IT for Business: POS System, Database, and Decision Making Report

This report examines the implementation of a Point of Sale (POS) system in a business context, addressing key questions related to its advantages, disadvantages, and strategic implications. It begins by outlining the benefits of a new POS system, such as reduced manual work, improved data tracking, and enhanced profit generation. The report also acknowledges the disadvantages, including high initial and maintenance costs, and potential issues like power failures. Furthermore, the report delves into how a POS system can provide competitive advantages, particularly for businesses like Four Seasons Green House and Nursery, by offering detailed product information and facilitating efficient operations. It also discusses the advantages of a centralized database, emphasizing data integrity, security, and ease of use. The report then explores how a POS system can facilitate decision-making by providing managers with accurate and reliable data. It recommends various telecommunication options suitable for a POS system, including LAN, MAN, and WAN networks. Finally, the report identifies potential risks associated with POS systems, such as security breaches, confidentiality issues, and privacy concerns, and suggests measures to protect the business against these risks, such as hiring cybersecurity experts and implementing robust security protocols.

Running head: IT for Business
IT for Business
POS

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Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
What are the advantages and disadvantages of the new POS system?.........................................................2
How will this POS system help the business gain competitive advantages?................................................3
What are the advantages of having a centralized database?.........................................................................3
How could this POS system facilitate decision making?.............................................................................4
Recommend telecommunication options for this POS system.....................................................................5
What type of risks does the POS system bring and how to protect the business against the risks?..............6
References...................................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
This report focuses on the questions and answers that are about the case study “Blooming with
Technology” and about the POS. The advantages and disadvantages of new Point of Sale system
are talked about according to the case study given. POS is helpful in gaining the competitive
advantage and making the enterprise reduce the manual work and helps in managing the time as
well as if it is combined with the Telecommunication Networks; it works wonders in the
enterprises.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of the new POS system?
POS system has both advantages and disadvantages. The POS system which is considered to be
new came in 2009 as it is written in the case study.
Advantages of POS system are:
 The work which is done in the cash register is reduced and it also delivers the functions
like inputting of the data, tracking of the data and also distribution of the data for
controlling the activities which are done in the business.
 POS will always be helpful in the knowledge gaining of the information about the
products which are obtained, rejected and sold. It is also supportive in the business in
terms of earning more profits (Lin et al., 2015).
 It gives immense support to the businesses and the organization which helps in making
the record of all kinds of data related to sales, minimizes the activities of work and
integrates the sales history in system.
 It helps in meeting the accuracy and reliability which the managers use for the prediction
of the actual demand of the products in business (PLOMP et al., 2012).
The disadvantages of POS are:

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 The cost which is associated with the system is high that is not affordable by all types of
businesses as it costs around 2000 pounds in establishing one POS system.
 It reduces the objectives which are recognized by the founder or the owners of the
business but all the functions and the activities actually depend on the system only.
 As discussed, the establishing costs if too high, in the similar way, the cost of maintaining
it is also very high. Even if the business implements this system, they will face cost
problems later in the maintenance (Adeoti, 2013).
 There are always issues which are related to the power failure and the training cost is also
a disadvantage for the POS system.
How will this POS system help the business gain competitive advantages?
Almost every business can take away the competitive advantages with the help of POS system.
In the given case study of Four Seasons Green House and Nursery in Colorado, there are
multiple methods which the POS system assists in the business and also offers the organizations
the help in minimizing the work which is done manually by the workers. There is always
detailed information of the product supports the business in knowing the exact cost of the
product (W. & Namusonge, 2015). Prior to the new system, it used to happen that the owners of
the business invested their time in the planning and managing the activities of the business and
predicted that they will be suing some products which did not bring profits to the company as
they were expected to. Hence, new POS helps the higher authorities of the business to earn
profits and also remain competitive in market. It also helps the authorities in gaining the margins
in the profit temporarily and sometimes permanently too. As the results, the managers and the
higher authorities work efficiently and their goal is to generate the results which are very high.
This system also helps in processing the unit in sales and reduces the desire to data entry and this
process saves huge amount of time for the company. Hence, managers can easily deliver the
tasks to the staff and they are also able to manage all the function of the operations in business
for remaining competitive in the market that already exists.

