Four Seasons Greenhouse: Decision Making with a New POS System

This report analyzes the implementation of a Point of Sale (POS) system at Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery, examining its advantages and disadvantages. The study explores how the POS system aids in tracking sales, updating sales history, and eliminating reliance on manual processes. It further investigates the competitive advantages gained through improved decision-making, schedule management, and performance review. The report also highlights the benefits of a centralized database for data preservation and security, along with telecommunication options such as local area networks and cloud computing. Finally, it addresses potential risks associated with the POS system, including security breaches, privacy concerns, and confidentiality issues, and recommends strategies for mitigating these risks through enhanced security measures and access controls. Desklib offers similar solved assignments and past papers for students.

IT for Business
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Contents
Introduction..............................................................................................................................3
1) What are the advantages and disadvantages of the new POS system?...........................4
2) How will this POS system help the business gain competitive advantages?...................5
3) What are the advantages of having a centralised database?...........................................6
4) How could this POS system facilitate decision making?..................................................7
5) Recommend telecommunication options for this POS system.........................................8
6) What type of risks does the POS system bring and how to protect the business against
the risks?...................................................................................................................................9
Conclusion...............................................................................................................................11
References...............................................................................................................................12
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Introduction
Technology is one of the aspects which is creating and providing different growth
opportunities and chances through which the organisations in the nation cam be able to put
their level best to meet the market needs and requirements. The small-scale industry is getting
lots of assistance with the effective use of technologies in its operations and activities.
Though it is very beneficial it is difficult and struggle is faced by the SME's to introduce the
technologies as it is expensive and many organisations don’t ae the capital amount to invest
in it. Therefore, there is a situation where the small-scale businesses are not able to afford and
utilise the benefits of technologies. Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery is the organisation
about which the assignment is gathering related information. The point-of-sale-system is the
main concern that will be made in this study. Along with this, the case study will be focused
and information regarding the technical aspects will be studied in this assignment. The risk
factors that may get arise which organisation need to handle will also be understood here.
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1) What are the advantages and disadvantages of the new POS system?
The point of sale system is one of the technical aspects which is been introduced by Four
Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery, in the year 2008. The system is very much advanced as is
availing several benefits and assistance to the organisation to carry out the work in more
appropriate and in the effective manner (Rainer, et. al., 2013). There are several benefits and
advantages that are get attained by the organisation and can overcome the issues and
complexity that is been faced by the organisation. Also, there are some limitations and
disadvantages that come accurse the company’s operations, they are as below-
Advantages
 Helpful in tracking the information and data of the sales transactions.
 The sales history will get updated effectively.
 The dependency and reliance will get eliminated with the help of POS (Ghobadian, et. al.,
2016).
 The detail is availed more effective than the cash register.
 The accurate and reliable data can be recorded.
Disadvantages
 The POS are very costly and expensive.
 There is a very high level of security regarding risk.
 It is necessary to do continuous updates which are very time to consume (Hoffer, 2012).
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2) How will this POS system help the business gain competitive advantages?
The use of POS has helped the organisation to meet the set standards and competitive
benefits as with the effective and right use of this the firm is able to know its pitfalls and
drawbacks. The competitive benefits are able to get obtained by the company as by knowing
the areas where it needs to improve the company has made effective and suitable decisions
that will be assisting in dragging the performance of the firm to another level (Ward, 2016).
This has also helped in managing the schedules and review of the performance that is bee
done by the employees of the firm. The delegation of the responsibilities will also get done
which lead to the high returns and productivity. The decision making was mainly concerned
about the level and the unit of production that is needed to be made along with this the
organisation could also be able to manage its products and operations. The management of
entire working has to get done in the most desired manner. This is the main aspect through
which the company is able to attain the competitive benefits and advantages (Schmarzo,
2013).
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3) What are the advantages of having a centralised database?
The database is the basically the organised way to gather and collate the data and information
in the proper and detailed manner. The centralised database in the organisation plays a vital
and essential role (Khan and Khan, 2013). It is very beneficial for the organisation to keep all
the required details and information at the same time at a place so as and when required only
confidential people can access it. There are several benefits to have the centralised database,
they are as below-
 The data preservation system in the organisation will get increased in the proper and effective
manner.
 The improvement in the physical security system could be able to get managed in the
required manner which is also a very important aspect.
 The security of the data could be obtained in the proper way (Purnama and Hartati, 2012).
 The cost will get reduced as there will be only one and centralised database.
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4) How could this POS system facilitate decision making?
The decision making is one of the major aspects which is able to get effectively done by the
organisation effectively with the use of POS. Below are some of the aspect through which the
organisation can be able to make the right and required choices-
Point-of-sale systems process business activities are very effective as the working process of
the organisation has entirely changes as this is assisting the firm to record and maintain the
data and necessary information in a systematic manner doing this the firm will be able to
manage the work in the proper way (Booshehrian, et. al., 2012).
The information and data cannot be able to get traced manually as it is systematised and
technically advanced. If it is getting tracked manually then there are chances to make wrong
access and this can lead to a wrong functioning. Therefore, the manual tracking process is not
available in the POS system.
Several business-related questions could be able to get answered by the use of POS system.
The information and data about the company can be availed effectively. The production and
sales information can also be able to get attained by the organisation (Gao, et. al., 2012).
The information attained from the system could be able to manage effectively as the
management of the firm can be able to make strategies and effective plans so as to manage
the retrieved data.
