If you own a small to medium-sized business, you will know how crucial it is for you to have the best POS solution. It is essential to your business’ smooth running. NCR Silver POS is the right choice, no matter if you are looking for your first POS or want to upgrade.
Let’s take a closer look at the solution.
Who is NCR Silver POS?
NCR silver is a point-of-sale system that has been specifically designed to cater to the needs of independent retailers. Their main selling point is their mobile-friendly solution. You can now sell in-person to shoppers using your iPhone/iPad and monitor your customers’ progress through NCR Silver back office reports.
NCR Silver, a cloud-based POS software was created by the NCR Corporation, the first POS company. This giant is a legacy of over 130 years, and has six billion dollars in annual revenue!
For some entrepreneurs, NCR’s enormous size can be daunting, especially for smaller businesses. Today, we prefer to support startups over ‘just another’ conglomerate.
NCR Silver has much to offer, so don’t judge it by its cover.
Its mobility makes it a great tool for entrepreneurs who are always on the go.
How do you get NCR Silver?
Simply download the NCR Silver App from the App Store to your iPhone or iPad. Then, you’ll be prompted to choose the monthly subscription plan that interests you.
Note that Silver does not provide you with a credit-card processor. Keep that in mind. It seamlessly integrates with tons third-party businesses, often via the Ingenico gateway.
Click on the “Pay” button to populate all your preferred payment methods. The screen should show this on the right-hand side. You can use NCR Silver to handle all your payments.
Cloud-Based or In-House Installation?
NCR Silver offers a hybrid system that allows you to have both the flexibility and control of a cloud-based solution while still maintaining the stability and control of your in-house POS system.
How does it all work?
All cash register-specific tasks can be handled by the NCR Silver app. This app does not have any admin capabilities. To get a deeper look at your POS you will need to launch NCR Silver within a web browser.
Here you can see a detailed view of your:
- Inventory tasks
- Time for employees
- Customer Rewards
- Sales reports
These are just a few.
This hybrid architecture provides offline protection. NCR Silver makes it simple to set up “offline credits” and you can accept payments even if you don’t have an internet connection. This is useful in the event of a power outage or internet downtime. It’s important to remember that this functionality is at your own risk.
The offline system will wait for authorization charges to be processed and then proceed with processing them when you connect to the internet. This means that your customer has long since abandoned you. If the payment defaults, you have little or no recourse.
NCR Silver allows you to choose and select the POS features you require. NCR can provide a solution for you, no matter what your requirements are. This is a great option for retailers that need to grow slowly and have the space and infrastructure to do so.
NCR Silver: The Key Features
NCR Silver offers many features. The most prominent are, however, these hallmarks:
- Sign-in for employees
- Quick inventory reports via the app
- Advanced reporting via the desktop back-office
- Basic inventory management
You’ll see the ‘Activity Summary’ when you open NCR Silver’s back office from your internet browser. This gives you a complete overview of your sales trends. This will allow you to quickly identify which products are the most popular and which ones aren’t.
You can also view specific customer details to see their purchases history, loyalty points and so forth.
You will also be happy to know that you can segment customers and offer different discounts to them. This allows you to send personalized content to different segments of your audience.
Let’s return to employee sign-ins in a moment. NCR Silver makes it easy to assign employees to specific roles. For instance, cashier, store manager, account manager, etc. You can give different tasks to your employees, regardless of their job role. You can also set permissions for them to access your POS system. Managers, for example, will likely need more access to the back-office than part-time cooks. It makes sense that they have different levels of access to your POS. Simple, right?
Basic Inventory Management
We mean the fact that you can:
- You can set auto-promotions, such as two for one deals
- Check out what products you have in stock
- View your average sale price
These are just a few basic inventory features of NCR.
However, if you require a powerful inventory tool to manage multiple stores, you will need to purchase and use the NCR console.
This is an additional purchase as it is not included in the standard package. NCR’s console costs vary depending on how much you use it. It uses your sales history as a predictor of when stock will run out.
What other features does the Console provide?
