IT for Business: Impact of POS System on Four Seasons Nursery

This report examines the implementation of a Point of Sales (POS) system in the Four Seasons Greenhouse Nursery, a small business in Colorado. The report begins by highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of the POS system, such as improved data tracking, better decision-making, and labor cost control, while also acknowledging the associated costs and security risks. It then explores how the new POS system provided a competitive advantage by identifying profitable products and streamlining business operations. The report further discusses the benefits of a centralized database, the role of the POS in facilitating decision-making, and the recommended telecommunication options, specifically wireless technology. The report also addresses the associated security risks of wireless systems and provides recommendations for improving the business process, such as employee training and data security measures. Overall, the report emphasizes the importance of IT in modern businesses and the significant impact that a well-implemented POS system can have on operational efficiency and profitability.

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

1
IT FOR BUSINESS
Executive Summary
The purpose of the report is to discuss the benefits of the technology that an organization can
achieve. The Four Seasons Green House Nursery was running on a loss as the organization used
to maintain a manual record. With the implementation of the new POS system, the organization
could easily track their sales and inventory items, which in turn helped in better decision making.
The manual records are generally prone to human errors and therefore the organisation was
running on a loss or negligible profit. Therefore, implementation of an information system in
Four Seasons was mandatory.

2
IT FOR BUSINESS
Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................3
1. POS system-Advantages/Disadvantages.........................................................................3
2. The Competitive Advantage with POS............................................................................5
3. Centralized Database and its Advantages........................................................................5
4. POS in facilitating decision-making................................................................................6
5. Telecommunication Options............................................................................................6
6. Associated Risks..............................................................................................................7
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................8
Recommendations................................................................................................................8
References............................................................................................................................9
Appendix............................................................................................................................11

3
IT FOR BUSINESS
Introduction
The use of technology has become inevitable for every industry size and type of business.
The positive effects of the business can be realized even in small industries. However, the small
business organization may not have the resources and the expertise like a large organization to
implement information technology strategies. The Four Seasons Nursery which is located in
Colorado is a small business organization used to maintain manual registers in tracking and
maintaining the inventory sales and in profit realisation (Wang et al., 2014). However, with this
system, the nursery was either making a negligible profit or loss. The implementation of point of
sales (POS) system in the year 2008 however, helped the organization in eliminating the
operational inefficiencies and helped the organization in better product management. The report
discusses the advantages and the disadvantages of the new POS system that is implemented in
the Four Seasons Greenhouse nursery (Pearlson, Saunders and Galletta 2016). The use of POS
helped the organization in easier tracking of the data related to the sales and inventory items,
which in turn helped in better decision making. The following paragraphs provide the details of
the implemented point of sales system.
1. POS system-Advantages/Disadvantages
The implementation of the point of sales system helped the Four Seasons Nursery to
manage the sales, inventory and business data in an efficient manner. The point of sales system
allowed the owner in tracking useful business data that helped in better decision making. The
advantages of the point of sales system are as follows-
The new system helped in tracking the useful business data associated with the sales
transaction at the time of sale, thus eliminating the need of manually tracking the sales (Stadtler

4
IT FOR BUSINESS
2015). The manual tracking was prone to human errors that often resulted in incorrect or
erroneous data entry.
The new POS system provided much more than a cash register as it provided a robust
functionality of inputting, tracking and data distribution. This provided useful information for
operating and managing the business. This is one significant advantage of the new POS system.
Since the new POS system provided a robust functionality in tracking the inventory sales
and the other useful business information, it helped in better decision making.
The detailed knowledge about the cost of the product further helped in appropriate
product cost and increase in the profit of the product (Peppard and Ward 2016). The management
had very little knowledge about the product which offered higher profits. With the
implementation of the new POS system, the identification of the profitable products of the
organization became easier.
The POS system helped in controlling the labour expenses and the employee schedule.
The new system helped the owners to delegate more responsibilities to the staffs for establishing
the accountability.
These are the major advantages of the implementation of new POS system. However,
there are certain disadvantages of implementing the POS in a business. These are as follows
(Stair and Reynolds 2013)-
1. The cost of this system is high considering the fact that the Four Seasons is a small
sized enterprise. The system is subjected to a certain amount of maintenance cost as well

5
IT FOR BUSINESS
2. There are certain security risks associated with the use of information system, which
includes risk in privacy, confidentiality and integrity.
2. The Competitive Advantage with POS
The new POS not only helped in better management of the business operation of the
organization, but also helped the organization in gaining a competitive advantage (Hall 2012).
The new POS system helped in identification of the profitable products and the products
that can give the organization a better profit margin. This gave a competitive advantage to the
organization in business market.
The new POS system helped in better management of all the vital business operations.
With the implementation of the system, the owners of the organization could access the live
reports of the sales and inventory, which in turn helped in better management of the business
processes of the organization, thus giving it a competitive advantage (Lallo 2012).
3. Centralized Database and its Advantages
The POS system that is implemented makes use of a centralized database. There are
certain advantages of centralized database, which are as follows (Coronel and Morris 2016)-
The centralized database helps in easier management and monitoring of the data stored in
them. It becomes easier to access the data that is stored in a centralized database.
The operational speed and the operational efficiency of a centralized database system are
quite high. This further helps in easier data management.

