Small businesses of every size and type are adopting information technology for the purpose of enhancing their business operations. Such adoption is positively impacting such organizations as now they are able to cover their incapability in terms of know-how and resources by way of implementing such technology in business (Turner and Musman, 2018).
Point of Sale or POS system can be defined as centralization of business operations through a set of hardware and software. Traditional cash registers have altogether replaced with the introduction of POS systems in the business. It assists businesses in increasing their revenue along with customizing their experiences for meeting the needs of the customers. This report focuses on the implementation of POS systems in the case of Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery.
Advantages-
Replacement of Cash Register- POS systems is capable of replacing the use of traditional cash registers in the business. It will perform the function of tracking, input and distribution of data thereby offering useful information to the users for the better management of the business.
Facilitates Decision Making- POS systems performs the function of maintaining data and records which assists the business owners in effective decision making. The analysis of the records can further assist the owners in ascertaining the highly profitable items of the business. Decisions regarding the quantity to be ordered are also facilitated by POS systems (Wu, Straub and Liang, 2015).
Accountability- accountability can be established by the owners of garden center by way of delegating the responsibility to the capable staff. The ultimate operations of the business are performed by the staff itself. The owners can only establish the aims and goals to be achieved by them (Fenz, Heurix, Neubauer and Pechstein, 2014).
Disadvantages-
Troublesome software based systems– web based systems are suitable to be used by the businesses as compared to the use of software based systems. Software is incapable of performing the functions relating to inventory and therefore it needs hardware for establishing connections between hardware terminals and internet (Eason, 2014).
Overpriced Upgrades- Updates are very important for POS systems for its smooth functioning. However, the updates require licenses and therefore are very costly and act as the disadvantage of POS system (Yeh, Lee and Pai, 2015).
Security Risks- POS system linked central networks faces a number of security risks. The personal information of the customers is at risk when the business uses POS system. Updates are needed for such systems in order to protect it from such risks (Yeh, Lee and Pai, 2015).
Attainment of competitive advantage will be ultimate result of the implementation of the POS system. With the implementation of POS system into the business, a number of manual processes become computerized thereby leading to the enhancement of the business operations. Various reports and analysis offered by such system can be used by the business owners for the benefit of the business. The profitable products can be easily identified through this system; therefore, the owners can increase its production and reduce the production of non- profitable items. Furthermore, the costs associated with each product can be easily evaluated in the context of the profitability (Ghapanchi, Wohlin and Aurum, 2014).
The business will certainly benefit as it has a centralized database. A number of advantages are offered by the centralized database to the business. A centralized database allows a business to act with faster speed with regard to the management of information and decision making regarding actions and strategies. This is due to the fact that there are only few layers of data required to be investigated. The business can easily focus on its vision through the adoption of a centralized database. Moreover, conflicts are as centralized database bears the responsibility of collecting ad storing the business data. Furthermore, data redundancy is reduced and data integrity is increased with the help of centralized database (Avgerou and Walsham, 2017).
Inventory can be accurately maintained with the help of POS systems as the business doe no have to depend on speculation.
Effective Processing of Business activities by POS Systems –
Sales are instantly tracked by the POS systems which, turn, allows the business effectively processes its transactions on timely basis. The inventory information is also offered by such systems along with sales information with the help of which business can be maintained in an effective manner (Chae, Koh and Prybutok, 2014).
Manual Tracking of Information- Effective or Not Effective
Manual information tracking is considered to be completely ineffective as it does not allow accessing the operational data. Operational data is very important for managing the business in an appropriate manner. Manual tracking also do not help in identifying the profitable items as cost reporting cannot be performed by it in a proper manner (Wu, Xu, Li and Zhu, 2015).
Effective Answers to Different Questions
Effective answers to different questions are provided by the POS systems. The business gets the answers to questions like the number of units to be ordered, discarded and sold. The dependence of speculation by the business is also reduced as the system provides the correct inventory counts to the owners. In other words, the reliance of business on guesswork is reduced (Chae, Koh and Prybutok, 2014).
Use of Information for Better Management of the Business
Point of sale system tracks the data at the time of sale and therefore there is no requirement for the business to perform manual tracking. The information provided by the system can be used processing of data, updating inventory, compiling sales history, etc. The business operations are enhanced when the POS system itself perform data tracking and input (Wagner, Beimborn and Weitzel, 2014).
Types of Networks- the options available for the establishment of network are LAN, WAN and MAN. Since garden center is a small business, it requirements are also small which can be adequately met with the help of LAN. LAN has the capability of supporting multiple POS terminals configured for the purpose of accessing the database server. WAN can also meet the requirement of garden center but it will proof to be expensive for the business (Piotrowicz and Cuthbertson, 2014).
Types of Media- wireless technology is recommended to the garden center. The use of this technology can be made in the form of wireless LAN. The entire industry’s operating mode can be altered through the wireless technology. Encrypted communication is facilitated by the terminals with the help of WPA2 security standard. The wireless technologies suggested for this POS system are infrared, narrowband microwave and spread spectrum (Piotrowicz and Cuthbertson, 2014).
The maintenance of the security, privacy and confidentiality of the business data. However, POS system faces risks in these aspects.
