This week marks the 40th anniversary of man’s flight to the moon and back. This exploration of the next frontier is arguably the greatest achievement and most inspiring story of our time. Those who worked on the space program in the 1960′s have had a far reaching affect on all of our lives. More so than we may ever know, as the technology developed during that period can now be found in many of our daily use products, including the computer used to type this blog.
I am humbled by the thought of the sacrifices those involved must have made in order for this accomplishment to have been reached. I am also inspired in knowing what is possible when men and women dream, believe, and commit to an idea that is bigger than anyone can imagine.
I will not pretend that what we do at Radiant Systems is equal in stature to what those who are a part of our space program do. Families give their lives to our space program, literally, that cannot be matched. However, I will draw comparison in the dream, the belief, and the commitment because I know the character of the people I work with each and every day.
In the Hospitality division, we have achieved our own inspiring story this year. We have successfully engineered a solution that goes beyond our dreams, exceeds our beliefs, and underscores our commitment. The solution is for the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington Texas. It successfully operates 233 stores and 367 suites, using 629 terminals and 155 tablets controlled by 258 virtual servers. All under one roof…the largest indoor stadium roof in the world. It successfully processed over 42,000 checks for a single event, and has helped serve close to 200,000 patrons in three different days of operation. And it did this using technology that did not exist six months ago.
We have not put a man on the moon or in space or in flight for that matter. We have simply made it easier for him to serve his community a warm meal and a cold beverage. But in doing this we have stretched our boundaries and achieved a technology leap that will provide many benefits to our business and to our customers for years to come.
Twelve years ago, the Aloha family with approximately 50 employees faced a similar and unfamiliar task. It required 220 terminals under one roof, processing thousands of transactions, and serving tens of thousands of patrons per event. It was later to be called Super Site, but at the time it was Madison Square Garden or just “The Garden” for those of you who know the American icon arena.
The technology developed for the Garden lead us to new, larger, higher profile customers. The technology improved our capability. It improved our capacity. It improved our processes. It made our operation better, for everyone! And along the way, I believe, it led us to Radiant Systems, which has been an enormous success by any measure!
No one can predict what the technology developed for the Cowboys Stadium will bring. However no one can deny the benefits we have already witnessed in a few short weeks. Thanks to our consulting team, our various development teams, our hardware teams, our field service team, our support team, our account management team, our administration teams, our sales team, and our management there is now a new frontier from which we can draw dreams, new beliefs, and new commitments.
With our new technology combined with our roughly 30,000 Aloha POS installations, we have the opportunity to have our own far reaching affect on millions of lives. I for one, look forward to what lie ahead in the next frontier. Do you?
