POS System Impact on Retail Business - Holmes Institute, 2018

This report examines the impact of Point of Sale (POS) systems on retail businesses, focusing on their advantages and disadvantages, competitive advantages, and the benefits of using a centralized database. It explores how POS systems facilitate decision-making and streamline business activities compared to manual methods. The report also discusses telecommunication options for POS systems, including network types like LAN and media types such as wired connections, highlighting the use of Ethernet cables. Furthermore, it identifies potential risks associated with POS systems, such as security breaches, confidentiality issues, and privacy concerns, emphasizing the importance of implementing security measures. The report concludes by recommending the adoption of POS systems for enhanced efficiency and data-driven decision-making, while also addressing the need for robust security protocols to mitigate potential risks. This student-contributed assignment is available on Desklib, where you can find similar solved assignments and study resources.

IMPACT OF IT
ON
BUSINESS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report is revolving around the technological development that has been made in retail
industry especially related to the use of POS systems. This system has been highly efficient

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for the business and has facilitated the firm to make sure that their sales and transactional data
is stored in a better way. This report presents the advantages and disadvantages that are
brought by POS system to the business. The benefits of using centralised database have also
been described along with the fact that how POS systems have facilitated decision making. It
also defines the manner in which POS systems helps in doing business process more
effectively as compared to manual methods. This report also presents the telecommunication
options that are available in the market for adoption of POS system. It also defines the risks
that are present in the POS systems.
Content

2
s
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
Advantages and Disadvantages.............................................................................................................3
Competitive advantage provided by POS system..................................................................................4
Centralised database use benefits..........................................................................................................4
POS system facilitating in decision making...........................................................................................5
POS systems processes business activities more appropriately.........................................................5
Can information be tracked through manual ways in an effective manner........................................5
Type of questions that can be answered.............................................................................................5
Information used for appropriate business management....................................................................6
Telecommunication options available...................................................................................................6
Type of network................................................................................................................................6
Type of Media...................................................................................................................................6
Types of risk in POS systems............................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION.....................................................................................................................................7
RECOMMENDATIONS............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES......................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
Technology has facilitated retail firms to smoothen their work process (Falzone and Ciabarra,
Revel Systems Inc, 2012). In retail industry, there are various kinds of information that are
generated through different platforms. It is essential that organisation generates to incorporate
such technology that helps in the management of such data. Point of sale is one such device
that is used by organisations so as to manage the sales data. This report describes the various
aspects associated with the use of POS.
Advantages and Disadvantages
POS system has empowered the firms in many ways. It has brought both positive and
negatives with them. There are several advantages and disadvantages attached with POS
system. Some of advantages are as follows:
 POS system helps in maintenance and storage of data at the same time when the
products are sold (Duvall, et. al., 2012).
 It diminishes the probability regarding transactional errors.
 It shortens the operational time related to transactions.
 Problem related to data redundancy is eliminated.
 It helps in CRM practices as it alerts people regarding their sales transactions.
 Since data can be taken out from the system anytime hence better and real time
decisions can be made.
 It assures accountability and brings transparency in the sales procedures.
Disadvantages
 System maintenance is not an easy task and requires an IT professional for upgrading
the technology.
 Data piracy and security related threats are present.
 If the system gets hacked there can be loss to huge amount of data.
Competitive advantage provided by POS system
Having such a huge amount of operational benefits attached with POS system, it acts as a
value adder for the company (Weber and Bailey, Visa International Service Association,

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2016). There are ranges of processes that are made easier with the help of POS system. The
first and foremost thing it does is that it enhances the quality of decisions that are made inside
the organisation. With the huge amount of data it helps in streamlining the work process in
such a manner that it gives competitive advantages to the firms like Four Seasons Greenhouse
and Nursery. The second important thing that it does is that it enhances the quality of
strategies that is made in the organisation as strategies are made according to the data that are
relevant. This helps in maximising the profits which is again necessary for providing
competitive advantage. POS systems fasten the operational speed which is necessary in the
modern day business. Along with this it also helps in improving the standards of CRM. It
helps in removing of faults that are present in the sales transaction process. It reduces cost of
employment which is given to the employees that are engaged in information management.
Centralised database use benefits
In the age of digital business, data is highly necessary for making decisions (Burns and
Schwartz, 2011). It has become essential for the organisations to make sure that there are
lesser chances of leakages. Taking use of centralised database ensures that all the units within
the organisation can access the essential data on time. There are following advantages
associated with centralised database:
 As the data is stored at one place hence the sites at which the attacks is possible is
one.
 At the time of decision making of various units can avail data easily. They do not
have to access different sources for retrieval of data.
 Data portability and its management become highly efficient.
 In centralised data storage, number of resources that are required is also less hence
making the operations cost effective.
 Managing data and making changes in them is relatively easier. This help in gathering
of updated data.
POS system facilitating in decision making
In the making of effective decisions, data plays a highly crucial role. As this system is able to
handle a huge amount of data that too on the real time basis hence decisions becomes very
effective (D’angello, 2018). This is extremely important in the case of small business like
Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery. POS systems when implemented help them in

