NCR Voyix rolls out a more modern Aloha

NCR Voyix wants the restaurant industry to say hello to the new Aloha.

The big restaurant tech supplier is ready to go live with Aloha Next, the latest generation of its POS system that is designed to be more modern and nimble than its predecessor.

New pos system launch

A few weeks ago, the company launched Aloha Next for the first time in the wild at a single location of Bruster’s Real Ice Cream in Bridgewater, Pennsylvania. Bruster’s is working with NCR Voyix to create a proof of concept and will then move into a pilot phase before rolling it out to all of its 230 locations by the end of next year.

Other NCR Voyix clients, including Chipotle Mexican Grill and First Watch, have also signed up to install Next across their restaurants.

The new POS is part of a major transformation at the Atlanta-based company that began two years ago, when NCR Corp. separated into two entities, the restaurant- and retail-focused NCR Voyix, and NCR Atleos, which handles NCR’s ATM business.

Company transformation

With that, NCR Voyix, which began as National Cash Register way back in 1884, shifted its focus from hardware to software. And its software, some of which was around 40 years old, was in need of a reboot.

“It was like driving a 1980s or ’90s car,” said Jim Kelly, who was named NCR Voyix’s board chair in 2023 and then its CEO early last year. “It's not what you would expect in 2026.”

NCR Voyix had been working for several years to transition its software from what’s known as a monolithic architecture — a single, self-contained system — to a microservices architecture, or multiple independent services that work together.

The trouble with the old software is that it takes a long time for restaurants to make changes — sometimes up to nine months or more for large chains, Kelly said. With microservices, updates can be made in as little as a day, without disrupting the rest of the system.

For example: If a restaurant wanted to change the size of the font on its receipts, it could do that while still processing orders and payments.

It also paves the way for more sophisticated capabilities, particularly related to AI. Kelly said Next makes it possible for restaurants to use cameras to monitor supply levels and update a restaurant’s menu and prices in real time, for instance.

Software upgrade challenges

However, upgrading all of NCR Voyix’s roughly 65 software applications, including Aloha, to the new architecture was proving to be a painstaking task.

“Getting from old to new was still a very manual effort that we just weren't doing very well,” Kelly said. “The speed of which the market wanted new, from 2024 and into early ’25, we were not able to keep up.”

After some nudging by its board, NCR Voyix began applying AI coding tools to the job. That, combined with the expertise of some of its longest-tenured employees, enabled the company to modernize its entire app library in under three months, Kelly said.

When NCR Voyix demoed an early version of the new software at the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) Show in 2025, the reaction was disbelief, Kelly said.

“[People were like,] ‘Where did this come from?’” he said. “‘We've been watching you peddle the same old stuff for years and years and years, and now, magically, you have something that would not necessarily be associated with our expectations.’”

In January, it showed off the complete version of the technology at the National Retail Federation show, and now it is shopping it to restaurants. Kelly said he is meeting with a different customer almost every day of the week through the end of the year to talk about Next.

Customer adoption

NCR Voyix’s customers tend to be very loyal, he said, and they have a fondness for the old apps. But they’ve grown frustrated with how inflexible the technology can be. That has been a key selling point for Aloha Next.

Pennsylvania-based Bruster’s Ice Cream has been using Aloha since 2016. Sean Krings, senior VP of operations and IT, can attest to some of the challenges associated with making changes to the old system.

“We got to the point where we’re thinking, this is getting more complicated than it is efficient,” he said.

The chain was exploring other options when NCR Voyix presented it with Aloha Next. That helped change Bruster’s mind, Krings said.

The new system provides more flexibility, he said. It will make it easier for Bruster’s to integrate other software applications. And because Next is not tied to specific hardware, the chain will have more options for taking payments in the drive-thru line.

On the front end, the new system works virtually the same as the old one, so it doesn’t disrupt employees’ workflow.

Bruster’s is working with NCR Voyix to make some tweaks to the software during this early phase, mainly related to the nuances of its order flow and its menu, which features 150 ice cream flavors that rotate daily.

Down the road, it may add more functionality, such as cameras that can ensure toppings are always entered in the POS when added.

Krings said the price of Next will be comparable to the old one. And he noted that Bruster’s will save money by not having to change to new hardware.

Franchisees, who are not always eager to invest in new technology, are on board this time, Krings added. When Bruster’s brought Next to its franchisee council, operators pushed the brand to go faster.

“They were sold on the benefits and understanding of it,” Krings said.

“I think the customers see that their business is going to be enhanced by having these capabilities, because there are things that they wanted to do for their customers … and we were not able to do that,” Kelly added. “Now we can show them that we can pretty much do whatever they want, within reason.”

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