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What are the advantages of having a centralized database?
Database which is centralized holds a substantial amount of the advantages as compared to the
other types of the databases. Data integrity is to t he maximum and the data redundancy is to the
minimum in centralized databases. This is because of the single storing place for all kinds of data
refer to the given set of information data which has primary record. Data integrity and data
redundancy is minimized due to that. This helps in the maintenance of the data and very
accurately and consistently as possible and increases the reliability of the data (Iacob & Moise,
2015). Centralized system has huge security of the data because the single data storage place
refers to one possible place from which the information can be attacked and the set of data can be
stolen with. There is always better preservation of the databases as it often includes fault tolerant
setup. It is easy for the use of the end user because of the simplicity of the design of the database
(EDM, 2018). It is also very easy in terms of the portability of the data and administration too.
This system is very cost effective as compared to the others types of databases such as labor,
power supply and maintenance cost, all is minimized. The data is always to be kept in the place
where it is easy to change or reorganize it. Every sort of information could be assessed on the
same time from the same place. Updates which are given to the set of data are quickly received
by the end user.
How could this POS system facilitate decision making?
Effective decisions can easily be taken with the help of the POS systems and those decisions will
always benefit all types of businesses and its operations in running it very smoothly without any
sort of problem. This system always keeps an eye on all types of activities which are done in the
efficient way as it firstly observe the managers and the employees who work for the important
information. Then this system aims to minimize the work which is done by the staff manually
because all the information which is important is managed at the single location and is easily
tractable by taking help of the database (Wong et al., 2017).

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On the other hand, the centralized database always administers the significant information at the
particular place which reduces the chances of the data repetition. When the records of all the
containing information are kept at an individual location, it becomes easy for the business to find
the data irrespective of any sort at the time of emergency. As the result, the products which are
sold and purchased are maintained by POS system. It also helps in the compilation of the history
of sales and gains benefits in the complete system. POS’s goals are to offer a huge range of
advantages such as inputting, tracking and distribution of the data, although the managers could
take decision which is better. They can do it with the help of apt and reliable data.
Recommend telecommunication options for this POS system.
There are so many alternatives of telecommunication in today’s world which can be used for the
POS system. The network which is additional always allows the computers in communicating
and connecting with other computers by the usage of the medium of communication. Usually,
there are three types of networks which can be used. They are LAN, MAN and WAN. All these
options of network can operate in multiple geographical locations (Thakor & Joshi, 2017).
Firstly, LAN can be used in the areas which are small or confined such as buildings or any of the
organizations. Such areas only cover a particular location. On the other hand, MAN can always
be used in the bigger area as compared to LAN and WAN is used in much bigger area as
compared to the LAN and MAN. There are more networks which are used these days as widely
as these three. They are PAN, SAN, EPN and VAN etc (Dodonov et al., 2010).
 The full form of LAN is Local Area Network which generally is used in a building or any
organization individually. Connections are at a higher speed always as it is a small area
and this network is cheap and easily affordable as well.
 The full form of MAN is Metropolitan Area Network. It is quite larger than the LAN and
it generally is used in big buildings but the town should be same. One of the examples of
MAN is IUB networks.

