Point-of-Sale System Analysis and Design

This assignment delves into the intricacies of point-of-sale (POS) systems. It examines various aspects, including hardware and software components, network architectures used in POS environments (wired vs. wireless), security vulnerabilities and mitigation strategies, and best practices for designing robust and secure POS systems. The analysis draws upon relevant patents and research papers to provide a comprehensive understanding of modern POS technology and its evolution.

Running head: BUSINESS 1
IT IN BUSINESS

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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................1
Advantages of Point of sale:............................................................................................................1
Disadvantages of POS system:........................................................................................................2
Competitive advantages by POS system:........................................................................................2
Centralized database:.......................................................................................................................2
Decision making and POS:..............................................................................................................3
Telecom in POS:..............................................................................................................................4
Risks:...............................................................................................................................................5
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................6
References:......................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction:
This report discusses about the Point of sale system that is considered as an important technology
installed in the big and small companies these days for various purposes. It has some of the
benefits to the companies but also have some of the demerits that should be assessed before
installing the system. This report focuses on explaining the same along with the description of its
technical aspects including the cable and the wires used in the different type of POS networks.
Advantages of Point of sale:
The company in the case that is Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery was facing so much of
issues with regards to its operations. These issues need to be rectified and thus a new POS
system has been installed in the business functions of the company. Following are some of the
benefits that the company has gained after installing the new POS system:
Managing sales and inventory are the most important benefits that the company is enjoying after
install this new POS system (Wagner, Beimborn and Weitzel, 2014). The company can easily
predict the requirements of the products and the inventory and this helps in managing the
inventory reducing the storing cost. This is because the inventory or stock is kept or ordered only
when it is required and that estimation can be made with POS. All the other benefits are related
to inventory only such as POS system helps in analyzing the market which in turn provides the
information about the demands. Not only this but it has the capability to track the sales and the
transactions made. This help Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery to analyze the overall profits
and the expected profits in the future can be estimated. Another important benefit that the POS
system offered to the Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery is reporting. This system has all the
information saved which can help inn among the reports of the data. These reports ultimately
help in developing the plans and assessing the growth of the business (Benson, 2008). Last but
not the latest, one of the major benefits are the company can easily focus on their main activities
and the time that was earlier spent on the non-value added activities can be spent on the major
business activities (Edwards, Skoog, Babu and Doroguske, Square, 2016).

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Disadvantages of POS system:
Along with all these advantages, some of the disadvantages of this system should also be
analyzed. The major demerit is expenses. Installing the POS system in the company is very
expensive and requires the companies like Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery to spend more
of its capital in installation of the system. At the same time, it is required to buy the updates of
the software as and when available. Another disadvantage of the same is the hiring of skilled
labor and training of the already existing employees (Ezell, Madden and Totterdel, Verifone,
2015). As now these employees have to deal with the new POS system thus there has to be
trained for the same.
Competitive advantages by POS system:
The competitive advantage of Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery that has been gained by
installing the POS system is making decisions. This is the competitive edge that the company has
achieved because the POS system allows the companies to aces the relevant information for
making effective decisions. Now the decisions of the company are based on facts and figures and
not on assumptions.
Centralized database:
Centralized database is defined as the database that acts as the central sever for the company
which is the major point for linking the client systems (Gupta, 2016). POS is also one of the
major types of centralized system that is installed in the company which can be assessed and
operated by the particular department and is linked to all the client devices. This system helps the
company to analyze the market situation and make the predictions as per the analysis.
Centralized system helps in managing all the activities from one place. Some of the major
benefits of having the centralized system are:
Data sharing: the major advantage of using the specialized and centralized system or database is
that the data that is stored on the centralized server deice can be shared to the associated client
devices very easily. POS system is also a centralized system and thus the reports that are made or
any type of information that has saved in this system can be shared with all having the linked
client devices.

