Nowadays, every business makes the use of information technology for the effective functioning of its operations. Due to lack of needed resources and expertise, some problems are faced by the small businesses in the implementation of approaches related to information technology. Point of Sale or POS system can be defined as grouping of software and hardware with the view to create a machine that can perform the function of processing payments and transactions.
The basic function performed by the POS system is that it tracks the business data of the organization and generates results on its basis. Such results are of prime importance to the businesses as it cannot be derived with the help of manual tracking of sales. This report focuses on the implementation of POS system in Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery and the associated advantages and disadvantages, competitive advantage and recommendations for telecommunication options.
Advantages-
The use of POS system by the business is considered to be better as compared to the use of cash register. This is due to the fact that it is capable of performing a number of functions associated with data distribution and tracking and therefore offers the needed assistance to the owners for gaining knowledge about business operations. On the other hand, POS system also reduces the dependence of Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery on speculation for identifying the quantity of units to be ordered. This, in turn, facilitates effective decision making in business. Delegation of responsibility to the subordinates along with the establishment of accountability is an easy job with the help of POS system (McCarthy, 2018).
Other advantage offered by the implementation of POS system to the garden centre involves the effective tracking of the business data. This, in turn, eliminates the need to track the sales manually. The system also keeps the inventory up- to- date and simultaneously performs the function of sales history compilation and processing of data.
Disadvantages-
A number of limitations are suffered by the POS system. POS system brings with it a security risk due to its linkage with the central network. Therefore, the confidential information of the clients is under threat. Moreover, web- based POS systems are considered to be more convenient as compared to software based system. Also, POS systems are very costly as it require to be update from time to time (Kimmons, 2017).
Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery will gain competitive advantage by implementing POS systems for the effective functioning of its business. POS system analyzes the business data relating to sales in an appropriate manner. The results obtained from such analysis can be used by the owners of the business for the purpose of gaining competitive advantage over the competitors. The costs associated with the products can also be identified through this system along with the related profitability. By making the use of the results provided by the system, the business can gain competitive advantage and increase the profitability by shifting its production processes in the favor of the products that are highly demanded in the market. Therefore, the accurate reporting feature of the system will lead to effective management of the operations of the business and improve the profitability of the business (Moon, Kim and Ham, 2014).
Centralized database offers a number of advantages to the business as it preserves the data in the most suitable manner and provides increased security from stealing and tampering of data. Since there is only one primary record in case of a centralized database, data redundancy is reduced and data integrity is maximized. POS system is also a centralized database and therefore provides the facility to the use to be capable of accessing the entire information at a single point of time. In other words, administration and portability of data becomes easy with the help of centralized database. Such a database also performs the function of reducing the labor and maintenance of costs and brings cost effectiveness to the business by minimizing the power supply costs. These features are not available in case of other database systems (Coronel and Morris, 2016).
The garden centre faced difficulties regarding the number of units to be ordered and used to make the decisions on the basis of speculation. POS system facilitated decision making in garden centre by way of offering accurate data regarding the inventories possessed by the business.
Effective Processing of Business Activities-
Effective processing of the business transactions are undertaken by POS systems by providing instant results on the basis of transaction tracking immediately. Inventory information is updated by the system on timely basis and keeps a compiled sales history which assists garden centre in effective processing of data (Hines and Youssef, 2018).
Manual Tracking of Information-
Manual tracking is not capable of performing the same benefits as offered by the POS systems and therefore is considered to be ineffective. Manually performed operations have no comparison with the computerized processes. When operational data can be properly accessed, the business can be managed in an effective manner. Moreover, manual tracking makes it difficult to report costs which is easier in case of computerized systems. POS systems also have the capability of making the identification of the profitability associated with each item (Davis and Wang, 2015).
Questions answered by POS Systems-
A number of questions are answered by the POS systems relating to items to be discarded, quantity sold and quantity ordered. There is a complete elimination of guesswork as POS system reports accurate information relating to the inventory.
Better Management of Business Through the Use of Information-
Garden center can use the information offered by the system for the purpose of enhancing its decision making capabilities relating to the quantity to be ordered. Cost reporting will also become easier with the help of better storage and processing of the data (Aldauf and Stair, 2010). In this way, the company can aim at producing the items that are more profitable for the business therefore leading to the increase in the overall profitability of garden centre.
