Information Technology Impact on Small-Medium Enterprises: Case Study

This report examines the impact of Information Technology (IT) on Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs), using Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery as a case study. The report explores the advantages and disadvantages of Point of Sale (POS) systems, emphasizing inventory control, production reporting, and data security concerns. It highlights how POS can provide a competitive advantage by improving inventory management, decision-making, and labor expense allocation. The study discusses the benefits of a centralized database for data integrity and cost-effectiveness, as well as the importance of cybersecurity measures, including password protection and data confidentiality. The report concludes with recommendations for effective POS implementation, emphasizing the need for regular system updates and strong password security. The report also explores the use of LAN systems and the need for a shift to wireless technology as the business expands.

Executive Summary
The research is about the study of information technology and its impact on the small-medium
sized enterprises (SME). Here, the discussion is about Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery
which is located in Colorado. The company makes use of the manual registered to handle and
check their profit listing. The profits from the nursery are recorded by the end of the day and
they track down the detail of individual products one-by-one.

Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Question 1:.......................................................................................................................................3
Question 2:.......................................................................................................................................4
Question 3:.......................................................................................................................................4
Question 4:.......................................................................................................................................5
Part a:...........................................................................................................................................5
Part b:...........................................................................................................................................5
Part c:...........................................................................................................................................5
Part d:...........................................................................................................................................6
Question 5:.......................................................................................................................................6
Question 6:.......................................................................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
Recommendation.............................................................................................................................8
Bibliography....................................................................................................................................9

Introduction
Point of Sale (POS) Systems has been effective to handle the inventory data with proper decision
making. It helps the SMEs to work on making decisions about units of a product to order in
nursery. This is in reference to speculations, about current inventory units. The implementation
of the system is confirmed where the owners do not know much about the business (Van Horn et
al., 2016). The new system of Four Season's management control over employee schedules to
review and allocate the labour expenses for specific departments and functions.
Question 1:
Considering the advantages of POS:
a. There is inventory control where the system can automatically generate a purchase order
and reorder items when they tend to start running low.
b. The production system is for the convenience of store managers to run the report with
information to determine which flavours are needed for the sales (Good et al., 2016). The
information can be valuable when the time comes to restock or for new order supplies.
The disadvantages of the system are:
a. The required risks are when software runs on the network and needs to be updated on
regular basis.
b. The security risks of connectivity, if the software is not kept up to date or if it is updated
incorrectly, then the security breach can occur. They include the credit card numbers and
bank account information (Dai, 2015).

Question 2:
POS help in gaining competitive advantage with unlimited support to access and handle the
nursery inventory. With this, it handles the company decision-making process with accurate
inventory counters eliminating the guesswork done by the laborers. The new system has also
helped in management control with proper schedules to review and allocate the expenses of
labour efficiently. On review, it is seen that the new perspectives of POS have been effective to
gain more profits with establishing accountability (Baarman et al., 2015). With the growth of IT,
a system of POS (Point of Sale) was introduced which helped the company to store the data
while uploading the inventory and compiling the sales history effectively. Apart from this, there
was a possibility to manage the accurate results of the inventory, through the computer
(Redmond et al., 2016).
Question 3:
For the nursery, the centralized database will help in data integrity and redundancy of the data
gets minimized. Apart from this, the aid is mainly to maintain the data accuracy and consistency
to enhance the reliability of better data security. The data preservation is set which is mainly due
to the fault tolerant setup. An easy data portability and database administration is possible for the
nursery and cost-effectiveness than any other types of database systems, where labour, power
supply, and maintenance costs are minimized. The data is kept in the same location where it is
easy to be changed, re-organized or analysed. The information can easily be accessed at the same
time with updates for a given set of data by the end user.