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Data storage and security: centralized system of the company has large capacity to store the data
which is stored safely here (Schwalbe, 2015). Centralized database does not only act as the
storage device but it stores the data with high security. It has all the information of the company
and thus it has to be kept secured at the centralized place which can be accessed only by some of
the people of the company.
Recovering data: this is another important benefit of using the centralized system. It is the system
that helps in recovering the data if lost. There are many options available on the centralized
system that can be used to receive the lost data (Lowenthal, Baxter, Bhade and Mandal,
Chargepoint, 2017).
Decision making and POS:
As discussed earlier that decision making is the competitive edge that the company has gained
from installation of POS system. Inventory is one of the most important functions of the
company that requires frequent decision making. It has been analyzed that POS system installed
in the company has supported the decision making process for the same. The inventory
prediction decisions can be made by using the information and the statistics that are resaved on
the POS system. Another major decision is about stocks. Guess work or assumptions can be
reduced by the POS system. This is because the accurate decision or the inventory count can be
identified using the POS system and it is not required to assume the same. The business can
know more about its wide functions (Turban, Leidner, McLean and Wetherbe, 2008). In earlier
times, when the functions are handled manually, the report formation is the very limited process
and some of the things or criteria were missed but reporting in the POS system helps in getting
new and improved knowledge that can further helps in making better decisions for the business.
Market decision can also be gained with the help of POS system. This is because analysis of the
market provides the information about the recent demand and market trends. This allow the
company to make effective decision in order to decide which products should be sold in larger
quality and high needs to be stopped to launch on the market (Lu and Ramamurthy, 2011). Error
free decisions can be made by using the data and information stored in POS system and can be
the sales staff at executive level can have the access to take some of the immediate decision in
the field.

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Telecom in POS:
Various telecommunication systems are required to connect the POS networks. Some of the
common telecommunication networks that can be sued are:
LAN: it is also called as Land Area Network. It is the shortest range network that allows the
companies or the users to make connection in the local are range. Wired connection is used in
this type of network
MAN: this can also be called as metropolitan area network and as the name suggests it has wider
range than the LAN. It has better and large capacity to connect the devices and thus can be used
by the company which ah large market area.
WAN: it is also called as Wide Area Network. As the name suggests, it has the widest range that
can concept the area between the whole countries. Wireless connections are generally used for
this network as it has larger and wider area.
In this case, it has been identified that LAN IS used. This is because the business is very small
and the area involved in also not too large. Only a single building of the office requires the
devices to be connected thus wired connections are made between the client and the server
device. Involvement of single site makes the company to use the LNA network for connections.
MEDIA:
There are two types of media that are used for making the connections. The first one id wired
that involves the actual wire connections and the other one is wireless that involves the
connections with other technologies such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi that does require the wire to
make connections. As in the case company, LAN is the network that has been used thus wired
connection should be made. This is because LNA involved a very limited area and these wires
can be used to make efficient connection with greater speed (Smith, 2014).
Types of wires:
There are various types of wires that can be used in LAN networks. Some of them are discussed
below:
Unshielded twisted pairs:

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It is the cable that comes in pairs. These pair of wires is twisted with each other but does not
have any shields. The intensity and frequency of the twists in the wires depends on their
specificity and usage (Latré, Braem, Moerman, Blondia and Demeester, 2011).
Shielded twisted wires: these are cables wires that regain twisted but has shield over it. This
shield makes the use of wires safe. This shield or the coating also supports higher connectivity
and are easy to handle (Sterling, overdrive, 2014).
Multi mode wires:
This is the type of wire that has multiple functions. It requires the emission of lights at the time
of making connections. The area covered by this wire is very less up to 2 kms and thus cannot be
used in the connections with larger than 2 km area (Sanderford Jr, Rouquette, Naden, Reed,
Boudreaux and Brown, 2009).
Single mode wire:
It is same as multi mode wires. This is because it also requires light to make connections. It is a
single wire cable that also limits its use because of its less length.
In this case study, it has been analyzed that the most relevant wire that should be used by Four
Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery could be shielded twisted wires. This is because it provides the
benefit of higher speed with safety and also has high range.
Risks:
Whenever any kind of technology is installed in the business function, it may have several risks
associated with it. These risks need to be overcome by the companies like Four Seasons
Greenhouse and Nursery and they can be overcome only when they are identified. Some of the
risks associated with POS system are:
Security risks: when security issues are considered, the first thing that comes into mind is viruses
that can attack any kind of software, the most dangerous viruses are malware that can corrupt the
functioning of the software (Van Horn, Kearney, Giordano, Good, Dickinson, Au, Wilz Sr,
Furlong, Hejl, Walczyk and Coyle, 2017). Other the viruses, the other issues of security can be
the data deletion, data loss, skimming etc.

