NEW YORK Ice Cream specialty chain Cold Stone Creamery of Scottsdale, Ariz., is using at its Times Square location here Panasonic Information Systems' Stingray workstation, a self-contained point-of-sale terminal that functions without a back-office server.
"Stingray's all-in-one design reduces the complexity of uploading sales or downloading programming changes," said Tom Streveler, director of in-store technology for Cold Stone-parent Kahala Corp. "The 15-inch touchscreen reduces keying errors, and the processing power makes the system very responsive. In addition, by eliminating the back-office PC, we expect our franchisees to experience fewer support issues and interruptions to their store operations."
Cold Stone Creamery uses Panasonic registers, SMP software and back-office management workstations in all of its approximately 1,400 locations worldwide, with Streveler citing the technology's durability and ease of use. He said that the Stingray workstation runs SMP software but "removes the communication step between the registers and a PC, while still offering the same array of reporting options to the franchisee and our corporate office."
Elgin, Ill.-based Panasonic Information Systems is a division of the Panasonic Systems Solutions Co. unit of Panasonic Corp. of North America.