Question 4:
POS helps in understanding the decisions of Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery for units of a
product to order which were no longer based on speculations about current inventory units. The
accurate inventory eliminates the guesswork with working on orders and helping the business to
lean towards the inventory units (Bies et al., 2014). This helps in providing a better-detailed
transaction for inventory items like how many items need to be purchased or discarded.
Part a:
The business activities are processes effectively by POS because the inventory data is handled
accurately, and the system allows the owners to track the useful data from an auction sale at the
time of sale. With this, the system processes and data storage from the sale are kept updated with
an easy compilation of the sales history (Rozental, 2016).
Part b:
The information can be tracked manually as well, which was done till POS was not introduced.
But there is a possibility of human error where one misses the data entry of particular sales.
Through POS, all the work goes side by side and the updates are received, at the time of sale
only. It is important to consider that hardware is important for understanding the flow of service.
For the nursery, there is a need to focus on perspectives of real costs with providing the
opportunity to shift the production to higher profit items. This will help in gaining more profit.
Part c:
Some of the questions which could be answered are:
1. How will the retail POS system help in making more money and manage the business
effectively?

2. Is it complicated to update the POS system?
3. Would it be too small to benefit my store with POS?
Part d:
The information collected through POS could be used to analyse the price changes, with the
ability to process the sales, inventory and the purchasing transactions. It tends to reduce the need
for data entry of paper information with saving time (Wall, et al., 2015). The new system tends
to expand with allocating labour expenses to the specific departments and functions along with
it.
Question 5:
The LAN would be effective for Nursery POS as it will help in tracking the inventory, employee
hours, implement the customer loyalty programs etc. Apart from this the wired technology for
the small-sized nursery is good as it will help in saving the cost. But with expansion, the nursery
should go for the wireless technology. The LAN could make use of the network where the
desktop is connected to the other desktops. To increase more network coverage, the number of
systems could be installed (Edwards et al., 2016). The wired network could use the fibre optic or
twisted pair to carry the electrical signals.
Question 6:
The cybersecurity is the major concern for the business in the nursery. With the increased
amount of information storage, there is vulnerability that every business owner needs to know
about:

a. The security is important for the POS technology where the hackers can infiltrate the
weak setups and steal the information like the information of credit card numbers and the
business account data. With this, one needs to keep on the separate, password protected
network as well for security. The regular change of passwords is recommended for
keeping the software up-to-date (Deaton et al., 2014).
b. Confidentiality is important for the protection of personal information with keeping the
client information between you and the client only. This will require that the files are
locked and secured. The support workers do not tell the other people about their access.
Along with this, the clients also have the right to keep any information to themselves
which is confidential like the name, age, bank details etc. The cases include the
confidentiality with focus on how the workers will focus on the different requirements of
professional supervision, training, workshops or seminars. The important elements are
based on building and developing trust which will allow for the free flow of information
between the client and the worker.
c. Privacy: Everyone has the right to keep their information private, if it is not needed by
the nursery. The growing cybercrime activities generally lead to the measures which
company faces and which tends to destroy the POS system and information. It includes
the ability of an individual or groups to seclude themselves related to the information.
The privacy is sacrificed in exchange for the benefits and specific danger or losses.
Conclusion
Considering the growth of technology, POS has been effectively used for creating a solid
infrastructure to process and report the business operations for the complete enterprise. The
garden centre is one of the effective examples of how the technology could be set with realized

benefits for a business. The ability of the organization is to completely remain competitive and
agile which is important (Bies & Hawley, 2014). The system allows the organization at large and
small to leverage the business data and gains competitive advantage with better operational
efficiency. POS has been effective to provide the detailed product costs that help in effectively
pricing the products with more profitability.
Recommendation
The Point of Sale Software is effective to handle the operational workflow which helps in
keeping the streamlined communication, effectively in the business. This provides a better sense
of staff to focus on integration with other systems and not wasting time in transferring the
information from one system to the other. The integration comes with setting the ability to take
payments. It is important to determine the security system of POS which could lead to the
inefficiencies. Hence, a regular update of the system and properly changing the passwords with
good strength are recommended. This can help in preventing the loss of data and properly
managing it as well.

Bibliography
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