Point of Sale Systems: Impact and Applications

This assignment delves into the significance of point-of-sale (POS) systems within contemporary businesses. It examines how POS systems influence consumer purchasing decisions at the point of sale, enhance sales efficiency through streamlined transactions, and empower businesses with valuable operational data for informed decision-making. The assignment also explores real-world case studies to illustrate the practical applications and benefits of POS systems in various industries.

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

1
IT FOR BUSINESS
Executive Summary
The objective of this particular report is to know about the entire case of a small nursery,
namely, Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery. This organization is a small nursery in
Colorado that used to track and manage all of their inventories manually. This often brought
losses to the organization and therefore, they decided to implement point of sale system in
their business. The report enhances on the implementation of POS system in their business by
providing relevant information about the advantages and disadvantages of the system.
Moreover, the report also recommends suitable technologies for the business.

2
IT FOR BUSINESS
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Discussion..................................................................................................................................3
1. Merits and Demerits of the new POS System....................................................................3
2. How can POS system help any business for obtaining competitive advantages...............4
3. Benefits of a centralised database......................................................................................5
4. How can POS system facilitate decision making...............................................................5
5. Recommendations of telecommunication options for POS system...................................6
6. Possible risks in POS system and their mitigation plans...................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................8
Bibliography.............................................................................................................................10
Appendices...............................................................................................................................11
Appendix 1...........................................................................................................................11
Appendix 2...........................................................................................................................11

3
IT FOR BUSINESS
Introduction
The particular place or time where one specific transaction is being completed is
known as point of sale or point of purchase (Ståhlberg & Maila, 2012). The merchant
evaluates the actual amount that is owed by any particular customer and also indicates the
amount for the preparation of an invoice. After the invoice is made, the customer proceeds
towards payment.
This report explains about the popular case study of an organization, namely, Four
Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery. The report demonstrates about the system of point of sale
in the mentioned organization (Refer to Appendix 2). The several advantages and
disadvantages of this system are also provided here. Noteworthy recommendations are also
provided for this organization.
Discussion
1. Merits and Demerits of the new POS System
There are various advantages of the point of sale system. Four Seasons Greenhouse
and Nursery will be enjoying significant benefits from this system. The main merits of POS
system are as follows:
i) Rapidity and Efficiency: The point of sale system helps to improve the efficiency
of the transactions taking place (Rese, Schreiber & Baier, 2014). Moreover, the pace of these
transactions also gets improved from this system.
ii) Inventory Management: This is the second most important advantage of POS
system. Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery was having trouble in managing their
inventory manually. Point of sale system will be the best option for this purpose.

4
IT FOR BUSINESS
iii) Precision in any Financial Transaction: Point of sale system also helps in
providing financial transactions with accuracy and without errors.
This system even has few demerits. They are as follows:
i) Expensive: The initial implementation cost of the point of sale system is extremely
high and is often unaffordable for the smaller and medium enterprises (Profeta, Balling &
Roosen, 2012). Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery is a small nursery and therefore, they
will be suffering from financial crisis if they will implement the system of point of sale.
ii) Periodical Maintenance: The second disadvantage of point of sale system is the
requirement of regular maintenance (Frisby et al., 2012). This can become a major problem
for Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery as the entire system of business transactions and
operations will be stopped.
2. How can POS system help any organization for obtaining competitive advantages
The system of point of sale simplifies the entire system of transactions in a simpler
version (Nikolova & Inman, 2015). It can easily recognize each and every detail of a business
operation from transactions. Due to the simplification of transaction procedure, the work load
of the employees is reduced. Previously, they had to track and mange everything manually.
However, with the implementation of point of sale system, everything is done automatically.
Moreover, this system has the benefit of acknowledgement of those products that would be
beneficial for the Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery organization and would bring huge
profit (Polasik et al., 2012). The point of sale also helps in decision making process for any
organization and provides cost effectiveness to all the organizations. It brings more revenue
in the business and thus the organization of Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery can enjoy
immense profit and can complete their business activities effectively and speedily.