You also have access to an employee portal and employee scheduling tools through the Console. This portal allows your staff to swap their schedules and keep in touch. The Console provides more advanced business analytics reporting than NCR Silver.
NCR Silver Pricing: What Will NCR silver Cost You?
NCR Silver begins at $79 a month. This is their monthly subscription cost for a 1-year contract. You can also choose to pay monthly $99.
What are you getting for your money?
- 24/7 customer support
- Assistance with uploading your menu or inventory and training when you are first onboard
- Biannual training to learn new features
- Hardware maintenance You’ll be charged $0.10 for each additional iPhone or iPad. This is limited to $39 per month for each additional iPad or iPhone.
Silver Pro
Silver Pro may be the best option if your restaurant is a business. The annual contract will cost $169 per month. You can also choose to pay $149 per month. All the features we have just mentioned are included, along with a few restaurant-specific ones. You can assign seats and view and change table layouts.
What hardware is compatible with NCR silver?
We’ve already mentioned NCR Silver compatibility with iPhones and iPads. But there are other machinery pieces you can use in addition to NCR Silver.
We have listed the NCR Silver devices that we sell for your convenience. These gadgets can be purchased via NCR’s site:
- A stand and EMV reader: $299
- Basic credit card swiper: $79
- A cash drawer: $109
- A mobile card reader (AKA ring up) costs $14 per month and 2.7% per swipe/dip
- The NCR Silver Quantum Device: $1,499
NCR Silver Quantum’s Android-based version is used to fuel the device. This advanced piece of kit features an integrated chip reader and swipe card reader. This is in addition to the customer-facing display.
It is worth noting that NCR offers an $283 per month bundle. This bundle includes NCR Silver Quantum, a separate printer, barcode scanner, cash draw, and NCR Silver, Console, or NCR Silver Commerce subscriptions.
The majority of the hardware mentioned above comes with a 90 day warranty. However, you should verify this on their website.
NCR Silver: The benefits
NCR silver provides more than just a point of sale solution. It also offers inventory management tools. This is what sets NCR Silver apart. NCR Silver is a “complete solution for entrepreneurs in terms of payment, marketing and management.”
NCR Silver’s mobility is undoubtedly one of its most notable benefits. You can make payments from your smartphone anywhere, as we have already said. You could use this to pay for a shop, market stall or your home.
Apart from that, NCR membership has its perks. This isn’t NCR’s first rodeo. NCR Silver was not the first rodeo. NCR had previously launched Aloha. Another POS solution that is specifically tailored for restaurants. Counterpoint is another POS system that was created by NCR with the retailers in mind. NCR is an expert on POS solutions. So, rest assured, you’re in good hands.
NCR is a company that responds quickly and efficiently to customer requests. They are always changing things to meet market demand.
NCR Silver customers also love their social media and marketing tools. These tools are great for engaging and connecting with your audience. NCR Silver allows you to easily send personalized messages to your customers about promotions, updates, or any other matter you choose.
However, this is not the only benefit to Silver.
Cash Management
NCR Silver has many cash management tools. These tools can be very helpful if you are generating high revenue. You can, for example, assign cash drawers and servers to certain servers.
You can assign each drawer a “shift.” This places restrictions on who is allowed to use the drawers without a key. You can also see the amount of your till over or under at the end of each “shift” and the beginning of every “shift.”
It’s easy to use
The Silver user interface is simple. Simply tap on any of the product categories at the bottom right-hand corner of the screen to find one of your products. This will display a list of related products as well as their respective prices. You can also search for specific products by using the search box at the top.
Once you have found the product that you are looking for, tap it. It will appear on the left-hand side, along with a total and any taxes.
You can also press a button to increase the total discount. Either you can use a promotion that you have already programed into the POS system, or you can make a new one.
You can also clear the entire sales ticket or place the check on hold with just a few taps. This is useful if the customer has to stop the purchase process and continue shopping. How many times have we lost something and had to race back down the aisles in order to find it? It happens to all of us. NCR understands that!