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adopting data driven approach to decision making which is crucial for gaining competitive
advantage in the market. Accurate and appropriate approach is used by POS system. It assists
them in making decisions that are unique and is as per the need of the firm. Decisions that are
very appropriate and evaluative can be made with the help of gathered data which is further
necessary for finding the loop holes in the activities that they do (Dontigney, 2018).
POS systems processes business activities more appropriately
Earlier, the manual methods have been used for data manipulation. It was a process that was
highly time-taking. Because of the slow process and lot of data redundancy chances, there is
a higher probability that wrong decisions could be made (Expert market, 2018). It makes
business activity highly significant as data can be tracked easily. In the modern day business
real time data has higher significance. The data that was gathered by manual methods may
not be easily arranged and hence it enhances the efforts of the employees. POS systems are
linked with ordering diminishing stocks which helps in tracing the seller that are doing better.
In the making of STP strategy these data can be highly significant (Polasik, et. al., 2012).
Can information be tracked through manual ways in an effective manner
Information can be tracked with the help of manual methods also but it is a tedious process
and takes a lot of time. In the modern business environment, this can be unsuitable. If the data
is tracked with the help of manual procedures, an element of doubt remains in the minds of
stakeholder regarding its correctness (Rese, Schreiber and Baier, 2014). It is not considered
as effective since it does not help in the case of quick decision making process.
Type of questions that can be answered
Several sorts of questions could be answered with the use of POS Systems mainly that are
associated with the sales and transactional processes. It also provides answers related to
consumer’s choice or regarding the products that are giving competitive advantage to the
consumers (Morandi, et. al., 2015). It also helps in finding the flaws that are present in
several organisational units under Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery.
Information used for appropriate business management
POS systems provides data are of strategic importance and helps in streamlining the process.
Along with this, the data that is gathered through POS device can help in forecasting the
products demand which is beneficial for making themselves ready for higher turnouts (Greer,
et. al., 2011). Collected data works as a tool for finding the inefficiencies which is required

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for making plans for eliminating it. This makes the management of business processes more
effective and solid.
Telecommunication options available
There have been considerable advancements in the telecommunication sector and hence
many options are available with Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery. Selecting an options
related to telecommunication should only be based on the requirement of the cited firm.
Options are also available in terms of the type of networks used.
Type of network
In among the various choices that are available with Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery
Company, utilisation of LAN connection can be appropriate. The cited firm is having limited
amount of resources as it is at the developmental stage. Firm has confined capability in terms
of financial resources hence LAN could be beneficial. Apart from this, LAN also provides a
higher data connectivity.
Type of Media
In the available space with the firm is less hence taking use of wired connection could be
highly beneficial. It is illustrated by the following facts:
 It is easier to maintain the infrastructure (Lee, et. al., 2011).
 Data transfer happens at high speed.
 The chances of data leaks is less
Taking use of Ethernet cables for the connection can be highly advantageous because of the
fact that it is available at lower cost and the chances of data leakage is also less.
Types of risk in POS systems
POS systems are also a part of the IT systems. This makes the POS system to be at greater
risk to data threats. The cited company has to understand the type of risks and its effect on the
business. Some of the common types of risks are:
 Security: There are large amount of data available with the POS systems and hence it
is crucial for the firms to make sure that they apply effective measures so as to ensure
the data security. If the hackers are able to breach the data, then there is a chance that
their position in the market is at stake (Szell, Lambiotte and Thurner, 2010). If they