5
IT FOR BUSINESS
3. Benefits of a centralised database
A centralized database can be either a centralized computer or a simple system of
database. In any particular organization, a centralized database is often utilized for accessing
data or information (Ko et al., 2012). The users generally access the centralized database with
the help of a specific computer network. These types of databases are ideal for small and
medium enterprises, as they have limited data. The various benefits of any centralized
database are as follows:
i) Recovers Preservation of Data: The preservation of data is eventually enhanced
and improvised with the help of any centralized database. It has an in built setup of fault
tolerance that helps in preserving the confidential data, even after hardware failure.
ii) Improvises the Physical Security of Data: Physical security is extremely required
for the security of confidential data (Gomzin, 2014). Centralized databases are utilized for
restricting the physical access to any particular location.
iii) Cost Effectiveness: The third advantage of a centralized database is its cost
effectiveness (Polasik et al., 2012). It is extremely cost effective and can be afforded by any
small or medium sized organizations.
iv) Gives Security to Data: A centralized database also provides security to the
confidential data or information.
4. How can POS system facilitate decision making
The point of sale system or POS makes it possible the procedure of decision making
(Frisby et al., 2012). Previously, the organization of Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery
used to order their items by simply assuming the requirement and even maintained the rack of
all things manually (Chavali, Yang & Nehorai, 2014). However, the implementation of point

6
IT FOR BUSINESS
of sale system in their business would be changing the complete process. They would be
getting extremely efficient and fast services and would be taking various critical decisions
through this system. Various questions such as what should be bought or what should be sold
and in which procedures can be easily answered with the help of point of sale system (Cui et
al., 2016). Moreover, the information that will be gained from these questions would be
extremely beneficial for the better management of the business as Four Seasons Greenhouse
and Nursery would be utilizing this information in their business (Refer to Appendix 1).
5. Recommendations of telecommunication options for POS system
This organization of Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery should firmly opt for
WAN. It helps in easy access of data within the network. LAN provides local network in a
smaller area (Ståhlberg & Maila, 2012). MAN provides network in an area larger than LAN.
WAN provides network for a huge area like a city or a country. It is extremely larger in size
and provides network in excess speed.
Wireless technologies would be the best option for Four Seasons Greenhouse and
Nursery as it does not have any complexities or complications of wires. The involvement of
wires is always an extra expense and thus wireless technologies would be the best (Rese,
Schreiber & Baier, 2014). Moreover, it provides high speed from network. The best example
is Wi-Fi.
6. Possible risks in POS system and their mitigation plans
The three aspects are as follows:
i) Security: The most significant risk in security is the network. If the network is not
protected, there is high chance that hackers would hack the system and the data would be
theft or lost (Profeta, Balling & Roosen, 2012). This type of risk can be eradicated with the
help of a good antivirus program that can prevent the entry of hackers into the system.

7
IT FOR BUSINESS
ii) Privacy: Malware attacks are the most vital risks in case of privacy. These types of
attacks are extremely common in present world and can be eradicated with the help of
passwords (Chavali, Yang & Nehorai, 2014). All the customers and personnel of Four
Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery should have their unique password and ID for logging into
the system.
iii) Confidentiality: All the personnel of Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery
should not breach the confidential data and also should not allow anyone to do such activities
(Nikolova & Inman, 2015). Firewalls are the best solution for maintaining confidentiality.
Conclusion
Therefore, from this above discussion conclusion can be drawn that, the organization
had utilized manual registers for tracking and maintaining their inventories. However, they
were having problem in managing the business and were facing losses in their business. They
undertook the significant decision of acquiring the point of sale system within the
organization. The above report has solely discussed about the merits and demerits of point of
sale system with appropriate suggestions.

