Cloudifi has recently been appointed as an Authorised Verkada Partner in Australia and we are excited to offer their Security Camera, Environmental Sensor and Access Control product range.
Most businesses are invariably required to maintain a CCTV camera system but when it's needed to be called on find that getting video footage into the right hands can take hours, or might be impossible to do remotely.
It isn’t until they need to pull footage of a specific incident, that they discover a camera is down and their existing solutions are made up of a hodgepodge of different legacy systems, and the process of managing those systems is extremely inefficient and time-consuming.
Verkada's approach is simple. Footage is stored in both the camera and the cloud for redundancy. Everything is managed on a centralised platform, so visibility is streamlined and incident resolution takes just moments – with a few clicks, users can quickly find, share and archive clips.
Installation is simple as all the camera needs is a POE cable from the LAN - no supporting infrastructure or equipment (NVR) is required. The cameras average 15mins per installation and once plugged in, they are accessible online immediately.
The administrator can access, archive and share historical or live footage in just seconds, wherever they are, on any device and if cameras experience downtime or tampering, you get notifications that alert you of the incident.
Verkada's “hybrid-cloud” approach ensures that there’s no single point of failure. In the event of network outages, cameras still record locally. When internet is reinstated, that stored footage is pushed to the cloud. As an end-user, you experience no gaps in coverage.
The solution is secure out of the box – there is no need to open ports or perform special configurations on the firewall. Updates deploy automatically, so your system is always compliant with the latest security requirements. All backed by a 10 Year warranty on the hardware.
Please contact us for further information.
We rarely see instances where an iPad doesn't respond properly but sometimes a 'REBOOT' is necessary. This is different to just turning the power off and on, as it actually forces the iPad's operating system to re-load.
For a standard iPad with a mechanical 'Home' button on the front of it, all you need to do is hold down it and the power button on the side of the iPad together for 10 seconds or so, until the white Apple Logo appears in the middle of the screen. Release the buttons and let it re-start, then open Abacus as normal.
For an iPad Pro 12.9 Gen 3 or 4, that doesn't have a 'Home' button, follow the procedure below:
If you aren’t sure which buttons are which, this graphic should help.
Release the buttons and let it re-start, then open Abacus as normal.
We have been receiving a lot of enquiries about online ordering from our customers in response to the change in business conditions brought on by the COVID-19 outbreak.
Abacus are now offering their web ordering portal FREE to customers for self provisioning (or you can get us to do it for you if you like at our hourly rates).
The Abacus Online Ordering portal delivers orders from your customers directly into your Abacus POS, where you can choose to accept orders which sends them for processing and notifies the customer along the way.
Payment is captured at the time of order when the customer pays via credit card using the AbacusPay gateway.
You can get started by clicking on the link in the green banner at the top of the page when you log into back office.
See below:
Other configuration options are available on the left under 'Online Ordering'.
An example store is here : https://w.abacus.co/store/2355779
The Help Desk Doco for Online Ordering is here :
http://help.abacus.co/en/collections/2221456-online-ordering
You need to ensure you are on the latest version of Abacus on all POS terminals.
There are options for pick-up and delivery within the ordering portal. You can request one or more of these options to be disabled if need be.
The Web Ordering Portal for self provisioning is free, but there is a fee for Abacus Pay gateway which is 3.65% of the order value, plus 30c per transaction.
It's hard to believe that this year we celebrate our 7th year in business - that time has gone fast! Cloudifi has now installed Abacus POS for over 180 customers and has helped over 30 retailers get set up on the Vend platform.
We continue to assist several customers with Abacus or Vend installations every month, demonstrating how popular Cloud Point of Sale has become over the years - and that it continues to grow.
We believe this is also testament to our skills in this space and the trust we have built with our customers - many of whom are repeat clients. We offer unmatched expertise and experience in Hospitality and Retail Consulting, Information Technology, Accounting and Retail in Perth. See our profiles for more info.
Recently we have seen the landscape change with the maturation of the POS offerings from the many vendors in this space and the recent change in economic conditions where value for money is being looked at more closely than ever.
The types of customers we are dealing with are changing from the once many small coffee shops with a single register, to customers that have a requirement for something more scalable, fully featured, robust, and supported - but that still is Cloud based.
Unfortunately for us 'Square POS' has become the darling of the do-it-yourself small retailer, market pop-up or coffee shop owner because of their attractive packaging and no monthly fee for the software. They charge only based on a Merchant Fee when customers pay by card.
One needs to realise however that with Merchant Fees of 1.6-1.9%, Square can be expensive when your turnover grows. In comparison, the fees from Tyro for example work out around 1.1%. Even if you then add in the monthly fee for the Abacus software you can be way in front with Abacus POS!
Don't forget there are also other advantages of using Abacus or Vend. They offer a much more advanced feature set, the ability to scale as your business grows and coupled with local support here in Perth from Cloudifi, it's clear that they should always be a consideration for your new POS solution.
As both vendors' Premier Partner in Perth, we welcome customers to come into our offices' demo room and experience Abacus or Vend in a full mock-up working environment. Here we can run through all the features and benefits, and you will leave understanding exactly how everything fits together to form a complete solution.