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are able to get the financial data of the firm, then there is always a chance that it may
result in heavy financial loss to the company. Taking use of the information security
software, a higher security to the data can be provided to the Point of Sale systems.
 Confidentiality: POS systems have information that is associated with the
shareholders. There are many cards which are getting swiped on daily basis and hence
giving protection to it is highly important. Data abstraction is the feature that is highly
required in any firm and hence an effective system infrastructure needs to be made.
This will help in maintaining the confidentiality of the data that is gathered through
POS system.
 Privacy: Huge amount of crucial data is available with the POS systems hence it has
become crucial for the firms to ensure the privacy of the all these data (Hongqiang,
2011). Protecting data has become extremely essential. In order to make sure that
private data can be secured. Any kind of privacy breach could lead to image failure
for the Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery. Use of firewalls such as password
protected systems or use of gateways can help in maintaining the privacy of the data
that is available with the firm.
CONCLUSION
A conclusion can be derived from the above report, that Four Seasons Greenhouse and
Nursery is adopting POS devices for its sales and transactional processing. There are several
advantages and disadvantages that are linked with the use of POS systems. POS system gives
competitive advantage to the company. POS system facilitates in decision making and use of
centralised database can be highly crucial. POS system is highly beneficial as it helps in
various business activities. Taking use of LAN connection along with the wired connection
can help the cited firm. There are several types of threats that are linked with the use of POS
system hence companies need to make sure that they apply effective mechanism so as to
secure these data.
RECOMMENDATIONS
POS systems have been highly successful in integrating business information related to sales
and transactional procedures hence they need to adopt the most advance POS systems needs
to be used. LAN connections must be used inside the firm so as to ensure that higher speed

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can be achieved along with the security against data leakage. Use of Ethernet cables would be
beneficial as it is cheap and high data security can be ensured. In order to protect system from
security risks companies need to enable their system protection software to confront all these
issues.

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REFERENCES
Burns, C. and Schwartz, L.J., (2011) Content sensitive point-of-sale system for interactive
media. U.S. Patent Application 12/657,014.
D’angello, M. (2018) 7 essential POS system features for your retail business. [Online].
Available at: https://www.business.com/articles/essential-pos-features-retail-business/.
[Accessed on 22nd may 2018]
Dontigney, E., (2018) The advantages of Centralised Database storage [Online]. Available at:
https://itstillworks.com/info-8623828-advantages-centralized-database-storage.html.
[Accessed on: 22nd May 2018].
Duvall, R.W., Reece, M.J., Hrabosky, V.J. and Burton, D.J., NCR Corp, (2012) Methods and
apparatus for managing sequencing of data received from devices in a retail point of sale
system. U.S. Patent 8,239,271.
Expert market (2018) Expert Point-of-sale. [Online]. Available at:
https://www.expertmarket.com/pos/pos-system-advantages. [Accessed on 22nd May 2018].
Falzone, L. and Ciabarra, C., Revel Systems Inc, (2012) Point of sale system. U.S. Patent
Application 13/227,397.
Greer, R.E. and Epting, T.W., Compucredit Intellectual Property Holdings Corp II,
(2011) Point of sale purchase system. U.S. Patent 7,865,433.
Hongqiang, Z., (2011) The Application of 3G Technology at Electronic Point-of-sale System
[J]. Value Engineering, 12, p.170.
Lee, J., Melnick, A., Yang, Z., Petkov, G.B., Tregan, L., Cemballi, G., Jain, B., Ahmed, G.,
Iannone, J., Rannala, E. and Sidana, A., (2011) Point-of-sale promotions. U.S. Patent
7,980,466.
Morandi, S., Marco, D.I.N.I., Sassano, M., Campari, P.P. and Fano, A.E., Accenture Global
Services Ltd, (2015) Digital point-of-sale analyzer. U.S. Patent 9,135,491.
Polasik, M., Górka, J., Wilczewski, G., Kunkowski, J., Przenajkowska, K. and 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.

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Rese, A., Schreiber, S. and 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), pp.869-876.
Szell, M., Lambiotte, R. and Thurner, S., (2010) Multirelational organization of large-scale
social networks in an online world. Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, 107(31), pp.13636-13641.
Weber, L. and Bailey, K., Visa International Service Association, (2016) Dynamic point of
sale system integrated with reader device. U.S. Patent 9,390,412.