The Use of Point of Sales System in Small Business: A Case Study of Four Seasons

The report evaluates the need and use of technology in small business with the implementation of a point of sales (POS) system in Four Seasons. It discusses the advantages and disadvantages of POS, its role in competitive advantage, centralized database, decision-making, telecommunication options, and risks and security.

Running head: HC1041 IT FOR BUSINESS
HC1041 IT for Business
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
The purpose of this report is to evaluate the need and use of technology in small business. With
the implementation of an information system like POS, a business can gain a number of profits.
Similar benefits were realised in Four Seasons with the implementation of a PO system. The new
POS system helped in easier data management and further helped in easier decision making. The
report evaluated the different advantages and disadvantages of POS along with the process, by
which the POS helped Four Seasons in gaining competitive advantages. The security issues and
risks associated with POS are evaluated as well in the report.

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Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................3
1. Advantages and Disadvantages of POS...........................................................................3
2. POS in Competitive Advantage.......................................................................................4
3. Advantages of Centralized database................................................................................4
4. POS in decision-making..................................................................................................5
5. Recommendation of Telecommunication options...........................................................6
6. Risks and Security...........................................................................................................7
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................8
Recommendations................................................................................................................8
References............................................................................................................................9
Appendix............................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
Technology is an important aspect of any business, be it small, medium or large.
Although small business may not always make use advanced technology in their daily business,
adoption of the same might be profitable for the business organization. Use of technology is
recommended in business mainly because of the use of manual systems and processes may not
be advantageous (Storey 2016). The report discusses the different aspects of making use of point
of sales (POS) system in Four Seasons, which is a small nursery. The advantages and the issues
with the new POS system implemented by Four Seasons are discussed in the report.
1. Advantages and Disadvantages of POS
A number of factors have driven the need of making use of POS in Four Seasons. The use
of POS has been beneficial for the organization in a number of aspects. The advantages of
making use of POS that Four Seasons could realise are as follows-
1. Increased efficiency is one of the most significant advantages of POS as it is easy to
use and recording the transaction in it is easier (Shayo 2017).
2. Data accuracy can be achieved with the help of POS along with detailed report
generation that in turn helps in decision making.
3. Inventory management becomes easier with detailed reporting of the inventory items.
4. Easier employee management is another advantage of POS.
The use of POS, has certain disadvantages as well, especially for small business. The
issues are as follows-

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1. Small companies may not have the resources or expertise of implementing such a
complex system like POS.
2. There are certain security risks with the data stored in POS since the report and the
updates can be accessed from web.
2. POS in Competitive Advantage
The implementation of POS in Four Seasons will definitely be a successful project as it
will not only eliminate the operational issues in the organization but will also help the
organization in gaining a competitive advantage. Due to the use of manual system, the profits of
the nursery were negligible. With the implementation of information system like POS, tracking
and managing of the data is going to be easier leading to an increase in profit margin as well. His
will give the company a competitive advantage as well. Accurate inventory management will
notify the managers about the out of stock items quite easily thus eliminating the guesswork.
This will work for an improvement in competitive advantage. Furthermore, the use of new POS
system will help in improved decision making (Peppard and Ward 2016). Easier decision making
will help in improving the competitive advantage of the business organization.
3. Advantages of Centralized database
The POS system that will be implemented in Four Seasons will be managed in a
centralised manner (Nguyen, Newby and Macaulay 2015). There are a number of advantages of
centralised data management, which are represented in following points.
1. Centralised databases, maximise data integrity and reduces data redundancies since the
data is stored in a single place.

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2. Data preservation is improved with the use of centralised database systems, which is
another significant advantage of the same.
3. The physical security of the data is improved with the use of centralised database
systems.
4. The speed of data processing increases with the use of centralised database systems.
5. The cost of implementation and management of centralised database is quite less in
comparison to decentralised database.
4. POS in decision-making
There are a number of factors, with which the implementation and use of the said POS
system in Four Seasons can facilitate decision making. The implementation of POS system will
help in managing the business activities of the organization more effectively (Nguyen, Newby
and Macaulay 2015). Earlier it was not possible to access the operational data more effectively as
records were managed manually. However with the implementation of the point of sales system,
useful business data can be tracked easily after its generation that facilitates the decision making
process.
Manual information tracking is not as effective as it could be with POS. This is mainly
because manual record keeping is prone to human errors and tracking of that data is a time
consuming task. With the help of POS, the managers of Four Seasons could track all the
important and necessary transactional information immediately at the time of sales, which is not
possible with manual data tracking and management of data.

