IT for Business: Evaluating POS System Implementation Benefits

This report evaluates the benefits obtained by Four Seasons with the implementation of a Point of Sale (POS) system, highlighting the advantages such as efficient business management, improved inventory tracking, accurate report generation, and better cost identification. It also addresses the disadvantages, including high implementation costs, internet dependency, and security risks. The report further discusses how a centralized database supports the POS system, ensuring data integrity and cost-effectiveness. Effective decision-making enabled by the POS system and the recommendation of a local area network (LAN) for telecommunication are also covered. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of addressing cybersecurity risks through data encryption and access control, ultimately justifying the POS system choice for Four Seasons.

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

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Executive Summary
The need of technology in business is increasing day by day. This is irrespective of the size of
the business. The purpose of the report is to evaluate the benefits obtained by the Four Seasons
with the implementation of technology. Along with the benefits, there are certain risks that are
needed to be addressed a swell. The report gives an idea of such risks and recommends its
mitigation approaches. The report further discusses the benefits of having and centralized
database and the process by which a POS helps an organization in gaining a competitive
advantage.

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Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................3
1. Advantages and Disadvantages.......................................................................................3
2. Competitive Advantage...................................................................................................5
3. Centralized Database: Advantages..................................................................................6
4. Decision Making..............................................................................................................7
5. Telecommunication Option.............................................................................................7
6. Risks................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................8
References............................................................................................................................9
Appendix............................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
The information system requirements for managing the different business operations of
the organization have increased over the years. The use of information systems such as point of
sales (POS), enterprise resource planning systems and different accounting software has
increased in the different business organizations, irrespective of its size, organization structure
and the business services provided by them (Laudon and Laudon 2016). The adoption of the
information systems is easier in large organization as it has adequate resources for easy
implementation of the information system. The small sized organization may not have that
opportunity. However, the benefits of using an information system is same both in small and
medium sized enterprises (Eason 2014). The report takes into consideration the use of
information system in a small business organization which is located in Colorado. The report
gives a clear distinction of the business problems that the organization faced due to manual
maintenance of the business operations and the benefits that the organization could achieve with
the implementation of a new point of sales system.
1. Advantages and Disadvantages
The use of a point of sales system was necessary in Four Seasons as it had become very
difficult for the business owners and the management to manually manage the different business
operations of the organization. The advantages that the business could gain with the
implementation of the POS system is listed as follows (Caldeira et al. 2012)-
1. With the use of the point of sales system, the business of the Four Seasons could be
managed quite efficiently, which was not possible with the use of manual registers. The

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efficiency in management of the business processes increases as proper tracking of the inventory
sales and the inventory units are possible (Ingram et al. 2015).
2. The management of the inventory units became easier a swell since the point of sales
system helped in updating the live reports related to the sales (Arvidsson, Holmström and
Lyytinen 2014). Thus the business of Four Seasons could operate in leaner inventory units with
the help of the new point of sales system.
3. The accurate report generation is another advantage of using a new point of sales
system. The reports that are generated are automatic and therefore, there are very less chances of
human errors.
4. Since the sales and the transactions are controlled by the point of sales system, it
becomes quite easier to identify the actual cost of the products (Jeston 2014). The business was
earlier running on a loss since the management and the owners had no proper knowledge about
the actual cost of the products and the demand of the products.
5. Since with the use of POS system, automatic sales and inventory reports can be
generated, the management could make effective decision regarding their business, products and
the employees, which is another advantage of using a point of sale system (Hall 2012). The
proper decision making further helped the organization in gaining a competitive advantage.
The above discussed points provide a brief overview of the advantages offered by the
point of sales system. The disadvantages of using a point of sales system are listed as follows-
1. The cost of implementation and the maintenance of the web based POS system is very
high considering the current condition of the Four Seasons greenhouse and nursery.

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2. A continuous requirement of a good internet connection is necessary to access the data
from the POS system which is its major disadvantage.
3. There are certain security risks associated with the use of the point of sales system as
internet connectivity is essential for its operation.
The above discussed points give an idea of the different disadvantages associated with
the use of a new point of sales system. However, with the use of the new point of sales system,
the Four Season greenhouse and nursery could achieve as greater business benefit that helped the
owners of the organization in addressing the previous losses.
2. Competitive Advantage
As discussed earlier, the use of the new POS system will help the Four Seasons
greenhouse and nursery in gaining a competitive advantage. This was possible as the business of
Four Seasons could be now effectively managed. The process by which the POS will help the
organization in gaining competitive advantage is listed below-
1. With the help of a point of sales system, the queries of the customers can be easily
managed which increases the customers’ satisfaction. More the satisfied customer more is the
advantage for the business. In this way, the new POS system will help Four Seasons in gaining
competitive advantage.
2. The enhanced decision making ability that the point of sales system provides to the
managers further helps the organization in gaining a competitive advantage.
3. The use of the new point of sales system makes it easier for the management in
identifying the actual cost of the products thus increasing the business profit and the business

