An MS-based system doesn't necessarily require more maintenance. PerformanceBike ran on NCR/Fujitsu(I forget which) POS registers for some years before being replaced with a Windows-based POS system (Datavantage). There were also backend Windows PCs that handled functions such as corporate communications or printing in-store signage. Besides hardware replacement from the vendor(similar to how you might have HP/Dell hardware replacement), Performance managed to support the stores with only one dedicated MIS engineer until they had expanded to 60+ stores. Granted, the backend/POS programming was handled by developers. Additional resources were available if necessary such as facility networking changes provided by overlap of other MIS staff as well.