With the Minor League Baseball season launching next week, teams across the continent are prepping for hordes of fans descending on their ballparks. Is your ballpark tech ready to handle the stress? Here are five things to review before Opening Day.
1) A connectivity review for new units coming online while ensuring the old wiring works. You don’t want to be caught with a shiny new POS unit in a prominent spot that doesn’t work when fans hit the ballpark, so test, test, test. And do the same thing with your older units. Don’t assume the wiring will immediately work: despite the lack of human traffic, offseasons can be hard on features like wiring, as it’s not unknown for critters to wreak a little havoc during wintertime.
2) Put your best face forward with a spring cleaning of your screens and devices. Again, the offseason can be hard on equipment throughout the ballpark. Send your staff throughout the ballpark with cleaning equipment to make sure all the POS terminals and screens are shiny and dust-free.
3) Plug in all units to assure cables are still working. Again, the offseason can be hard on equipment. As part of running all POS systems and terminal through their paces, make sure every cable is plugged in and working, as well all peripherals like handheld scanners.
4) Fire up the POS devices with the latest updates. Many vendors release offseason upgrades. Sometimes it takes a bit of time to download and install these upgrades. You don’t want a POS to be updating when a line of fan is forming on Opening Day, so fire up every piece of technology and make sure the OS and applications are up to date.
5) Make sure the menu options on every terminal are up to date. This option may not be obvious, but it’s vital. Every team introduces new food and merchandise options for the upcoming season and eliminates poor-performing offerings. These new offerings are usually accompanied by plenty of fanfare, so not having them on your terminal menu will be an embarrassment, to be sure.
These are all common-sense steps to take before your team’s season opener, and none are difficult. But when put together, these five steps will ensure your Opening Day will run smoothly. There are always a few surprises when the season starts, but your team’s POS system should never be one of them.
Stadium1 was designed specifically for stadium operations, born online and created from the ground up with the most advanced cloud-based software programming technology tools, designed by a team owner with a world-class technology background. Stadium1 exists in the market today with tools that can help teams increase revenues, reduce theft and waste. The integrated management suite links all departments into a real-time system so ownership can make more informed pre-game, in-game and post-game decisions based on integrated technology.
If yo
u want more information on how Stadium1 can solve your venue needs with an integrated management system complete with loyalty program, or if you are a Stadium1 customer and want more information on creating your own loyalty program, contact Ed Mullen at ed.mullen@stadium1.com or call 561-704-1414.