IT's Impact on Business: POS Systems, Databases, and Decision Making

This report delves into the significant impact of Information Technology (IT) on business operations. It begins by analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of Point of Sale (POS) systems, highlighting their role in sales, inventory management, and data analysis. The report then assesses the effectiveness of POS systems in gaining a competitive advantage, emphasizing software updates, unlimited support, and cost savings. It also explores the benefits of having a centralized database, including enhanced data integrity, reduced security risks, and cost-effectiveness. Furthermore, the report examines the usage of POS systems in the decision-making process, emphasizing their role in providing real-time data for informed decisions. The report recommends suitable telecommunication methods for POS systems, considering network types and cable options. Finally, it addresses the types of risks associated with POS systems, such as security breaches and privacy concerns, and suggests methods for preventing business against these risks. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and emphasizing the importance of IT in modern business environments.

Impact of IT on
Business

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
1. Advantages and disadvantages of POS systems.....................................................................1
2. Effectiveness of POS system for organization in gaining competitive advantage..................2
3. Benefits of having a centralised database...............................................................................2
4. Usage of POS system in decisional process............................................................................3
5. Recommend suitable telecommunication for this POS system...............................................4
6. Type of risk does the POS system and methods of preventing business against risk.............5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Purchase of order plays a very vital role in selling practices . It is useful as it has all the details
regarding sales , inventory and budgets. All the required data can be fetched and observed very
easily which helps in proper planning and analysis (Minsky, 2015). They are connected through
each other with effective communication channel which helps in regulation and easy flow of
information in both internal and external environment .promotional activities which are done
through the IT platform are helpful fetching more customers. An effective usage of IT can bring
good rate of return in market scenario.
1. Advantages and disadvantages of POS systems
Advantages:
 This system helps to generate purchase order or reorder items and it can also reduce
amount work as well as expense which in turn boost up the profits.
 It can be easily mentioned sold items or most popular products as well. This system also
provide use point of sale data to observe seasonal trends having their merchandise sales
and stock their shelves for gaining advantage of demand.
 This software will help to runs the network and updated regularly as well as it allows to
install new updates by scheduling them with help of POS vendor. It maintain ongoing fee
to cover updates and reach top of cost of the initial set up. The registrations of store system connected to central network which turns in its own
security risks. It it will not updated or having some incorrect aspects then there can be
occurrence of some kind security breaches takes place (Michalewicz and Fogel, 2013).
Disadvantages:
 The client or individual will become most probably quite exhausting, violent but
unfortunately is a must without adequate back up of POS as it is important that not to
provide much information to customers regarding the system.
 Sometimes people may not understand about company or its brand but the thing is they
are visual and their eyes can scan for something to read about so it is needed to make
sure providing correct thing.
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 It creates problems of having bugs appearance during work which is common in soft
wares but it becomes irritating when customer count is very large and they become quite
violent for feeling wasting of their time by company.
 This system is unable to record sales of products on shopping applications like Amazon,
Snap-deal, Myntra etc. as it does not download those orders and keep inventory in sync
through each channel.
It is a combination of different technologies and it get complex day by day building the
dependence in third party consultants for some restaurateur perspectives to have a solid plan that
comes up with POS system (Admati and Hellwig, 2014).
2. Effectiveness of POS system for organization in gaining competitive advantage
Update of software: If in case of purchasing any software then it is need to purchase its
updated version regularly due to change in retail and technology but when making subscription
of POS system will never force the company to pay for an upgrade again as they are included so
it reduce or save extra money which can be implemented to beat competitors. Firms do not get
trapped of paying repeatedly for new updates of software to do work effectively.
Support is unlimited: Software issues takes more time. So if company is facing some
issues with soft wares then they need help from vendors and definitely they will charge money
for their help service fir solving issues but after purchasing POS system, they have access to
unlimited support daily because this system has separate option to solve daily issues by user only
and there is no need to call software vendor for small issues. It is also mode of saving money as
it will apply to other process where more capital is needed to compete with others.