6
IT FOR BUSINESS
The cost of maintenance of a centralized database is comparatively low in comparison to
a decentralized database system.
4. POS in facilitating decision-making
Effective decision making is one of the advantages offered by the new POS system. The
entire business operation of Four Season was automated with the help of the new POS system.
The POS system manages the business activities more effectively because it generates
real time data report of the sales, inventory and data input.
The manual information tracking is not effective since it is prone to human errors and
incorrect data entry. The new POS system eliminates the need of using manual record and the
reports are generated in real time with the help of the new POS system.
With the help of new POS the questions associated with the inventory items and sales can
be effectively answered.
The information can help in accurate pricing of the product and in easier management of
the labours’ schedule, which in turn helps in better management of the business.
Thus the new POS system can help in better decision making by properly identifying the
project needs.
5. Telecommunication Options
The POS must ensure a proper telecommunication option that will helps in effective
information flow. The Local Area network or LAN help in interconnecting the digital devices
present in a smaller geographical area. While that of Wide Area Network (WAN) and

7
IT FOR BUSINESS
Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) works on a larger geographical area. Since Four Seasons is a
small sized organization, LAN is the recommended telecommunication option for the
organization (Ghosh et al., 2014).
The LAN being the backbone of the telecommunication system, it becomes very essential
to evaluate whether wired or wireless technology will be suitable for consideration. However, the
wireless technology is recommended for the organization as it is easier to implement and is cost
effective as well. Furthermore, the cost of implementation of a wired system will be higher in
comparison to the wireless system (Laudon and Laudon 2016). The wireless system will
furthermore help the employees of the organization in easier data access by connecting to a
common network. Therefore, the wireless technology is recommended for the appropriate
telecommunication option. The wireless technology in Four Seasons can be implemented by
making use of the radio, infrared and wireless communication (Lu et al. 2015).
6. Associated Risks
With the use of wireless technology in implementation of the system, there are certain
associated security risks as well (Al Ameen, Liu and Kwak 2012). This risk is mainly associated
with data storage and deals with the security, privacy and confidentiality of the data stored. The
risk is more prominent in wireless network as it possesses the security risks of hacking and data
theft. Therefore it is essential to ensure proper data security. The threats in the system can be
from an insider too (Galliers and Leidner 2014). An employee of the organization can make
wrong use of his power and can modify the data stored in the system. Therefore it is necessary to
ensure proper security of the POS system (Barakah and Ammad-uddin 2012). This can be
achieved by ensuring proper authorization control and access control. This will ensure that no

8
IT FOR BUSINESS
unauthorized person is able to access any data from the system. Use of internal firewalls further
prevents the entry of any malware in the network thus securing the data stored in the POS.
Conclusion
Since the use of information technology has become a mandatory need for any
organization, the decision of using a new point of sales system in Four Seasons nursery was
appropriate. The business could achieve a considerable benefit with the use the new information
system as the internal business processes were automated with the help of the new point of sales
system. The use of the new point of sales system proved to be of a huge business benefit for the
organization as it became easier for the organization to manage the sales procedure. The
technology bloom in the organization therefore proved to be a good decision for the
organization. With the knowledge of actual price of the products, the business could make a
greater profit.
Recommendations
The recommendations for improving the business process of Four Seasons are as follows-
1. Proper training is to be provided to the employees of the organization in order to make
the efficient use of the system
2. In order to maintain the data security, proper data control is needed to be ensured.
3. The POS should be implemented according to the need of the organization.

9
IT FOR BUSINESS
References
Al Ameen, M., Liu, J. and Kwak, K., 2012. Security and privacy issues in wireless sensor
networks for healthcare applications. Journal of medical systems, 36(1), pp.93-101.
Barakah, D.M. and Ammad-uddin, M., 2012, February. A survey of challenges and applications
of wireless body area network (WBAN) and role of a virtual doctor server in existing
architecture. In Intelligent Systems, Modelling and Simulation (ISMS), 2012 Third International
Conference on (pp. 214-219). IEEE.
Coronel, C. and Morris, S., 2016. Database systems: design, implementation, & management.
Cengage Learning.
Galliers, R.D. and Leidner, D.E. eds., 2014. Strategic information management: challenges and
strategies in managing information systems. Routledge.
Ghosh, A., Thomas, T.A., Cudak, M.C., Ratasuk, R., Moorut, P., Vook, F.W., Rappaport, T.S.,
MacCartney, G.R., Sun, S. and Nie, S., 2014. Millimeter-wave enhanced local area systems: A
high-data-rate approach for future wireless networks. IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in
Communications, 32(6), pp.1152-1163.
Hall, J.A., 2012. Accounting information systems. Cengage Learning.
Lallo, N.Y.H., 2012. Critical Succes Factors, Instructors' Characteristics and Accounting
Information System Course Content (Doctoral dissertation, Universiti Utara Malaysia).
Laudon, K.C. and Laudon, J.P., 2016. Management information system. Pearson Education
India.

10
IT FOR BUSINESS
Lu, X., Wang, P., Niyato, D., Kim, D.I. and Han, Z., 2015. Wireless networks with RF energy
harvesting: A contemporary survey. IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, 17(2), pp.757-
789.
Pearlson, K.E., Saunders, C.S. and Galletta, D.F., 2016. Managing and Using Information
Systems, Binder Ready Version: A Strategic Approach. John Wiley & Sons.
Peppard, J. and Ward, J., 2016. The strategic management of information systems: Building a
digital strategy. John Wiley & Sons.
Stadtler, H., 2015. Supply chain management: An overview. In Supply chain management and
advanced planning (pp. 3-28). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Stair, R. and Reynolds, G., 2013. Principles of information systems. Cengage Learning.
Wang, S., Chen, W., Yin, Z.Q., Li, H.W., He, D.Y., Li, Y.H., Zhou, Z., Song, X.T., Li, F.Y.,
Wang, D. and Chen, H., 2014. Field and long-term demonstration of a wide area quantum key
distribution network. Optics express, 22(18), pp.21739-21756.

11
IT FOR BUSINESS
Appendix

12
IT FOR BUSINESS