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POS system conversions are usually something customers dread.  While the old system may be outdated and becoming difficult to work with, it’s still doing the job today and starting over from a blank slate is painful.

With the Oracle Hospitality RES/3700 being end of sale we’ve had a number of inquiries about how the current configuration could be exported to help with setting up a new POS system.  Unfortunately with RES systems having been upgraded for sometimes 10, 15 or 20 years now they’ve usually got a great deal of out of date records in their databases so a simple approach would just bring over all of the ‘cruft’ that has built up over the years.

We’ve recently been working with a company that operates more than 50 different restaurants with RES systems today.  After starting to investigate configuring a new system they came to OTMS to request some way to export information from the 3700 database to allow them to see what was in use as an alternative to filling out lots of site survey spreadsheets.

The work is still ongoing, but we’ve come up with the beginnings of a framework to determine items that are actively being used in their configuration.  

The current process looks like this:

1. Initialize a dictionary object for storing reachable touchscreen sequence numbers

2. Get the workstation default touchscreens and add them to the dictionary if not found

3. Get the RVC default touchscreens and add them to the dictionary if not found

4. Get the employee class default touchscreens and add them to the dictionary if not found

5. Get the serving period touchscreens and add them to the dictionary if not found

6. Get any keys linked to those touchscreens that have next screens set. 

   1. For any new touchscreens found, add them to the dictionary of reachable screens and loop back to step 6 until we’ve checked all the keys linked to reachable touchscreens.

7. Initialize dictionary objects for Menu Items, Discounts/Service Charges & Tenders

8. Get any macro keys linked to the reachable touchscreens.

   1. Get menu items linked to macros from macro key def for the list of macros in use.  Add to MI dictionary if not found.

   2. Get discounts/service charges linked in the list of macros in use.  Add to DSVC dictionary if not found.

   3. Get tenders linked in the list of macros in use.  Add to TMED dictionary if not found.

9. Get Menu Item SLU keys linked to our reachable touchscreens

   1. Get menu items linked to the active SLU's.  Add to MI dictionary if not found.

10. Get Discount/Service Charge SLU keys linked to our reachable touchscreens

    1. Get discounts/service charges linked to the active SLU's.  Add to DSVC dictionary if not found.

11. Get Tender SLU keys linked to our reachable touchscreens

    1. Get tenders linked to the active SLU's.  Add to TMED dictionary if not found.

12. Get hard coded menu Item keys linked to our reachable touchscreens. Add to MI dictionary if not found.

13. Get hard coded discount/service charge Item keys linked to our reachable touchscreens. Add to DSVC dictionary if not found.

14. Get hard coded tender media keys linked to our reachable touchscreens. Add to TMED I dictionary if not found.

15. Get menu item numbers we have found that are configured as combo meals.

    1. For each combo meal item, get combo group seq for the combo sides allowed

    2. Get menu item numbers for each combo side group. Add to MI dictionary if not found.

16. Get a list of required and optional condiment groups for the menu items we’ve found

    1. Find all of the menu items that are members of any of the active condiment groups and add them to the MI dictionary if not found.

17. Build a DataSet object in memory of all the reachable items in the current configuration based on the identified touchscreen list and serialize it as a XML document.

This process works for this customer, as they are not using NLU (Number LookUps) for Liquor Dispensing  or barcode scanning for retail which would require adding some additional steps.  There are other RES options that would also require adjustment of this process if a system was using them, for example Smart Keys or Ordering Module.

If you are looking at a system migration and would like to discuss automating some of the process of determining what needs to be configured in the new system based on what you are using today, please contact us.