Its 1998 and you are working at Grizzly Pizza.  The phone rings and you ask, "How may I help you?"  The customer places a delivery order ; you take the address and phone number, then ask them to hold while you look at a large paper map on the wall to determine the time it will take the deliverer to get there, and then tell the customer, "It will be there in 30 minutes."  When the pizza is ready the deliverer takes it away.  While he is gone you get another order for delivery and assume it can be cooked and out the door in 20 minutes, you check the big map and tell them, "It will be there in 35 minutes."  Once the pizza is ready it sits on the counter getting cold for another 10 minutes till deliverer finally arrives to pick it up.  The pizza is now cold, late, and you realize you did not get the second customer's phone number, so you can't call to warn, the presumably angry customer, that they will have to wait a little longer.  What technology would have been beneficial then, that we have now?  


Let's look at the same situation four years later.  A customer calls and places a delivery order you make the pizza and send it on with the deliverer.  A second call comes in for delivery you take the order, check the map and tell them, "It will be there in 35 minutes."  Just before you put their pizza in the oven the deliverer calls, from his cell phone, to say he is stuck in traffic and he will be about 10 minutes behind schedule.  You hold off putting the pizza in the oven, and attempt to call the second customer, discovering you forgot to get their phone number, but thanks to caller id you can look it up.  You call and inform them that the pizza will be delivered about 10 minutes past the original estimated time; you apologize for any inconvenience, offer them a free beverage and hang up.  The deliverer arrives just as the fresh hot pizza is coming out of the oven, you box it and the deliverer takes it off.  Thanks to the recent caller id, and cell phone technology, the pizza is warm and the customer is happy.


Last but not least, let's look at the same situation present day.  You are at work and the high tech POS system beeps and prints out a detailed delivery order, which was placed online, with an estimated delivery time of 30 minutes.  The POS system is able to make this estimation because not only does it have a personalized map of Grizzly Pizza's delivery zone, it also knows where the deliverer is because there is a GPS system in the car, linked to the POS system.  When this pizza is out the door and on its way to it's destination, the phone rings and you answer, "Thanks for calling Grizzly Pizza Mr. Smith would you like your regular delivery today?”  The POS system is connected to the phone line and identifies the caller and regular order by phone number recognition.  The POS system then gives you an estimated time of delivery based on the deliverer’s location and his speed he travels.  You tell Mr. Smith his pizza will arrive in 45 minutes.  While you wait to put the pizza in the oven, the deliverer calls to tell you he is behind on time.  You don’t even have to worry because the POS system had factored the speed of the deliverer into the wait time.  When the pizza comes out the oven, the deliverer walks in and takes the pizza to the customer.  Now you have a happy customer with fresh hot pizza delivered on time and you did not even have to give them a free drink.