Cloudifi supplies the POS hardware, network, software, expertise, set-up and support services to get your POS solution and accounting back end sorted in one step, leaving you free to focus on the fun part of your new business - crafting your own offering for your customers!
Contact us to talk about your next project or to book in for a demo today.
Abacus is at the forefront of providing innovative features that are changing the way the industry is accessing customers.
We all know online ordering is a huge part of any hospitality business - but why pay Uber 35% of your revenue? Abacus have their very own online ordering offerings, and charge a fraction of the fees of the big online order aggregators.
Here's just a few of the ways in which Abacus can help capture customer orders that the other point of sale systems just don't offer.
Customer Table Ordering.
Abacus offers their Customer Table Ordering App that can be used by the customer at their table to order on their own. We saw the initial adopters of this to be the Sushi Train style restaurants but now its moving into more mainstream restaurants.
Check out Authentic Bites in Northbridge or Sushi Wawa in Innaloo if you want to see this system in action, then call Cloudifi to let us help you design and build a fantastic Customer Table Ordering experience at your venue!
Online Web Store.
To start with Abacus offer Online Ordering via a fully hosted web site and payment gateway solution that can be integrated with your own web site and also your Abacus POS to send orders straight to your staff.
IOS and Android Ordering App.
Alternately, Abacus offer a custom Apple and Android App branded in your own livery which can be downloaded by your customers. This App can then be used to place and pay for an order, which is sent directly to your Abacus POS to fulfil.
Imagine a customer sitting in a beer garden ordering and paying for another round of drinks themselves from their own phone and the order just popping up on your POS screen to prepare and deliver to them at their table!
Only Abacus has this functionality available within their product.
Please contact us for a one on one demo in our demo cafe or to let us build a solution using Abacus for your business.
Welcome to 2019! I'd like to thank our loyal customers in Perth as we now have over 150 customers using Abacus POS in WA, from cafes, retail businesses, breweries, restaurants and racecourses through to several new quick service restaurant franchises that are making their debut in Australia. We continue to offer hospitality technology consulting, new POS installations, hardware sales and local support.
Abacus POS is the most innovative on the market, delivering a front of house experience that is second to none and a comprehensive back end full of innovative features such as in-built Gift Cards and Loyalty and it integrates well with Deputy for Rostering, and Xero for Accounting. Take a look at how Chicking in Perth and Applecross, Juicy Bao Bao in Northbridge, Authentic Bites in Allendale Square and Zensaki at QV1 use it to keep the orders turning over in their busy lunch time service periods next time you visit them.
Abacus POS being a Native IOS app, is unlike it's competitor Kounta that uses html5 (basically a fancy web page sitting as a skin on the Safari browser). For this reason Abacus offers stability, speed and usability benefits including a true OFFLINE mode that allows all the POS workstations and Kitchen Screens to continue to work if the Internet goes down. Kounta just can't do that and its one of the reasons we continue to convert our old Kounta customers over to Abacus! But don't take my word for it - read about why Native Mobile Apps are better here.
On the EFTPOS front, Abacus paired with Westpac's Presto Smart terminal now offers redundancy like no other payment solution. The integration between these two means that if your main internet connection is down, integrated Card payments can still be made, its a clever solution and you get the benefit of Westpac's great rates! The Abacus POS iPad communicates directly with the Presto Smart terminal, that can then contact the Westpac cloud via its built-in 4G mobile data connection.
Some customers have asked us recently how we can download Abacus directly from a web link when we install it and also have updates delivered simply by clicking the 'Update App' button within the POS, without having to log into the Appstore and download it from there. The reason is because Abacus has an Enterprise agreement with Apple to be able to publish their software this way - its certainly not illegal as some of our competitors have been saying to put potential customers off using Abacus.
Abacus is also available on the App Store if you do want to download it as any Apple Certified Vendor is, but the most up to date version is delivered from within the App, straight to your iPad. This provides Abacus with the ability to rapidly provide new features or bug fixes, without having to wait on Apple approving every App store release that can take up to two weeks. Its just another example of the innovative approach Abacus takes.
I wish our customers all the best for 2019, and look forward to meeting new business owners and assisting with your hospitality and retail technology needs this year. Please contact us if you'd like to book a demo of Abacus at our centrally located office in North Perth!
Andrew
Cloudifi is proud to have delivered the first of the new zone-based Loc8 Table Locating solutions in Western Australia to The Island Brew House at Elizabeth Quay.
Used to help staff find customers to deliver their orders in this uniquely laid out venue, Loc8 is proving to enable faster service, a better guest experience, and less frustration for staff!
The new Loc8 system is delivered through the magic of Bluetooth iBeacon technology, with beacons discretely placed throughout the venue both inside and outside using weatherproof covers.
The electronics inserted into the Table Number stands communicate with the beacon network that relays the table number back to the Loc8 router, which displays its position on a Table Map iPad up near the counter.
For enquiries about a system for your venue please contact us.