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Privacy risks: when any of the data is stored on the centralized device it is saved on the clouds
which may or may not be used by the other users thus privacy issues are always there. Even the
data that is stored in the system can be hacked by the hackers and releasing of the confidential
distance proved to be very dangerous.
Confidentiality: as the POS system is the system that saves the data of customers, employees,
detailed of the company etc. Thus this data is very confidential in nature which should not ne
shared with nay thirds party (Günther and Klafft, 2006).
POS system is the technology that can have many benefits with the issues of risks can be
generated anytime and thus the companies should make a prior security plans for security of the
software and the data stored. Some of the activities or the strategies for the same are using the
licensed version of the software and installing the antivirus time to time. Keeping the passwords
with only the trust worthy people and making the information confidential is also very important.
Conclusion:
The report concludes that POS system that has been newly installed in the company has provided
the firm with great benefits such as prediction of inventory managing the reports and making the
decision which also becomes the competitive edge for the company. Along with it some of the
disadvantages have also been linked and the most important one is high expense and training of
the employees. Several risks are also associated with installation of this software which can be
overcome by Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery using some of the strategies mentioned.

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References:
Benson, S., 2008. Information systems: a business approach. John Wiley & Sons Australia Ltd.
Edwards, T., Skoog, L., Babu, A. And Dorogusker, J., Square, Inc., 2016. Point-of-sale system.
U.S. Patent 9,257,018.
Ezell, D.B., Madden, C.A. and Totterdell, A., Verifone, Inc., 2015. System for secure web-
prompt processing on point sale devices. U.S. Patent 9,208,489.
Günther, O. And Klafft, M. 2006. Internettechnologien im Kontext moderner
Wertschöpfungsnetze – Beispielanwendungen am Point of Sale (Internet Technologies for
Modern Value Networks – Exemplary Applications at the Point of Sale). It - Information
Technology, 48(4).
Gupta, S., 2016. A Comparative Analysis of Wired and Wireless Network
Architecture. International Journal of Emerging Trends in Research, 1(1), pp.05-11.
Latré, B., Braem, B., Moerman, I., Blondia, C. and Demeester, P., 2011. A survey on wireless
body area networks. Wireless Networks, 17(1), pp.1-18.
Lowenthal, R., Baxter, D., Bhade, H. And Mandal, P., Chargepoint, Inc., 2017. Network-
controlled charging system for electric vehicles. U.S. Patent 9,610,856.
Lu, Y. and K.(Ram) Ramamurthy, 2011. Understanding the link between information technology
capability and organizational agility: An empirical examination. Mis Quarterly, pp.931-954.
Sanderford Jr, H.B., Rouquette, R.E., Naden, G.A., Reed, M.L., Boudreaux, G.J. and Brown,
M.R., M&FC Holding LLC, 2009. Enhanced wireless packet data communication system,
method, and apparatus applicable to both wide area networks and local area networks. U.S.
Patent 7,477,694.
Schwalbe, K., 2015. Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.
Smith, D.C., 2014. Preventing point-of-sale system intrusions(Doctoral dissertation, Monterey,
California: Naval postgraduate School).

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Sterling, J., overdrive, Inc., 2014. Point of sale system and method for sampling and purchasing
digital content. U.S. Patent Application 14/449,254.
Turban, E., Leidner, D., McLean, E. and Wetherbe, J., 2008. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
FOR MANAGEMENT, (With CD). John Wiley & Sons.
Van Horn, E., Kearney, S.P., Giordano, P.A., Good, T., Dickinson, C., Au, K.M., Wilz Sr, D.,
Furlong, J.A., Hejl, B., Walczyk, J.A. and Coyle, L., 2017. Multifunction point of sale system.
U.S. Patent 20170270504A1.
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