Get Education: If firms are implementing something new then training or learning is
mandatory to use new technology efficiently to make profits as in case of POS system then it
provides subscription solution along with it to allows company for staying in competitive world.
Lower cost while expanding: Sometimes, organisation want to open new branches or
stores at different places then they need to purchase software systems again and again by
investing lots of money on then because they can't work without it (Gomzin, 2014). In respect of
POS system, it can be mentioned that they will provide their service with offer of upfront lower
cost for repurchasing at new location to expand with firm's growth. Similarly, as firms can save
their money with POS system and can invest that where it is needed helps to make profits.
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3. Benefits of having a centralised database
Advantages of having a centralised database
 This database storage render limitations of responsiveness to individual users and it offers
several key advantages for business.
 It helps to maximize data integrity and minimize data redundancy so that it implies to
have single primary record as it keep maintenance accurate as well as enhance data
reliability.
 It reduce risk of security as they have only single place from data can be stolen and
security forces have to focus at one place to save that from attack of data-thieves.
 It is easy to use for end user regarding its simplicity of single database design, data
profitability and database administration become easier.
 By this, cost is more effective as reduction of money investment will takes place because
labour, power supply and maintenance costs are all get minimized (Scheffels and Lavik,
2013).
 Data keeping at single place facilitates more comfortably changed, re-organised mirrored
or analysed by firms to solve issues immediately and accurately.
 It maintains storage often includes a fault tolerant setup and redundant storage which
helps to preserve data, even having event of catastrophic hardware failure in a hard drive.
 Local storage provide chance for anyone access, steal or damage data but centralised
database have proper server room security restrict physical access directly.
 It has less security issues regarding to ensure as compared to local storage sites as it
implements limitations to encryption virtue private networks, firewalls and rigorous
password protections.
 Information will be at same time and from same location takes place and every updates
will be received by each end user.
 It is being less complex to design a centralised database.
4. Usage of POS system in decisional process
POS ( Point of Sale )is an activity that allows the customers and the businessman to track
business related data includes the sales transaction ,which involves allowing to use add-on
features and devices at the checkout stations, that include digital form of transactions facilities
like electronic cash drawers, bar code scanners , swiping credit card facilities , receipt and
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invoices . The POS comes up with integrated accounting modules which includes general
ledger , account receivable and account payment (Brimblecombe, Liddle and O'Dea, 2013)
Using POS for making business more effectively – Point of Sale allows an digital
platform for instant accounting facilities so it reduces the time of transactions an provide a
transparency in the accounting. It is simple and easy to understand as well as the installation
process is easier and can be installed through through third party itself.
No , POS cannot be tracked manually as it will be a time consuming activity while chances of
human errors can rise . Barcode scanner facility helps in making execution of transaction quick
which records all the data related to sales activity. Listing of inventory and range of products
plays a major role in business activity and it is important to have a track on every items it will be
very tedious to track and have the details of every items manually even tracking and delivery of
products is not possible manually
Questions to be answered effectively- The details can be provided related to records of
transactions,faster way in transaction from authorizing credit card transaction up to printing
invoices. It human errors have been reduced effectively. Past records are maintained effectively
so budget can be planned in an effective manner so any queries can be fetched immediately.
Facilitate of decision making- It store all the outcomes related to money , customer and
sales activities so any data which are needed can be fetched quickly which reduces the time and
enhances the decision making activities as every prospects are by the site of the decision maker.
Information used in making the decision making better – As the company will have
all the basic data available related to the marketing and budget and having the best information
available they can use the minimal resources and maximise their profits . Its an assert of an
company to have the advanced technology of communication medium resources (Dormann,
2013).
5. Recommend suitable telecommunication for this POS system
Telecommunication for pos system- Telecommunication involves transmission,
imparting and exchange of information by desired electronic medium. Though 3com is an
electronic which have large amount of digital resource and latest inventory so it makes it easier
to transfer of information in the option.
types of network helps in transfer of data
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LAN – stands for local area network in it helps in connecting the internet connection but
for a small range like the inter departmental connection or connecting a building through a
network.