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benefits (Rainer et al. 2013). The increase in the business profit will enable the organization in
gaining a competitive advantage in the market.
The above discussed points gives an idea about the process by which the new point of
sales system will help the organization in gaining a competitive advantage over the similar other
organizations.
3. Centralized Database: Advantages
The adoption of the point of sales system in Four Seasons is subjected to the use of a
centralized database system (Osman and Knottenbelt 2012). This choice is appropriate as there
are a number of advantages of using a centralized database system which are discussed below-
1. Use of centralized database system ensures data integrity. This is one significant
advantage because the maintenance of the integrity of the confidentially business data is essential
for maintaining the profit of the organization (Coronel and Morris 2016).
2. Redundant data entry is not allowed in centralized database system, which is its
significant advantage.
3. There are proper plans for regular data back and easy disaster recovery and thus the
use of centralized database system helps in proper data preservation.
4. The use of centralized database system removes the need of a business in investing on
servers thus providing a cost effective solutions to the customers.
The above discussed points provide an idea of the main advantages of using an
centralized database system as the backbone of a point of sales system.

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4. Decision Making
Effective decision making is a need of every organization as it helps in better
management of the business needs. One of the advantages of using a point of sales system is that
it gives an opportunity to the business to make effective decisions based on the live reports that
are generated. The use of POS enhances decision making in a number of ways.
A point of sales system helps in managing the business processes more effectively by
updating the sales and the inventory reports at the time of sales. The new POS helps in easier
information tracking by effectively managing the transactional operations of the organization.
The information tracking was not effective earlier as the organization used to maintain a manual
register where human errors were inevitable (van der Meer, Kurth-Nelson and Redish 2012). The
POS was further able to answer the inventory and the sales data in an effective manner along
with the actual cost of the products (refer to appendix). The information that can be used to
manage a business more effectively is the information about the schedule of the employees and
the data regarding the sales and inventory units (Kirchmer 2012).
5. Telecommunication Option
For the POS system to be implemented, local area connection (LAN) is recommended
telecommunication option (Wang et al. 2015). This is because it is a small sized organization and
the devices that are to be connected are available in a smaller geographical location. This is the
reason why the Wide area network and metropolitan area network is not chosen for this
organization (Zhang et al. 2012).
A wireless connection is recommended since it will be easier to implement and will help
the employees in easy access of the information. However, there is certain security issues

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associated with this network which should be addressed. Wired communication although is
secure, its cost of implementation is very high.
6. Risks
There are certain risks associated with the use of a POS system that is needed to be
addressed in order to maintain the security, privacy and the confidentiality of the data. These
risks are mainly risks of cyber security and the risks of hackers that can result in data loss and
modification of the data (Von Solms and Van Niekerk 2013). These security risks can be
addressed by ensuring that the data stored in the database are properly encrypted and access
control is enforced in order to prevent unauthorized data access.
Conclusion
The report gives an idea of the business benefits that Four Seasons could gain with the
use of a new point of sales system. The advantages and benefits of POS are discussed and their
associated risks are evaluated as well. The recommendations of eliminating the security risks that
are associated with the POS are further discussed in the report. The choice of the POS was
therefore justified for Four Seasons.

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References
Arvidsson, V., Holmström, J. and Lyytinen, K., 2014. Information systems use as strategy
practice: A multi-dimensional view of strategic information system implementation and use. The
Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 23(1), pp.45-61.
Caldeira, M., Serrano, A., Quaresma, R., Pedron, C. and Romão, M., 2012. Information and
communication technology adoption for business benefits: A case analysis of an integrated
paperless system. International Journal of Information Management, 32(2), pp.196-202.
Coronel, C. and Morris, S., 2016. Database systems: design, implementation, & management.
Cengage Learning.
Eason, K.D., 2014. Information technology and organisational change. CRC Press.
Hall, J.A., 2012. Accounting information systems. Cengage Learning.
Ingram, T.N., LaForge, R.W., Williams, M.R. and Schwepker Jr, C.H., 2015. Sales management:
Analysis and decision making. Routledge.
Jeston, J., 2014. Business process management. Routledge.
Kirchmer, M., 2012. Business process oriented implementation of standard software: how to
achieve competitive advantage efficiently and effectively. Springer Science & Business Media.
Laudon, K.C. and Laudon, J.P., 2016. Management information system. Pearson Education
India.
Osman, R. and Knottenbelt, W.J., 2012. Database system performance evaluation models: A
survey. Performance Evaluation, 69(10), pp.471-493.

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Rainer, R.K., Cegielski, C.G., Splettstoesser-Hogeterp, I. and Sanchez-Rodriguez, C.,
2013. Introduction to information systems. John Wiley & Sons.
van der Meer, M., Kurth-Nelson, Z. and Redish, A.D., 2012. Information processing in decision-
making systems. The Neuroscientist, 18(4), pp.342-359.
Von Solms, R. and Van Niekerk, J., 2013. From information security to cyber
security. computers & security, 38, pp.97-102.
Wang, Y., Chi, N., Wang, Y., Tao, L. and Shi, J., 2015. Network architecture of a high-speed
visible light communication local area network. IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, 27(2),
pp.197-200.
Zhang, Y., Ansari, N., Wu, M. and Yu, H., 2012. On wide area network optimization. IEEE
Communications surveys & tutorials, 14(4), pp.1090-1113.

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Appendix

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