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 WAN is known to be as Wide Area Network. It covers complete geographical areas such
as internet. It is usually very costly as it covers huge area of network and gives high
speed at all the locations as well (Ersoy & Panwar, 1993).
A few cables that are used widely by the technologies which are wired are UTP or unshielded
twisted pair cable, coaxial cable, shielded twisted pair i.e. STP, wireless Lan’s and fiber optic
cable.
In the addition to this, technologies which are wired are cliché and are used such as Radio
receivers, broadcast, TV, cordless, garage, door openers, wireless computers, satellite TV,
headphones, GPS etc (Braine & Yorozu, 1998).
What type of risks does the POS system bring and how to protect the business against the
risks?
There are a few risks which are involved in the implementation of the POS system. They are:
 Security: The data which is needed should be secured highly within the organization due
to the data which are hacked or leaked. It might generate loss to the company and the
company might face problems which are related to the threats. Hence, all the data which
is recorded should be completely secured and safe and the business should manage all
this by hiring the experts in cyber security who are easily able to manage and control the
information (Trendmicro, 2014).
 Confidentiality: This is one of the most risky factors out of all. All business must have
documents which are confidential and should be protected by security passwords
(Tallysoft, 2016).
 Privacy: This is the risk factor which is definitely found in POS system. The recorded
data should be kept private and must not be accessible to everyone. If privacy is leaked, it
can create issues without any situations and it might harm the company as well (Tri,
2018).

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References
Adeoti, O., 2013. Challenges to the efficient use of point of sale (POS) terminals in Nigeria.
African Journal of Business Management, 7(28).
Braine, G. & Yorozu, M., 1998. Local Area Network (LAN) Computers in ESL and EFL Writing
Classes: Promises and Realities. [Online] Available at:
file:///C:/Users/Nidhi%20Vyas_JPR/Downloads/jj-20.2-art3.pdf [Accessed 22 May 2018].
Dodonov, E., Mello, R.F.d. & Yang, L.T., 2010. A Network Evaluation for LAN, MAN and WAN
Grid Environments. [Online] Available at:
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/2601/5e1bc511185b733c76a62ae4f7d1f5655933.pdf [Accessed
22 May 2018].
EDM, 2018. Why Should You Have a Centralized System? [Online] Available at:
https://effectivedatabase.com/why-should-you-have-a-centralized-system/ [Accessed 22 May
2018].
Ersoy, C. & Panwar, S.S., 1993. Topological Design Of Interconnected LAN/MAN Networks.
Journal of Selected Areas in communication, 11(8).
Iacob, N.M. & Moise, M.L., 2015. Centralized vs. Distributed Databases. Case Study. Academic
Journal of Economic Studies, 1(4).
Lin, Y.C., Ha, N.H. & Lin, K.S., 2015. The Role of mPOS System in Process Change and
Strategy Change: A Situated Change Perspective. Technologies, 3, pp.198-218.
PLOMP, M.G.A., RIJN, G.V. & BATENBURG, R.S., 2012. Chain digitisation support by point-
of-sale systems: an analysis of the Dutch product software market. [Online] Available at:
http://postprint.nivel.nl/PPpp4899.pdf [Accessed 22 May 2018].
Tallysoft, 2016. 3 POS System Security Risks You Need to Recognize. [Online] Available at:
tallysoft.http://www.tallysoft.com/news/3-pos-system-security-risks-you-need-to-recognize/
[Accessed 22 May 2018].

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Thakor, J.B. & Joshi, N.C., 2017. Computer Networks. International Journal of Science and
Research, 6(5).
Trendmicro, 2014. Point-of-Sale System Breaches. [Online] Available at:
https://www.trendmicro.com/content/dam/trendmicro/global/en/business/capabilities/solutions-
for/point-of-sale/wp-pos-system-breaches.pdf [Accessed 22 May 2018].
Tri, R., 2018. 7 Ways your Point of Sale Security is at Risk. [Online] Available at:
https://posoncloud.com/7-ways-your-point-of-sale-security-is-at-risk/ [Accessed 22 May 2018].
W., N.V. & Namusonge, G.S., 2015. Role of Inventory Management on Competitive Advantage
among Manufacturing Firms in Kenya: A Case Study of Unga Group Limited. International
Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 5(5).
Wong, T.E., Srikrishnan, V., Hadka, D. & Keller, K., 2017. A multi-objective decision-making
approach. PLOS, 12(6).