Impos has your back: why POS backup is business critical

While you and your staff run on a steady supply of adrenalin and coffee, your point of sale system runs on a continual stream of data.

 

And there’s a lot of it. Transaction data is critical so you can track what, when, and where your transactions occur. You might need this information to settle a supplier statement, or give a customer a refund.

Sales data helps you track your earnings and your business’s performance, and is crucial when it comes to tax time. Historical sales information is invaluable in seeing where your business has come from, or for identifying seasonal trends.

Your customer database, including email addresses, order history, and birthdays, is what helps you get to know your customers better. It also helps you tailor your marketing activities to them.

Your customised menus are what make your point of sale service run smoothly. You’ve configured them so it suits your venue and makes sense to your staff.

So while it’s not something you generally think about when your business is running smoothly, and your sales are booming, keeping a backup of your point of sale data is absolutely critical to your business.

Where’s your data kept?

With an Impos POS system, your data is kept primarily on your local network. We’ve chosen this traditional method for your POS system for a couple of reasons:

• It’s there when you need it. Local network data storage means you have access to it whenever you need, and you don’t need to rely on an Internet connection to access it.
• It’s faster. Saving, backing-up, and accessing your data on a local network is quicker, as you’re not relying on your Internet connection to do so. All your data is saved as fast as your computer and your network runs (which, if it’s slow, is a different matter altogether, and you might want to consider upgrading).
• It’s safe. A local storage option is arguably more secure, as only you have access to your data, and you’ve got full control over who else can access it. You also have greater control over your system backups.

But, as with everything, local data storage has its drawbacks. The sad reality of the situation is that while it’s faster and safer, the hard drive where you store your business’s data can crash.

We’ve all been there. Your computer stops working—why? Who knows. But you turn it back on, and with that sickening sense of dread, you realise you’ve lost everything; all your files, all your important documents, all your records—everything’s gone.

You go to search for your system back-ups, only you can’t remember the last time you backed up your data, so you might only be able to get data up until midway through the previous year. That’s a whole year of business information just gone.

In a personal setting this can be devastating. In a business setting this is absolutely catastrophic.

Wow—that got really dark, really quickly. What we’re trying to say is that with your data, you have to be prepared for every situation.

This is where Impos has your back.

The Impos difference

While you’re busy pumping out coffees or pouring drinks, your Impos POS system is working away behind the scenes to keep your POS data secure.

Every 24 hours, your Impos POS system takes a snapshot of your sales data from the previous day. This means that your system is continually backing itself up, and your sales data is kept up-to-date to within a day. So if your computer crashes and you lose all your latest data, you’ve still got all your historical data backed up until the previous day.

No more worrying about those darker situations. With an Impos POS system your data is backed up regularly, and kept safely and securely, and you don’t have to lift a finger. With Impos, you’re covered in any event.

An intelligent data storage solution

As well as backing up your data regularly, your Impos system makes the most of the latest technology to give you an added safety net in case of any data loss situations.

Impos’ reporting platform, Impos Analytics, not only gives you the world’s most powerful business reporting system, but also gives you an added redundancy for your data’s safety.

That’s right: you also get cloud-based storage.

All your data is synced directly with Impos Analytics and stored online, meaning all your sales history is stored safely and securely in the cloud.

So if the unthinkable happens, you’ll always have your sales data available to use when restoring your system, and only the most recent information is lost.

Impos Analytics also keeps a database of your transaction history, so it’s also possible to reconstruct your database by replaying all your transactions—although this should only be undertaken by a qualified database administrator.

With a trusted reporting platform like Impos Analytics, you get the safest cloud-based storage around too.

Impos has your back

No matter how good your system might be, there’s probably going to come a time when you need help. There could be hardware issues, or something just isn’t working the way it should.

As well as a multi-layered data storage system, our POS system support team are there for you. Our POS support phone lines are open 24/7, 365 days a year, meaning no matter the time of day or night, our tech support wizards are available to walk through the problem with you, and get your system back up and running.

So if your POS system goes down we can access your system instantly and remotely to diagnose the problem, and help you get that precious data back.

And not only data support, whether it’s hardware support, menu support, cabling, or hospitality advice, our team can do it all. With an average of nine years each in the hospitality industry, you’re getting an IT specialist who not only knows your system, but knows your industry too.

Give our POS support team a call on 1300 780 268 or contact us online today—we’ve got your back.