of handheld technology are simply too compelling for restaurant owners NOT to adopt this next generation of POS systems.
 
 For more information on the ASI Handheld Solution, visit http://www.actionsystems.com, or call 1-800-356-6037.
 
  
Important: The ASI Handheld solution has both design and utility patents pending.  Third parties interested in licensing the ASI Handheld for use in OEM solutions should contact Larry Gotts at Shaw-Pitman LLP, 703-770-7687.
 
 
Copyright © 2002 by Action Systems, Inc.  (ASI)
 
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