8
IT FOR BUSINESS
References
Chavali, P., Yang, P. & Nehorai, A., (2014). A distributed algorithm of appliance scheduling
for home energy management system. IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, 5(1),
pp.282-290.
Cui, B., Jiang, J., Huang, Q., Xu, Y., Gui, Y. & Zhang, W., (2016). POS: A high-level system
to simplify real-time stream application development on storm. Data Science and
Engineering, 1(1), pp.41-50.
Frisby, W., Moench, B., Recht, B., & Ristenpart, T. (2012, August). Security Analysis of
Smartphone Point-of-Sale Systems. In WOOT (pp. 22-33).
Gomzin, S. (2014). Hacking Point of Sale: Payment Application Secrets, Threats, and
Solutions. John Wiley & Sons.
Ko, S., Maciejewski, R., Jang, Y., & Ebert, D. S. (2012, June). Marketanalyzer: an interactive
visual analytics system for analyzing competitive advantage using point of sale data.
In Computer Graphics Forum (Vol. 31, No. 3pt3, pp. 1245-1254). Blackwell
Publishing Ltd.
Nikolova, H. D., & Inman, J. J. (2015). Healthy choice: the effect of simplified point-of-sale
nutritional information on consumer food choice behavior. Journal of Marketing
Research, 52(6), 817-835.
Polasik, M., Górka, J., Wilczewski, G., Kunkowski, J., Przenajkowska, K., & Tetkowska, N.
(2012, June). Time efficiency of Point-of-Sale payment methods: Empirical results for
cash, cards and mobile payments. In International Conference on Enterprise
Information Systems (pp. 306-320). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

9
IT FOR BUSINESS
Profeta, A., Balling, R., & Roosen, J. (2012). The relevance of origin information at the point
of sale. Food Quality and Preference, 26(1), 1-11.
Rese, A., Schreiber, S., & Baier, D. (2014). Technology acceptance modeling of augmented
reality at the point of sale: Can surveys be replaced by an analysis of online
reviews?. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 21(5), 869-876.
Ståhlberg, M., & Maila, V. (2012). Shopper marketing: How to increase purchase decisions
at the point of sale. Kogan Page Publishers.

10
IT FOR BUSINESS
Bibliography
Natek, S. & Zwilling, M., (2014). Student data mining solution–knowledge management
system related to higher education institutions. Expert systems with
applications, 41(14), pp.6400-6407.
Olivares, D.E., Lara, J.D., Cañizares, C.A. & Kazerani, M., (2015). Stochastic-predictive
energy management system for isolated microgrids. IEEE Transactions on Smart
Grid, 6(6), pp.2681-2693.

11
IT FOR BUSINESS
Appendices
Appendix 1
POS System
A point of sale system encompasses the hardware, software, and support that manage
that transaction, including credit card processing, and the post-transaction operations that lead
to customer fulfilment, whether in a retail or restaurant setting. The functionality POS
systems can provide is why they are replacing traditional cash registers. A point of sale serves
as the central point for customer data, sales reporting, and can even manage labor and
inventory. Running a business on separate pieces of technology working independently is
high-stress and inefficient. Point of sale systems connect every part of a business, to simply
and efficiently improve operations.
Appendix 2
Case Study
Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery, is a nursery located in Colorado. This small
nursery was like many other small businesses and garden centres. They used manual registers
to track and maintain its inventory as well as determine which products were realizing the
most profit. The profits from the nursery were either "negligible" or a loss. They did not have
access to useful operational data to effectively manage their business. For example, they did
not track or review the margins of individual products. However, they believed that they
needed to do something different for their $1M business operation. Enter a new point-of-sale
system (POS) in 2008. The system allowed the owners to track useful business data from the
sales transactions immediately at the time of the sale; eliminating the need for tracking sales
manually. The system processes and stores data from the sale while updating the inventory as

12
IT FOR BUSINESS
well as compiling a sales history. This eliminates reliance on manual entry of sales
transactions and reduction of inventory units for the items sold. POS systems provide much
more than a cash register.