IT for Business: POS System Analysis for Competitive Advantage

This report assesses the implementation of a Point of Sale (POS) system at Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery, evaluating its advantages and disadvantages, and its potential to provide a competitive edge. It emphasizes the benefits of a centralized database for enhanced data security and efficient data handling, and explores how the POS system can facilitate more effective decision-making through improved reporting and real-time analysis. The report also addresses the system's ability to streamline business processes, track data, and answer key business questions. Furthermore, it recommends telecommunication options, including LAN, WAN, and MAN networks, and discusses wired and wireless technologies. Finally, the report acknowledges the risks associated with the new system, such as cyber-attacks and credit card skimming, and offers recommendations to mitigate these risks, ultimately concluding that the POS system can significantly improve the company's efficiency and decision-making capabilities.

Running head: IT FOR BUSINESS
IT FOR BUSINESS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Pros and Cons of the new POS System...........................................................................................3
POS System for gaining competitive advantage.............................................................................5
Advnatages of a centralised database..............................................................................................5
POS System and Decision making..................................................................................................7
Risks................................................................................................................................................9
Recommendations..........................................................................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
A Case study on Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery has been provided for assessing
the report. In the report, the various advantages and disadvantages of the point of sale system that
was installed in the mentioned organisation has been provided. To help the business in gaining
competitive advantage, the methods have been evaluated and enlisted. In the report, the
advantages of a central database has been emphasized. For facilitating decision making purposes
by the POS system, different criteria has been assessed. The report discusses about the ways that
POS systems use to process the business processes effectively and how it can manually track
data. Proper telecommunication options has been provided for the new implemented technology.
Different networks has been discussed and the wireless and wired technologies has been
assessed. The risks associated with the new system has been evaluated in the report.
Pros and Cons of the new POS System
A POS system can provide any organisation like Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery
with a number of benefits as well as drawbacks. Some of the advantages and disadvantages of
the mentioned organisation are written as follows:-
The accounting process of Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery can be improved with
the new POS system. Previously, the accountant of the mentioned organisation had to go through
thousands of receipts which was not only time-consuming but also inefficient. The new POS
system will allow Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery to utilize the inbuilt reporting system
that will be able to organize the various departments of organization (Frisby et al. 2013).

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The new POS system will allow the mentioned organisation to expand their management
control over the schedules of employees to allocate and review their salaries to different
functions and departments. It will allow better accountability functions and provide the owner
with the power to provide more access controls to their subordinates (Rese, Schreiber and Baier
2014). They can now ask their personnel to provide the next goal of their sales for the next year
with the help of the data analytics of the new POS system.
The new POS system will allow Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery to have a proper
infrastructure for reporting and processing the business operations of the mentioned organisation.
Figure 1: POS system homescreen
(Source: Rese, Schreiber and Baier 2014)
The new POS system will allow the organisation to have a centralized system but the
benefit has its own set of disadvantages. Cyber-attacks on the system is possible if the
inventories are not set up in their latest inventory list. The centralized system can although
provide the prospective organisation can keeping the personal information of customers and

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employees safe if the proper security measures are taken into account (Profeta, Balling and
Roosen 2013).
POS System for gaining competitive advantage
The point of sale system can be used for number of reason in a prospective organisation
like Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery. The organisation can gain competitive advantage
with the new technology in the following ways.
Point of sales system are often cheaper, easier and faster to install than other alternatives
present in the current market. The deployment of the new system is often simple and allows the
organisation to retain its business process during the installation phase. The system can provide
the organisation with competitive analysis by allowing it to save on money and human errors in
the long term. The customers can save on tie as well as the transaction efficiency increases due
to the peripheral bar code scanner present in the system. Moreover, the installation of a web
based POS system is negligible almost. As the installation is managed by a third party, the
mentioned company will not have to invest on extra costs to use the system efficiently. The
owners have to pay the entire cost of the system upfront without the need to worry about later
additional costs like technical support charges, maintenance and software updates. It will allow
the prospective company to manage and track the inventories properly in real time and can allow
the company to assess how much inventory is left and how quickly they need to dispose the
stock to achieve the monthly target (Nikolova and Inman 2015). By generating reports, it allows
the company to reduce their paper works and become efficient in the way providing the company
with a competitive benefit. The volume of the stock and the daily transaction report could be

