Ciao Systems, Inc. releases long awaited Pronto Table Management software and Ciao Version 5.1

Ciao Systems today released Pronto Table Management software with a host of revolutionary new features and an update to its famous Ciao Point of Sale. The table management product is expected to set the standard for new table management features both for new capabilities and for ease of use. Ciao Point of Sale provides long awaited improvements and new features that could significantly impact the POS market.

Arlington, VA -- 18 Jan 03 -- Ciao Systems, Inc. today announced the release of their new table management program called Pronto and the latest release of their powerful point of sale software, Ciao POS. Ciao POS, version 5.1 includes a number of new features long anticipated by Ciao users and resellers along with significant improvements to existing features. Pronto Table Management is a new product for Ciao and has been under development for nearly a year.

Pronto version 1.0 is just the first step in a complete revolution currently underway in the table management segment of the point of sale industry" according to Ciao CEO Jonathan Price. We spent several weeks, prior to beginning development of the program, surveying our dealer network and end users to determine what they liked and didn't like about the table management systems available on the market, and what features that simply were not available that they urgently needed. The input we got back revealed that the industry as a whole had some serious needs that were not being met. This software package is specifically designed to fill some of the gaps left by other programs on the market. For instance, one of the most aggravating things about table management programs, we found, was that designing and changing the floor plans required graphic expertise and often involved using a separate program like Adobe Photoshop -- a pretty heavy duty program not designed for casual use. With Pronto, you dont have to be a graphics expert to design and maintain beautiful and complex floor plans. All the design and editing tools needed are literally, right at your fingertips including images, panels, tables, seats, and timers. Layouts and configurations can be changed in seconds . One of the revolutionary elements of Pronto is its ability to display seat status. Each seat can operate independently displaying the specific meal stage of that seat including drinks, appetizer, entree, dessert, check printed, and check paid."

Dave North, of The Complete Solution, a Ciao reseller located in San Antonio, TX stated I have been in the restaurant point of sale business for a lot of years and have seen a number of point of sale and table management programs over that time. I am truly impressed by the features in this new program and the ease with which it can be learned and used. The entire table management system is configured and used from one interface with the functional buttons in a small area at the base of the window which makes more than 90% of the screen available for use. Other programs necessitated the navigation of myriad menus and you couldnt always do what you wanted from one screen. There are only two drawbacks I see with the program. First, it is in its infancy so is relatively unproven and will take a while to establish a reputation for the great new tool that it is. The second drawback is that it is entertaining. While it was in beta, I gave it to my technicians to examine and came back later to find them playing with the floorplan designer like it was a video game."

Another Ciao dealer, Joseph Des Rosiers of Itech Systems, Inc. of Boca Raton, FL had this to say I did extensive testing in my laboratory to see if the program could do all that Ciao said it could do. I was so impressed at the product and the lack of bugs, that I started selling it two weeks ago while it was still in beta. The first restaurant I put it in was so thrilled with how it worked that he has been showing it off to his fellow restaurant owners in the Miami area. I have a lot of leads pouring in because of that one install so I can say that I am very happy with the program. Ciao has consulted with the dealer network on a frequent basis and when we ask for changes to make the program better, they get done. That is something lacking in the industry today."

Ciao also announced today that it is already in the planning stages for a service release to both products that will add more features that were in the works for the newly released version but the companys programming staff simply did not have the time to include.

An industry insider, who asked that his name not be used, had this to say Most of the features of the Ciao POS system are similar to the features of other mainstream POS systems today. The only real surprises in Ciao are the extensive credit pre-authorization and the intensive graphics that it offers. It is a very user friendly program though. The Table Management offering that is being presented by Ciao, on the other hand, seems to be a fairly radical departure from the norm. Although it offers most of the same features of other high-end table management systems, it does so in a very compact interface that truly centralizes feature management. The dynamic tab feature was also particularly impressive and is something that I havent seen on any other product. I think that the features offered in Pronto will become mainstream over the next few years as software manufacturers struggle to capture or maintain market share and the restaurants that use these systems are becoming more and more demanding of the feature sets available to them. This is an impressive first entry into the market"

Ciao Systems is a privately held software manufacturer headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. Ciao was founded in 2001 with the objective of continuing development of industry proven software products. The stated objective of the company is to Provide a product suite to the restaurant and retail sectors that is intuitively easy to install, configure, learn, manage, train, and use in a wide variety of environments with a dynamic feature mix." For further information, please visit Ciao at Ciao Point of Sale