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The use and implementation of point of sales system helps in answering certain business
related questions quite effectively. This includes knowledge about the detailed cost of the
products, employee schedule and data about labour expenses, inventory data and sales margin
along with profit margin (refer to appendix). These details were difficult to be tracked with the
manual systems, which can now be effectively managed.
The information that is obtained from the new POS can help in easier management of the
different business processes. For example, a clear control on the employee schedule helps the
managers to delegate more responsibilities to the staffs and helps in establishing the
accountability. With the use of POS, the accurate prices and profits from each product could be
tracked easily, which in turn helps in realizing a greater amount of profit. Furthermore, the
detailed reports that are generated at the time of sales helps in easier decision making as the data
related to the business processes are easily available to the managers (Nguyen, Newby and
Macaulay 2015). In this way, the information obtained from the new POS system can be used for
better management of the business.
5. Recommendation of Telecommunication options
The implementation of POS in Four Seasons should follow a planned approach and for
that, the use of appropriate telecommunication option is recommended (Goldratt 2017). The
different types of networks, that Four Seasons can make use of include LAN, WAN or MAN.
Local area network or LAN is a computer network that links the network devices of a
particular area such as a small business, school, and University campus. Wide area network is a
telecommunication network extending over a large geographical distance or place (Chan 2015).
The wide area networks are therefore established with leased circuits. Metropolitan area network

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or MAN on the other hand is a network that interconnects the devices with a larger geographical
area than MAN.
The network connection that is recommended for Four Seasons is LAN or Local area
network. This network is recommended mainly because Four Seasons is a small sized nursery
and use of LAN will be appropriate for the same. With LAN information sharing among the
staffs of the organization will appropriate as well.
The LAN connection can be implemented in wireless technology. Wireless
communication is recommended instead of wired communication for a number of reasons (Lu et
al. 2015). First of all, implementation and maintenance cost of wired network connection is
higher than wireless (Pearlson, Saunders and Galletta 2016). Establishing a wireless network is
easier and it increase the efficiency as well. The type of wireless technology that is
recommended for LAN is WiFi (Wang et al. 2014). It is easy to install and is therefore
recommended (Ghosh et al. 2014). However, WiFi has certain security issues that are needed to
be addressed or mitigated.
6. Risks and Security
Although the use of POS will be advantageous for Four Seasons, there are a number of
risks that the implementation of POS will bring about. These risks are mainly related to data
security (Chelli 2015). Data security issues will arise mainly because of the use of wireless
technology. Inaccurate data protection might lead to data loss and severe security issue
concerning the privacy and the confidentiality of the data stored in the system (Kumar, Jain and
Barwal 2014). Therefore, addressing and mitigating these risks is essential. For risk mitigation

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use of firewalls in LAN is recommended along with enforcement of access control. Data from
the POS should be accessed only by the authorised individuals to prevent data loss.
Conclusion
The report discusses the use, advantages and issues associated with a new POS that is
implemented in Four Seasons. The new POS system ensures accurate data management thus
helping the organization in gaining competitive advantages. Accurate data storage and detailed
reports that are generated cumulatively helps in easier decision making. For successful
implementation of POS in Four Seasons, use of LAN and wires technology is recommended.
However, there are certain security issues as well, which are needed to be addressed and for that,
use of firewalls and access control is recommended.
Recommendations
The recommendations for accurate implementation of POS in Four Seasons are as
follows-
1. The POS should be implemented according to the operational needs of the company.
2. The mitigation of the security issues is necessary to ensure that data about confidential
business processes and strategies are not leaked to any outsiders as it might result in severe
business loss.
3. The POS system should be well marinated and should be updated regularly for better
operational outcome.

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References
Chan, H.C., 2015. Internet of things business models. Journal of Service Science and
Management, 8(04), p.552.
Chelli, K., 2015, July. Security issues in wireless sensor networks: Attacks and countermeasures.
In Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering (Vol. 1, pp. 1-3).
Ghosh, A., Thomas, T.A., Cudak, M.C., Ratasuk, R., Moorut, P., Vook, F.W., Rappaport, T.S.,
MacCartney, G.R., Sun, S. and Nie, S., 2014. Millimeter-wave enhanced local area systems: A
high-data-rate approach for future wireless networks. IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in
Communications, 32(6), pp.1152-1163.
Goldratt, E.M., 2017. Critical chain: A business novel. Routledge.
Kumar, V., Jain, A. and Barwal, P.N., 2014. Wireless sensor networks: security issues,
challenges and solutions. International Journal of Information and Computation Technology
(IJICT), 4(8), pp.859-868.
Lu, X., Wang, P., Niyato, D., Kim, D.I. and Han, Z., 2015. Wireless networks with RF energy
harvesting: A contemporary survey. IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, 17(2), pp.757-
789.
Nguyen, T.H., Newby, M. and Macaulay, M.J., 2015. Information technology adoption in small
business: Confirmation of a proposed framework. Journal of Small Business Management, 53(1),
pp.207-227.
Pearlson, K.E., Saunders, C.S. and Galletta, D.F., 2016. Managing and Using Information
Systems, Binder Ready Version: A Strategic Approach. John Wiley & Sons.

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Peppard, J. and Ward, J., 2016. The strategic management of information systems: Building a
digital strategy. John Wiley & Sons.
Shayo, C., 2017. Information technology adoption. In Encyclopedia of Library and Information
Sciences (pp. 2290-2302). CRC Press.
Storey, D.J., 2016. Understanding the small business sector. Routledge.
Wang, S., Chen, W., Yin, Z.Q., Li, H.W., He, D.Y., Li, Y.H., Zhou, Z., Song, X.T., Li, F.Y.,
Wang, D. and Chen, H., 2014. Field and long-term demonstration of a wide area quantum key
distribution network. Optics express, 22(18), pp.21739-21756.

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Appendix

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Figure 1: Representing Blooming with technology Case Study