Tabe Foods  

Wireless POS for Mobile Catering

Tabe Foods (www.tabebbq.com) is San Diego's premier mobile cuisine company. Taking an innovative approach to catering, the company brings their Asian-inspired dishes with a classic Mexican flair to San Diego's hottest locations, using its fleet of mobile catering trucks. As Tabe's customer base grew, so did its need to offer a wide range of payment options, including credit cards.

A cash-only payment system has several drawbacks for businesses, including the difficulty in monitoring sales and preventing theft, and lost sales due to the lack of credit card acceptance. Tabe's POS set-up was unique in that the point-of-sale was mobile, and often subject to harsh environments. Like any foodservice provider, for Tabe Foods, customer service is critical. Tabe's key market is weekday lunch hour, so any payment solution must be fast, to retain loyal customers with limited time. Tabe's payment solution also needed to be reliable and robust to work well in a mobile environment.

Tabe Foods turned to authorized Casio Dealer Red River POS, a provider of innovative hardware and sofware solutions. Red River POS recommended the TransNet payment engine solution from Precidia Technologies with a Casio touchscreen system. TransNet is software that integrates a range of payment methods with any existing POS device or application. Housed on Precidiaís POSLynx220 secure payment router, this solution is the most flexible, easily integrated solution on the market today. The POSLynx220 has multiple serial and dial ports, allowing it to connect to both the Casio system and a wireless modem. Compared to a cellular based solution, this set-up delivered faster, more cost effective transactions.

Tabe Foods can now accept credit and debit cards, with transactions processed over a wireless broadband network to the transaction processors of their choice. This reliable solid state POS solution is ideal for Tabe's mobile trucks. Faster order entry and processing with a high resolution touch screen system and broadband connection allows Tabe Foods to increase their sales, and the convenience of credit means they will never lose a sale. From a security standpoint, less cash in the truck prevents theft, and Tabe Foods can also monitor all transactions and prevent employee theft. TransNet's suite of management tools help simplify many administrative tasks, including real-time reporting to head office for inventory control. Key benefits of this solution for Tabe Foods include:

• Fast payment processing and order entry
• Flexible processor choice
• Simple, reliable system ideal for small space and mobile environment
• Access via MerchantVu to transaction data and reports by payment type or date
• Customized pager or email alerts for network interruptions, suspicious transactions
• Loss prevention with tracking of all transactions
• Real-time remote access to transaction data by back office for settlement and other tasks

Tabe Foods has implemented this solution in its fleet of catering trucks, with great success."The ability to accept multiple forms of payment during the busy lunch rush delivers convenience to the customer", said Sunny Kwon, President of Tabe Foods. "Transactions are processed quickly over a wireless network, and the system is very reliable and stable. The management and reporting tools with MerchantVu have simplified much of the administrative aspects of credit card acceptance, organizing data for remote access by head office. This is the ideal solution for mobile businesses like ours".