Types of Networks- LAN is recommended as the telecommunication system for the POS system adopted by Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery out of the options available namely LAN, WAN and MAN. LAN will be able to meet the business requirements of this business as the business operations are limited therefore, there is no requirement for costly WAN and MAN telecommunication options. Moreover, records and settings of all the types are supported by POS systems along with supporting multiple POS terminals (Turner and Musman, 2018).
Types of Media- POS system should be set with the help of a wireless LAN and wireless technologies. WPA2 security standard will assist the business in establishing communication in an encrypted manner. Spread spectrum, infrared and narrowband microwave can be utilized in case of wireless LAN (Zappone, Sanguinetti, Bacci, Jorswieck and Debbah, 2016).
Following risks are associated with POS systems.
Security- Older operating systems put the security of the customer data under threat. Sometimes the POS systems are fraudulent due to which security of the data is compromised and the hackers can easily undertake practices like phishing and skimming (Lin, Yu, Zhang, Yang, Zhang and Zhao, 2017).
In order to protect the security of the data, garden centre can make the use of anti-virus software which will perform the function of protecting business data from the unauthorized activities of the hackers. If the system is maintained by the business itself, the default password should be changed so that its hacking becomes difficult. In case it is maintained by third party, strong policies can be framed such that same password is not used for more than one user (Cuzzocrea, 2014).
Privacy- hackers use spywares for hacking the personal information of the customers and use it for their own benefit. In this way, the privacy of the customer data can be compromised.
In order to protect the privacy of the data, proper training should be provided to the employees regarding the use of security protocols. Privacy can also be protected through multi- biometric system. Software should be updated on timely basis such that the threats can be identified on time.
Confidentiality- when someone who does not have an access to the information accesses it, the confidentiality of the data is compromised. A number of businesses have faced confidentiality breaches in last few years (Hu, Xie, Ma, Wang and Zhang, 2018).
Software that protects system data can be used for this purpose. It will protect the data from external threats and malware.
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded that the implementation of POS system by garden centre can assist in the improved management of the business. POS systems has been used for the implementation of information technology by garden centre which assist in gaining competitive advantage and efficiency in business operations through improved decision making. The decisions made by the business based on the information provided by the system improve the overall profitability of the business.
Privacy, security and confidentiality of the business data should be protected by garden center through regularly updating the software and hardware. The use of WAN can be made for the purpose of establishing network with remote locations. Also, precautions should be taken against the activities of the hackers by installing software with passwords.
References
Aldauf, K. and Stair, R. 2010. Succeeding with Technology. Cengage Learning.
Coronel, C. and Morris, S., 2016. Database systems: design, implementation, & management. Cengage Learning.
Cuzzocrea, A., 2014. Privacy and security of big data: current challenges and future research perspectives. In Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Privacy and Secuirty of Big Data (pp. 45-47). ACM.
Davis, W.C. and Wang, Z.J., 2015. A Mobile Retail POS: Design and Implementation. In Proceedings of the 2015 Workshop on Mobile Big Data (pp. 49-51). ACM.
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.
Hu, B., Xie, H., Ma, Y., Wang, J. and Zhang, L.J., 2018. A Robust Retail POS System Based on Blockchain and Edge Computing. In International Conference on Edge Computing(pp. 99-110). Springer, Cham.
Kimmons, R. 2017. The Disadvantages of a Point of Sale System, [Online]. Available at: https://bizfluent.com/list-6729611-disadvantages-point-sale-system.html [Accessed on: 20 September 2018].
Lin, J., Yu, W., Zhang, N., Yang, X., Zhang, H. and Zhao, W., 2017. A survey on internet of things: Architecture, enabling technologies, security and privacy, and applications. IEEE Internet of Things Journal, 4(5), pp.1125-1142.
McCarthy, M. 2018. The Benefits of Moving to a Point-of-Sale (POS) System, [Online]. Available at: https://www.allbusiness.com/the-benefits-of-moving-to-a-point-of-sale-pos-system-10206841-1.html [Accessed on: 20 September 2018].
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.
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.
Zappone, A., Sanguinetti, L., Bacci, G., Jorswieck, E. and Debbah, M., 2016. Energy-efficient power control: A look at 5G wireless technologies. IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, 64(7), pp.1668-1683.
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