Do you need to quickly pull up customer information? Don’t worry. These details are only a few clicks away on the left-hand screen. You can see the name and information of the customer if you have already entered their details in the system or paid for the item via credit card. If you haven’t done so yet, you can still enter it.
NCR Silver: The drawbacks
We came across one complaint while searching the internet for user reviews. It was the glitzy hardware.
A few reports have been made about NCR credit-card readers that are constantly malfunctioning. Users have been forced to enter their customers’ credit card information. This not only slows down the process, but also compromises most safety features that are used to combat counterfeit fraud.
There are also complaints that Bluetooth-powered hardware may not be able to sync with the system. This is not cool.
It’s also difficult to manage invoices and purchase orders. You can’t scan products into the system, nor track inventory by ingredient. This seems like a major disadvantage when you consider that the POS was designed for foodservice operations. NCR Silver does not warn you if your inventory is running low. A salesperson will instead check the merchandise’s quantity.
There are additional costs that you should consider. NCR Silver’s pricing plan seems quite straightforward. But, there are some hidden costs. These hidden costs are not to be avoided. They are something you can prepare for.
Silver Pro will be required to enable you to mirror a tab on a tablet, which means you can open a tab from one device and close it from another.
You will need to pay an additional $20 per month if you want EMV compliance (which is becoming almost a necessity these days), in addition to your NCR Silver subscription. Each terminal that you purchase comes with a card reader.
To remain EMV compliant you will still need to pay this $20 each month, even after you have paid the $250 cost for the reader. It costs $250 per month for two EMV-compliant iPads that have tablet mirroring. This is assuming that you choose the annual contract. You’ll need to pay even more for the month-to-month plan.
Silver is generally more expensive than similar POS systems and it doesn’t seem like it offers much more than its competition.
Some customers complain about the lack of advanced features. The reporting suite is not as powerful as it should be, unless you buy Silver Console which will cost you $20-$70 per month. We can all agree that this service should not be an added-on. It should be an integral part of the software’s price.
NCR Silver does not offer eCommerce integrations. This is a rare feature, especially when you consider the price of POS solutions like NCR Silver. NCR Silver is not the right software if you are thinking about launching an online shop in the future.
Native Integrations and Add Ons
NCR Silver seamlessly integrates with any of these software programs.
- QuickBooks Online
- Xero
- Silver Console
- PassMarket
- Paychex
- LevelUp
NCR Silver plans to expand its integrations to include eCommerce platform. However, this remains to be seen at the time.
Customer Service
Silver offers a wide range of customer service options. All the communication channels are available 24 hours a day:
Live chat – You can chat with a NCR sales representative from Monday to Friday, 9 am to 5pm. You can also chat with tech support via your back office, not through the app but via the website.
Telephone support – Call or text NCR’s customer service team at 1-877-273-3475 and you will be connected to a live person right away. There are many automated options available.
Email support – Alternatively, you can ping a message over to the customer care team on customercare@ncrsilver.com
You can also go the self-help route by visiting their customer care website. There are many informative articles, videos and user guides available. NCR Silver is also active on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as well as LinkedIn, Google+, Google+ and Instagram.
Who should use NCR silver?
Silver POS is a versatile product that would be suitable for any business (except e-commerce).
NCR POS is equally suitable for quick-service restaurants than it is for brick-and-mortar-style shops because of the variety of tools available.
NCR Silver, however, is more targeted at small- to medium-sized businesses who work out of one location. This is not a solution that can manage enterprise-level operations.
Are you ready to use NCR silver?
We’ve shown that you might need to buy and use a range of add-ons (such as NCR Console) in order to get the functionality you require from your POS system. NCR Silver will require you to have a larger budget.
NCR does what it does well. They offer a high quality service. Their 24/7 support is unmatched and their onboarding assistance is invaluable, especially if your IT department doesn’t have the resources to assist you.
Are you ready to use NCR Silver now that you have read this article? Are you already a customer of NCR Silver? What’s your NCR experience been like? Good? Bad? So-so? We’d love to hear from you about the POS solution. We look forward to hearing from you!
