Yesterday we installed new pos workstations and a server for Cookbook Company Cooks, a wonderful store selling cookbooks, kitchen supplies, specialty foods, and cooking utensils. They also have cooking classes and are a catering company. You should check them out. They are on 11th Avenue SW near 6th St.
They have been our onsite tech support clients for several years so we were excited to help them upgrade their system. It presented many challenges. The software they use for their pos system was out-of-date but their old Dell machines running XP were incompatible with the upgrade. They needed new computers running Windows 7. They have limited counter space at the point-of-sale so the new computers had to be small yet fast and fit in the tight space behind the monitors. The old server was also several years old and too slow during previous busy holiday seasons. Their store is open seven days a week and the software company only available to upgrade within business hours. So we needed to change old for new computers quickly and after the software company was available but store not yet opened. These were our challenges.
We built three pos stations. Two for the counter and a spare in the backroom case one of the two went down. These we built in nice low profile Inwin cases from Memory Express that we put on their sides on the counter so they fit in the tight space. We installed solid state drives with i3 processors in them so they are super fast. Also they have 8GBs of ram which can upgrade to 16GBs if necessary. We got newer wider monitors for easier viewing of the software interface. The file server that handles the data we backed up locally and to the cloud. It also is running raid 1 for even greater redundancy.
We set up their network at the shop the week before and tested it. We also arrived at the shop an hour before the software company opened. So we were as ready as we could be for the change out. I arranged for two techs and myself to be at the shop at 8 am.
Monday morning unfortunately there was a blizzard with difficult driving conditions and bitter cold wind. Even so both my techs Reye and Doug and I made it to the store on time. I brought coffee and pastries for my techs and the owner of the store. The upgrade and change out went smoothly.
While I was there, I noticed that their switch was overloaded and that they needed new power surge protectors. This will be our next visit.
The store really has a pleasant and energetic atmosphere. I enjoyed working their with them and am thinking of taking a cooking class.
If you’d like new computers for your home, office, or business. Our onsite tech support division can help you. Or come visit our computer repair shop in Calgary.