WAN stands for wide area network in this it connect an larger area than LAN network
say building premises it much widely used by 3com as the office building and the sales premises
are near to each other where the set-ups are placed.
MAN- Metropolitan area network it covers the wide area of a metropolitan city as 3com
have its premised in different areas of the city so they connect each other through MAN network
which help in easing out the monitoring activity (Alamri, Low and Alothman, 2012).
Cables to be used for effective transmission- For wired transmission 3COM is using
optical fibre as it is fast and maintenance is less as compared to other cables like copper.
For wireless the company is using low range RF frequency for the better pitch recognition in
both the case it is easy to modulate the frequency which increases the transmission.
6. Type of risk does the POS system and methods of preventing business against risk
Security- Security breaching is an important factor to be taken care about the business
activity as the hacking of the information can be a major setback of the company . The sensitive
information should be protected otherwise they can be misused by the unauthorised users . Is
somehow the information are get corrupted the whole databases will be effect and it will be very
hard to retrieve back the data.
Privacy- Every company have their own protocols and privacy policy like 3com have but
which are to be protected from the public and unwanted access . Policy have all the necessary
detail about the company which are to be meant to limited access. Now a days with an
advancement of the technological factor its being very hard to safe the privacy of the
organisation and it has been found that most of the breaches are through the point of sale as it is
the only gateway which is vulnerable. In recent times the hackers have tried to access into the
system through the swipe machine gateway but due to its technological upgraded facilities 93%
of the practices has being neutralised (Akien and et.al 2012).
Confidential- It means to keep the secret there are some factors related to security , sales
and budget which are to be within the reach of few management people only . They may have
future prospective about the tender, budget plans, sales strategy and stocks . The leaking of
information can have adverse effect of management practices and the competitor may gain
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unwanted gain about of this informations. 3Com has done it effectively as they have use security
measures like biometric scanner which helps them to monitor the employer activity in very
efficacious way (Eicher and et.al 2012).
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that POS system is very appropriate
business growth or development by overcoming hidden issues or barriers which affects the
success of an association. This assignment is all about 3COM strategies which is adopted by
company while reducing company risk as well as covers essential factors.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Minsky, H.P., 2015. Can" it" happen again?: essays on instability and finance. Routledge.
Michalewicz, Z. and Fogel, D. B., 2013. How to solve it: modern heuristics. Springer Science &
Business Media.
Admati, A. and Hellwig, M., 2014.The bankers' new clothes: What's wrong with banking and
what to do about it. Princeton University Press.
Gomzin, S., 2014. Hacking Point of Sale: Payment Application Secrets, Threats, and Solutions.
John Wiley & Sons.
Scheffels, J. and Lavik, R., 2013. Out of sight, out of mind? Removal of point-of-sale tobacco
displays in Norway. Tobacco Control.22(e1). pp. e37-e42.
Brimblecombe, J., Liddle, R. and O'Dea, K., 2013. Use of point-of-sale data to assess food and
nutrient quality in remote stores.Public health nutrition. 16(7). pp. 1159-1167.
Dormann, C. F., . 2013. Collinearity: a review of methods to deal with it and a simulation study
evaluating their performance.Ecography.36(1). pp. 27-46.
Alamri, H., Low, I. M. and Alothman, Z., 2012. Mechanical, thermal and microstructural
characteristics of cellulose fibre reinforced epoxy/organoclay
nanocomposites.Composites Part B: Engineering.43(7). pp. 2762-2771.
Akien, G .R. and et.al 2012. Molecular mapping of the acid catalysed dehydration of fructose.
Chemical Communications.48(47). pp. 5850-5852.
Eicher, T., .and et.al 2012. Transport of drugs by the multidrug transporter AcrB involves an
access and a deep binding pocket that are separated by a switch-loop.Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences.109(15) pp. 5687-5692.
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