Until recently, restaurant and hospitality owners were wary of adopting wireless POS systems for their establishments. Issues such a cost, ease of use and a general uncertainty about new technology caused them to take pause. Nowadays, however, with the popularity of PDA’s, Blackberries, cell phones and the like, mobile technology and wireless mobile computing has become main stream, and hospitality providers are taking a second look.

In a high cost and competitive market, it’s no wonder that those in the hospitality industry want technology to help them increase revenues. But how can a wireless POS device help them achieve this?

Wireless mobile computing can help in many ways. One such instance is by eliminating the need for staff to line up at a specific POS terminal to place orders. By utilizing mobile technology, serving staff are more productive since time spent during the order taking process is decreased. Wireless mobile computing also allows serving staff to place orders instantly, and then go directly to the next table, thereby increasing table turns. And because serving staff are more productive, significant savings can be seen through decreased labor costs.

Another drawback to stationary POS terminals is that serving staff usually place a number of orders at once to the kitchen, overwhelming kitchen staff. Placing orders tableside eliminates this problem, as orders are more evenly spaced. Plus, when orders are placed tableside, order taking is more accurate and less food is wasted. This directly translates into decreased food costs. Also, serving staff can spend more time with customers, which significantly increases up-sell opportunities.

Utilizing wireless mobile computing in a hospitality environment also allows restaurateurs to approach staffing in a more cost effective and efficient way. Instead of scheduling a large number of serving staff who are responsible for all the order taking and food delivery, a wireless POS solution allows restaurant owners the opportunity to hire just a few skilled staff, give them larger sections, and make their primary focus greeting customers, taking orders and up selling. Non-serving staff can then be hired (at significant payroll savings) to dispatch food and clean sections. When serving staff are able to remain on the floor, the result is superior customer service and again increased sales through up selling and faster table turns.

Now, Volanté POS Systems of Toronto, Canada has come along and revolutionized the wireless POS industry in a creative and innovative way. By using PC notebooks (not much bigger then a handheld) the entire POS software is loaded on the unit and it runs as a terminal with peer to peer, data synching etc. PDA’s don’t work in this manner- they require writing to the unit (in other words, new code, separate product) plus they’re not robust enough for Food and beverage. Volanté has evolved its software into the peer to peer architecture, and now POS software can be loaded onto a small wireless notebook with amazing results. The technology is revolutionary – nobody else can do what Volanté is doing.

This approach can work exceptionally well in venues that aren’t traditional table side establishments, such as stadiums, trade shows, casinos, arenas, race tracks and outdoor sales areas (such as rooftop patios for instance) where conventional POS terminals aren’t practical nor feasible.

Wireless mobile computing from Volanté offers even more important and innovative features. For instance, the menus on the notebook or handhelds are the exact same menus as on the traditional register. The databases are in sync with one another. You don’t have to program them separately; they’re an extension of the host computer. This approach is less expensive because it doesn’t require separate servers for handhelds and traditional registers. And because Volanté POS software is written in pure Java, its real time as well.

For more information on how wireless POS technology and wireless mobile computing from Volanté can help your business increase profits and productivity, email them at sales@volantesystems.com, or visit their website at http://www.volantesystems.com.

Wireless POS solutions truly allow Hospitality leaders to enter the 21st century, while also giving them an extra edge in a fiercely competitive industry.

EU’s resistance to GMOs hurts the poor

By James Wachai The bitter dispute between the U.S., Canada, and Argentina, on one hand, and the European Union (EU), on the other, over the latter’s restrictive policies towards genetically modified foods reaches what is likely to be an acrimonious peak this week when the World Trade Organization (WTO) rules if the EU has violated trade rules by blocking foods produced using modern biotechnology techniques. Acrimonious because the EU is preemptively threatening to dishonor the verdict if it’s in favor of the U.S., Canada and Argentina. The EU is keen on blocking genetically modified foods without scientific justification.

The dispute dates back to the spring of 1998 when five EU member states -Denmark, France, Greece, Italy and Luxembourg – issued a declaration to block GMOs approvals unless the European Commission (EC) proposed legislation for traceability and labeling of GMOs. A year later in June 1999, EU environment ministers imposed a six-year de facto moratorium on all GMOs. The official moratorium has since lapsed but EU’s recalcitrance towards GMOs and obstruction remains.

