The study talks about the Impact of Information Technology on business. Taking the example of a SME named Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery (FSGN), in Colorado the study is analysed. The advantages and disadvantages of the newly included POS systems in the company have been discussed. The competitive advantage that the SME will gain after the inclusion of this POS System has also been analysed. The advantages of having a single database which can access by multiple people and its importance in making better decisions have been discussed. A recommendation for telecommunication options that shall help in the proper management of the POS systems has also been talked about. The various security, privacy and confidentiality risks that the company faces and the ways to overcome those risks have also been talked about.
Advantages and disadvantages of the newly included POS system the company
Advantages:
Point of sale system can be integrated in the process of inventory control for a particular business house. It generates purchase order automatically and can help to make reorders for different items. It can help to decrease the work amount with expenses related to the running of business. Additionally, product selection report is easily accessible in this method as in a venture; there is no need to give focus on the selling amount. As suggested by Benjamin (2015), it will also show the most popular item based on the selling percentage in one day. Requirement of update is automatic in point of sale system where software is updated within a particular time.
Timely update is necessary unless company may face security risks. Continuous and reliable internet connection in POS system is necessary. Absence of reliable internet connection is not effective to conduct a smooth business in the work process of the selected firm. It requires to access with a monthly or yearly subscription fee. Using of credit and debits cards in point of sale system may expose the financial vulnerability (Cummins and Cummins, 2018). As it is a web based system it is mandatory to create connectivity in internet and hardware terminals.
POS system is helpful to conduct works faster and accurate within a company. There is no need to memorise product price or manually input data as the traditional cash registration process. It is helpful to serve customers rapidly with accurate accounting system customers do not need to wait for long time. Stock management facility is another advantage that easily accessible with the help of point of sale system. It is automatically done by modern point of sale system. It is helpful to count stock, track their location and amount of stocks within a company. It helps a venture to assume the demand and makes stocks ready to sell customers. Forecasting is a major issue that influences a company in competitive ground. Employee tracking such as staff behavior, sales figure and competition level are easier to conduct with this process.
After the inclusion of the POS system the organisation was provided the chance of operating through a centralised database. As per the view of Agarwal (2017), a centralised database provides the SMEs a chance of understanding the required changes that can bring about development in the organisation. The centralised database holds all the required information about the company. The annual sales and revenue earned and the assets of the company are properly maintained through the centralized database. With the help of this database the managers of the SMEs are able to access the entire sales history of the organisation and locate the reasons for the loss.
In the case of FSGN, the proprietor and the executive authorities found that the business was continuously facing negligible profit or loss. To avoid these POS systems was included in the company in 2008. After the inclusion of the system it was seen that data was accurately handled and could be easily tracked (Parento and Bhatt, 2016). This helped the company in taking the required decisions from strategies which could bring about profit.
Influence of point-of-sale system on business process:
It is able to track proper information about entire work process in company. The effect of this system is much helpful as POS can track ordering diminished stock to point out the best seller. The main influence of this system is on time management section. Effectiveness of POS is related with high efficiency, management and controlling on every section of a company.
Tracking:
This information can be tracked manually whereas, it is long term process and time consuming. Additionally, it increases the expense of company. Automatic process is quicker than the manual information tracking system.
Questions related to selling rate in every day, most or least selling item, as well as different other account related problems can be answered effectively.
Better management:
For better manage the business POS system can be used to provide unlimited support for business enhancement. As a venture can access all necessary information it can easily track any dispute in working process (Weber and Bailey, 2016). It increases selling as company manager points to the least selling item and focus on its quality. Employee payroll can be controlled and it is helpful to manage promotion after certain time.
Types of networks – FSGN is a Colorado based SME and they have only one office. As a result usage of Local Area Network (LAN) is the best telecommunication option that they should choose. This can be helpful for them as the company database is accessed only by the few people at a small location. As long as the company is based on a single location, all the computers of the organisation can be accessed through a Local area network. As per the view of Cunningham et al. (2015), through the usage of LAN, all the computers of the company are connected through a centralised database and all the people with the ids and passwords can access them. The database should also be protected by a single security system so that the passwords are provided only to the concerned people and all the employees of the company cannot access the private data.
In accordance to present times and the highly advanced technologies that science has provided the world the cost required for the installation of wired technologies and wireless technologies have become almost similar. However, wireless technologies are still little expensive in comparison to wired technologies. As stated by Kotlarsky et al. (2015), wireless technologies, although little costly come completely hassle free and needs much less attention. The wireless technologies also require less space allocation compared to the wired technologies.
Wireless Technologies can be installed in FSGN with the help of devices like RFI, Cellular Communication, Wi-Fi, Radar Communication or Bluetooth communication across the computer systems. With the installation of all these systems and the connection provided through the LAN, the organisation can connect all their systems over a single database and the managers and executives of the company can access all the required files and documents as per their requirements. Wireless communication systems will also have easy maintenance compared to wires as wires get torn and need replacement but wireless technologies are everlasting.