Security- security of the business data is compromised when it is exposed to the hackers. This is the case when older operating systems are used by the business. Sometimes, the systems are itself fraudulent which gives access to the hackers to easily gain access to business data. Phishing and some other fraudulent practices are undertaken by the hackers and they also install some software in the system with the help of which they can obtain the confidential information of the customers without getting caught. The protection of system security can be ensured with the help of anti- virus software and making the use of strong passwords for the system. It should further be ensured that same password is not used by the owners for two systems (Hines and Youssef, 2018).
Privacy- the personal information of the customers is obtained by the business such as names, credit card information, date of birth, address, etc. Such data is preserved in the systems maintained by the companies. Hackers make the use of such information by hacking the systems and servers with the help of spyware. In this way, hackers make unauthorized use of such information. The protection of data privacy can be ensured by garden center by way of following security protocols through its staff (de Gusmão, e Silva, Silva, Poleto and Costa, 2016). Updating the POS systems on timely basis can also protect the privacy of the customer data within the system. Privacy is also protected by businesses with the help of multi- biometric systems.
Confidentiality- when the customers provide their personal information to the Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery, they expect that the business will maintain the confidentiality of their data. However, from time to time, the system faces confidentiality breaches due to which the trust of the customers gets affected (Moon, Kim and Ham, 2014). When the business and customer information is accessed by an unauthorized person, confidentiality breach takes place. This, in turn, severely affects the customers of the business. The confidentiality of the data can be protected by using emerging technology based software. The emerging threats will also be covered by such software along with the known and unknown threats. Such software will also perform the function of protecting the business and customer data from threats and malware and will offer a trustworthy VPN connectivity (Moon, Kim and Ham, 2014).
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded that Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery have made the effective use of information technology in the form of POS systems. POS system can be defined as centralization of business operations through a set of hardware and software. POS system have assisted this business in effective decision making and has assisted in gaining competitive advantage. The business no longer depends on speculation and is capable of improving the profitability of its products. Since POS system is a centralized database, it will offer immense benefits to the business. However, security, privacy and confidentiality risks are faced by the POS systems which can be protected with the help of certain measures. Wireless LAN technology should be used by the business for smooth functioning of its operations.
Updates are important for the purpose of maintaining the security of business data, therefore, POS systems need to be updated on timely basis. Furthermore, the use of updated anti- virus software should be made so that the security of data is not compromised.
References
Avgerou, C. and Walsham, G. 2017. Information Technology in Context: Studies from the Perspective of Developing Countries. Routledge.
Chae, H.C., Koh, C.E. and Prybutok, V.R., 2014. Information technology capability and firm performance: Contradictory findings and their possible causes. Mis Quarterly, 38(1), pp.305-326.
Eason, K.D., 2014. Information technology and organisational change. CRC Press.
Ghapanchi, A.H., Wohlin, C. and Aurum, A., 2014. Resources contributing to gaining competitive advantage for open source software projects: An application of resource-based theory. International Journal of Project Management, 32(1), pp.139-152.
Hines, C. and Youssef, A., 2018. Machine Learning Applied to Point-of-Sale Fraud Detection. In International Conference on Machine Learning and Data Mining in Pattern Recognition (pp. 283-295). Springer, Cham.
Moon, Y.J., Kim, W. and Ham, S., 2014. Users’ intentions to employ a Point-Of-Sale system. The Service Industries Journal, 34(11), pp.901-921.
Piotrowicz, W. and Cuthbertson, R., 2014. Introduction to the special issue information technology in retail: Toward omnichannel retailing. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 18(4), pp.5-16.
Turner, A.J. and Musman, S., 2018. Applying the Cybersecurity Game to a Point-of-Sale System. In Disciplinary Convergence in Systems Engineering Research (pp. 129-144). Springer, Cham.
Wagner, H.T., Beimborn, D. and Weitzel, T., 2014. How social capital among information technology and business units drives operational alignment and IT business value. Journal of Management Information Systems, 31(1), pp.241-272.
Wu, S., Xu, Y., Li, Y. and Zhu, Y., 2015. POS: A popularity-based online scaling scheme for raid-structured storage systems. In Computer Design (ICCD), 2015 33rd IEEE International Conference on (pp. 141-148). IEEE.
Wu, S.P.J., Straub, D.W. and Liang, T.P., 2015. How information technology governance mechanisms and strategic alignment influence organizational performance: Insights from a matched survey of business and IT managers. Mis Quarterly, 39(2), pp.497-518.
Yeh, C.H., Lee, G.G. and Pai, J.C., 2015. Using a technology-organization-environment framework to investigate the factors influencing e-business information technology capabilities. Information Development, 31(5), pp.435-450.
de Gusmão, A.P.H., e Silva, L.C., Silva, M.M., Poleto, T. and Costa, A.P.C.S., 2016. Information security risk analysis model using fuzzy decision theory. International Journal of Information Management, 36(1), pp.25-34.
Fenz, S., Heurix, J., Neubauer, T. and Pechstein, F., 2014. Current challenges in information security risk management. Information Management & Computer Security, 22(5), pp.410-430.
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