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produced accurately with the new system. It will allow the company to provide better CRM
services
Advantages of a centralised database
The advantages of a central database are provided in the next section.
The centralized database in Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery will help the
organisation to gain more security of data as the system will be accessed by a handful of people.
Extracting information from a single centralized database is more secure than collecting the
information from a number of databases.
The data from a centralized data base will help the mentioned comay in properly handling
the data handling and storing processes
The centralized database will help the company to properly handle data preservation.
Most often system s crumble when it goes through a hardware failure. The absence of a fault
tolerant system is the main reason for the loss of valuable information (Polasik et al. 2013). In
centralized storage systems, the data is stored in a setup that is fault tolerant and provides a
redundant storage. The data in the centralised database remains secure even in the case of a
disaster or catastrophic failure.
Most of the organisations maintain a huge number of personal information of employees
and consumers whose security is a major concern for every organisation (Gomzin 2014). The
centralised data base can be linked with password protection, firewalls and encrypted VPNs to
provide enhanced security.

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Figure 2: POS system by Quickbooks
(Source: Rese, Schreiber and Baier 2014)
With the centralised database, the reliability on data increases considerably. The
redundancy and use of high quality components, the data becomes much moe reliable thn storing
it in a physical drive. It provides the company with advanced featires like comprehensive data
acess and virtualization
Morever, the centralized system updates reaches all the end users unlike a loca strage
update which only applies to the PC being used on.

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POS System and Decision making
Successful integration of POS system with the mentioned organisation will allow it to
create reports and analysis mechanism of the services that they are providing. This will allow the
business to make decisions in an effective way which will benefit all the departments of the
mentioned organisation. The POS systems are simple, quick and easy to install. A proper
installation of the POS system will allow the organisation to streamline their business processes
and free up the time of the additional members to coordinate them effectively.
Figure 3: POS system
(Source: Gomzin 2014)
The POS system will allow the company to reach the targeted sales figure with real time
analysis. Proper POS systems can prove benefit to the company by providing information about
what the customers are wanting and a proper market analysis. A central database needs to be
present in the POS system to take continuous feedback. The new system will provide the

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organization with netter decision making capabilities that will enable it to settle for better
business prospects. It can enhance the inventory system management. Proper monitoring system
and inventory information is analysed by the POS system to analyse the business environment in
real time.
Risks
Figure 4: POS system handled by a user
(Source: Rese, Schreiber and Baier 2014)
Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery should be aware that in the modern digital era
nothing is secure from the hands of cyber criminals. Spoof software and trackers can be
implanted in the system to extract customer information and credit card details. The devices may

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not be secure enough with the one verification password. The system needs to be have an
inherent security measures or lese it can fall prey to phishing attacks. Devices which do not have
the latest system updates are more vulnerable to the threats. Credit card skimming is another risk
that is related to this technology.
Recommendation
A number of recommendations and information related to communication technology has
been mentioned for Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery in the following section:-.
 LAN is referred to the network of computers that spreads across a small area. It is
normally present in a group of buildings or a single room. The different LAN
systems are interconnected with radio waves or telephone lines. They are
normally used to connect personal computers and workstations. Every individual
nodes that are present in the LAN have its own central processing unit that it can
use to run certain programs (Ståhlberg and Maila 2013). But it can also access
information from any devices that is connected within the LAN network. Users of
this network are able to engage in chat sessions or send emails.

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Figure 5: Internet
(Source: Ståhlberg and Maila 2013)
 WAN is also known as wide area network and connects a bunch of LANs. The
only difference between both of them is the size of the geographical area that it
covers. Normally it covers more than two LAN network and are linked through
public networks.
 MAN is also known as Metropolitan area network and is more or less similar to
local area networks. The only difference is that it spans across an entire campus or
a city. MAN network are smaller than WAN but larger than LAN. Normally they
are formed by connecting a bunch of LANs.
Wireless as well as wired technologies can be implemented in Four Seasons Greenhouse
and Nursery as well. A Wired communication medium is used in wired networks whereas a

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wireless networks use remote communication systems to facilitate information between various
devices.
Figure 6: Wireless technology
(Source: Ståhlberg and Maila 2013)
Conclusion
To conclude the report, it can be stated that imposed new point of sale system in the
mentioned company will help it to make better decisions in the future. The integration of the nw
system will allow the company to streamline its inventory and analyse customer information
efficiently. For proper decision making purposes by the POS system, different criteria has been
assessed. The report analyses about the methods that POS systems utilize to process the business
processes properly and how it can manually track data. The new technology comes with its own
share of risks and flaws too. But with proper recommendation it will be able to counter those
disadvantages and make its business process more efficient.