TouchBistro – Support and troubleshooting

7th August 2022

TouchBistro software for restaurants  / bars.

Runs on iPads and Mac devices. Pretty good for serving customers / taking orders directly at the table. Seems to do what most restaurants need / want. Software appears to be mature and their helpdesk support team are available without being on hold forever and know the software well.

 

What doesn’t work so well is when your network has other things on it apart from the TouchBistro things. Unsurprisingly TouchBistro support can’t / won’t support networks that aren’t using exactly the subset of hardware that they specify.

Common issues

 

Add all these together and you wonder why you’re not just using paper and pen…

 

There are 2 paths for making it all work and work reliably.

  1. Use only the TouchBistro recommended network kit, follow their requirements to the letter.
    Don’t add anything that isn’t TouchBistro to the network.
  2. Run a self managed network.
    For many venues, this is the most appropriate solution.

Running a self managed TouchBistro network:
Do’s and Don’ts

The key thing is recognise who is responsible for what parts:

 

So, there’s a gap there.

The “self managed” network means that you are responsible for that bit in the middle.

Do

Don’ts

 

A common complaint is that the internet is “slow” and that’s why TouchBistro is slow.

This is not the correct diagnosis.

TouchBistro only needs internet access to be able to process card payments (very small amounts of data), do updates (every now and again) and when their support team need to connect. So for day-to-day operation, a very slow but reliable internet connection is fine.

The problem is often that the internal network is not performing well, that’s why TouchBistro is slow, that’s why internet connection appears to be slow, that’s why you’ve got chaos during service.

 

What is the “fix”?

  1. Use decent network hardware.
  2. Have a comprehensive, business grade, wireless network.
  3. Be able to see what’s going on on your network and diagnose problems.
  4. Have a good internet service provider and connection.

This does, of course, mean spending a bit of money, but it’s either that or complete chaos during service.

 

Can Astaris help? of course we can. Reliable, fast, secure managed networks for hospitality is the “thing” that we’re really good at.