Security:
After the inclusion of the single centralised database all the computers of the organisation are connected. There is a chance of the private data being accessed by all the employees of the organisation and there is a chance of the data getting spread (Kelley, 2016).
However, the IT experts in control of the database should provide passwords to the database and they should be allowed access only by selected people of the organisation. The corporate executives and the senior hierarchy of the organisation should be given access to the database.
Privacy:
The privacy of the data in the database should be maintained. The people in authority of the database should regularly check it for availability of malwares and spywares. Lau et al. (2018) opined that, the database should be made almost unhackable so that anybody from outside cannot access it. The IT experts of the company should also make sure that the database is updated and upgraded from time to time so that they can provide the organisation with better help regarding decision making.
Confidentiality:
The confidentiality of the database should be maintained by all the employees of the organisation. Just because it is a small business, hackers shall be more oriented to hack the resources as the security systems of the large businesses are much more secure. The hacking of the central database might enable the hacker retrieve the personal details of the employees and access private data of the organisation including special gardening strategies and special techniques of the nursery. This information is confidential as they are unique and vary from one company to another.
Conclusion
The study talks about the Impact of Information Technology in a SME named Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery. The advantages and disadvantages of the newly incorporated POS systems in the organisation have been talked about. Further, the Competitive Advantage that is gained after the inclusion of POS and its positive outcomes has been talked about. The help that is provided by the centralised database in ethical decision making has been discussed. A type of networks that should be used for the telecommunication in the POS Business System and the risks factors that is faced by the company is discussed. The ways in which the company should control the risks have also been talked about.
References
Agarwal, G., 2017. CA Technologies Inc. Controlling mobile payment transactions based on risk scores for point-of-sale terminals determined from locations reported by mobile terminals. 32(5), pp.23-33.
Benjamin, M., 2015. Capital One Financial Corp, Systems and methods for providing a financial discount or reward, 14(4), pp.925-970.
Cummins, M.J. and Cummins, I., 2018. Pomo Search Ltd,. System and method for point of sale transaction logging. 10(5), pp.12-25.
Cunningham, C., Good, T., Kearney, S.P., Miraglia, M., Amundsen, T., Giordano, P., Wang, Y.P. and Zhu, X., Metrologic Instruments Inc, 2015. Point of sale (POS) based checkout system supporting a customer-transparent two-factor authentication process during product checkout operations. 12(7), pp.10-12.
Kelley, A.L., NCR Corp, 2016. Secure crypto currency point-of-sale (pos) management, 10(7), pp.56-98.
Kotlarsky, A., Au, K.M., Veksland, M. and Zhu, X., Metrologic Instruments Inc, 2015. Automatic digital video image capture and processing system supporting image-processing based code symbol reading during a pass-through mode of system operation at a retail point of sale (POS) station. 12(7), pp.89-100.
Lau, P., KOTECHA, L.R. and Sanjeev, K., Verizon Patent and Licensing Inc, 2018. Point-of-sale location check for payment card purchases. 10(4), pp.151-160.
Parento, S.A. and Bhatt, S., Mastercard International Inc, 2016. Methods, systems, and computer readable media for providing benefits to loyalty cardholders via loyalty card transactions. 89(7), pp.58-62.
Weber, L. and Bailey, K., Visa International Service Association, 2016. Dynamic point of sale system integrated with reader device. 12(7), pp.56-66.
fourseasonsgreenhouse.com 2018. FOURSEASONSGREENHOUSE.COM. Available at: https://fourseasonsgreenhouse.com/ [Accessed on: 25 July, 2018]
Essay Writing Service Features
Our Experience
No matter how complex your assignment is, we can find the right professional for your specific task. Contact Essay is an essay writing company that hires only the smartest minds to help you with your projects. Our expertise allows us to provide students with high-quality academic writing, editing & proofreading services.
Free Features
Free revision policy
$10Free bibliography & reference
$8Free title page
$8Free formatting
$8How Our Essay Writing Service Works
First, you will need to complete an order form. It's not difficult but, in case there is anything you find not to be clear, you may always call us so that we can guide you through it. On the order form, you will need to include some basic information concerning your order: subject, topic, number of pages, etc. We also encourage our clients to upload any relevant information or sources that will help.
Complete the order form
Once we have all the information and instructions that we need, we select the most suitable writer for your assignment. While everything seems to be clear, the writer, who has complete knowledge of the subject, may need clarification from you. It is at that point that you would receive a call or email from us.
Writer’s assignment
As soon as the writer has finished, it will be delivered both to the website and to your email address so that you will not miss it. If your deadline is close at hand, we will place a call to you to make sure that you receive the paper on time.
Completing the order and download