EU’s ban on GMOs has exasperated the U.S., Canada and Argentina – leading growers of crops with GMO enhancements – to initiate a WTO dispute settlement process against the EU in May 2003, arguing that the moratorium harmed farmers and their export markets, particularly for corn and soybeans, and which are critical sources of revenue for farmers.

Now, the WTO’s verdict is due today(February 7, 2006). They have already reported it will be the longest report document of its kind. This suggests that EU political pandering may have seeped into the WTO process complicating what should be a simple trade dispute resolution. This is unfortunate for more than just the two parties involved.

The stakes are too high, not only to the parties in dispute, but to the entire world, and especially developing world. The dispute is not just another transatlantic trade skirmish. At stake are consumers’ rights to have real choices with regard to their food, and farmers’ freedoms to use approved tools and technologies to safely produce those food choices.

The EU has never justified its restrictive policies towards GMOs, which makes everybody question the motive behind GMOs ban. When it slapped a moratorium on GMOs, the EU cited undefined safety concerns as the reason for the drastic action. Their own scientists and regulators have repeatedly addressed and dismissed the safety issues for these GMO crops. Were similar undefined, precautionary principle standards applied to other growing practices – such as organic – Europe would have to similarly ban all foodstuffs.

In the absence of verifiable scientific justification to block GMOs from its territories, the EU is guilty of violating the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS), to which it is a signatory. The SPS, particularly, recognizes that countries are entitled to regulate crops and food products to protect health and environment. The agreement requires, however, “sufficient scientific evidence” to support trade-restrictive regulations on crops and food products to protect the environment.

The EU’s argument in the WTO dispute is greatly eroded by the fact that various scientific bodies have, repeatedly, vindicated GMOs. For example, the United Kingdom-based Institute for Food Science and Technology (IFT) – an independent body for food scientists and technologists – has declared that “genetic modification has the potential to offer very significant improvements in the quantity, quality and acceptability of the world’s food supply.”

In 2004, the U.S. National Research Council (NRC), a division of the National Academy of Sciences (NAC), issued a report in which it found that genetic engineering is “not an inherently hazardous process,” calling fears of the anti-biotech crowd “scientifically unjustified.”

In June 2005, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a report that acknowledged the potential of genetically modified foods to enhance human health and development. The report, Modern Food Biotechnology, Human Health and Development, noted that pre-market assessments done so far have not found any negative health effects from consuming GM foods. Surely, no respectable scientific body would endorse a flawed innovation.

These findings may help to explain why agricultural biotech innovators and product developers continue to thrive. Cropnosis – a leading provider of market research and consultancy services in the crop protection and biotechnology sectors – estimates that the global value of biotech crops stands at $5.25 billion representing 15 percent of the $34.02 billion crop protection market in 2005 and 18 per cent of the $30 billion 2005 global commercial seed market.

The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), in a report released early this year, reveals that since the commercialization of the first GM crop a decade ago, 1 billion acre of land, in 21 countries, is under biotech crops. In 2005 alone, the global area of approved biotech crops was 222 million hectares, up from 200 million acres in 2004. This translates to annual growth rate of 11 percent.

The lucrative nature of GM crops – they yield high and require less pesticides and herbicides – is driving many developing countries to embrace them. However, many, especially in Africa, where agriculture constitutes 30 per cent of the continent’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), have been reluctant cultivate GMOs for fear of losing their European agricultural markets. This is why Europe’s accession to GMOs remains critical to Africa’s adoption of GMOs. The EU, by default, is preventing many poor countries to benefit from GMOs.

If Europe opens its doors to GMOs, many poor countries stand to gain from this technology and both the economic as well as life-saving benefits it has to offer. Many in poor countries, predominantly, live on agriculture. They must be given a chance to benefit from modern agricultural technologies such as biotechnology. Denying poor countries an opportunity to reap from crop biotechnology, which has proved so successful in other parts of the world, amounts to condemning billions of people who live in poor countries to a slow and painful death.