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5) Recommend telecommunication options for this POS system
The telecommunication choices that are required for the POS system can be done with the
effective and right use of the networking. The local area network can be used by the
organisation so as to do the communication in the POS system. The communication is very
necessary, the information and data that is been stored needed to be used and conveyed to the
respective people so that they can be able to manage the work and necessary things in the
required manner. The POS system as to make use by all the telecommunication is very
necessary, henceforth with the right and effective choices the right options for
telecommunication could be utilised (Bemmel, et. al., 2014).
The wired and wireless both the techniques can be used as both are very beneficial and
important at the same time. Coaxial Cable will be used for the wired technology. These
cables are very strong and are very helpful as to maintain the networking aspect. The wireless
technology that will be used for the POS system will be the cloud computing system which
will be an online and wireless aspect where the data and information can be shared without
any risk aspects. It is suggested and recommended that the telecommunication of the
information has to be done in an effective and in the proper manner so that the data and
information can be get managed and shared in the proper and in required manner (Rosenhaft,
et. al., 2014).
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6) What type of risks does the POS system bring and how to protect the business against
the risks?
There are several risk factors that can come across the Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery
by introducing the POS system as there are several aspects that are needed to be managed by
the organisation. The technology is a manually prepared technique where there is a high
presence of risk which has to be effectively understood by the management of the
organisation. The risk is the uncertainties that may arise any time and there is no surety to
have only positive outcomes (DeMarco and Lister, 2013). There are situation and chances
where the use of POS system may create more issues and problems to the Four Seasons
Greenhouse and Nursery. There are few risk aspects that Four Seasons Greenhouse and
Nursery faced they are as below-
Security- The security of the data and information that is having with the organisation is very
high. There is a high level of security risk that will be faced by the organisation as the
technology is communicating through both wired and wireless modes. The wireless modes
many times get hacked and this will be misused by the hackers (Poolsappasit, et. al., 2012).
The information and data stored in the POS system may not be secured as there is a high need
for security system which is not installed or configured in the system that is been
implemented.
To overcome and to manage the security risk it is necessary for the organisation to make the
system highly securitized. The system and some codes need to be implemented in the system
so that the firm can be able to manage the work in more effective and security for the data
and information can be obtained.
Privacy- Privacy is one of the major concern that is also needed to be concerned about the
organisation. Not only the information about the productions and sale can be recorded and
stored in the system but also about the personal information and details of the people related
to the business are also maintained in the process. This is very necessary for the organisation
to understand the importance of privacy as if the information gets leaked the firm will face
more issues and problems. The operations and functions of the work will also get highly
hampered with this. Therefore, the privacy risk is also needed to be managed in the required
manner (Basu, et. al., 2014). The strong and tight security codes and patterns needed to be set
by the specialist so that the access to the information and the data can only be done by the
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confidential people and IP security can be used so that the information hacking can be
stopped. This is very important as this will be aiding and managing to handle the risk
regarding the privacy aspect.
Confidentiality- The data and information are not necessarily to be shared to every people of
the firm. The POS system is having the risk factor of losing the confidentiality of the
information. This will have a great impact on the operations and functioning of the business.
The confidential things have to be confidential only, if it gets loose then problems and issues
will get arise (Machanavajjhala and Reiter, 2012). As being a small business organisation, it
is very difficult to spend more on the problems, therefore by doing proper planning and
making effective strategies the confidentiality can be attained. The system that the company
is using needed to be updated as on time and the key accessibility need to be availed to very
few people.
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Conclusion
From the study, it has been understood that Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery is able to
manage all its activities and management system effectively after implementation of the
point- to- sale- system. It has been analysed that company with its use is also able to meet the
market needs and requirements along with this the competitive benefits have also get
attained. The decision making for several required and important things has also been
developed and made only with the use of a technology called POS system. It has also been
understood that there are several risk factors that are linked with the POS system which is
needed to understand by the organisation s as to overcome the possible future consequences.
The importance and benefits of the point- to- sale- system in the organisation like Four
Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery are very necessary as this will get assistance to manage all
its activities as per the market needs and requirements along with this the company can also
able to survive in the market for long period of time.
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References
1. Basu, A., Monreale, A., Corena, J.C., Giannotti, F., Pedreschi, D., Kiyomoto, S., Miyake, Y.,
Yanagihara, T. and Trasarti, R., 2014, July. A privacy risk model for trajectory data. In IFIP
International Conference on Trust Management (pp. 125-140). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
2. Bemmel, V. and Mian, S., Open Invention Network LLC, 2014. Method and system for
providing biometric authentication at a point-of-sale via a mobile device. U.S. Patent
8,880,434.
3. Booshehrian, M., Möller, T., Peterman, R.M. and Munzner, T., 2012, June. Vismon:
Facilitating analysis of trade‐offs, uncertainty, and sensitivity in fisheries management
decision making. In Computer Graphics Forum (Vol. 31, No. 3pt3, pp. 1235-1244).
Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
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Addison-Wesley.
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6. Ghobadian, A., Stainer, A., Liu, J. and Kiss, T., 2016. A computerised vendor rating system.
In Developments in Logistics and Supply Chain Management (pp. 103-112). Palgrave
Macmillan, London.
7. Hoffer, J.A., 2012. Modern Systems Analysis and Design, 6/e. Pearson Education India.
8. Khan, M. and Khan, M.N.A., 2013. Exploring query optimization techniques in relational
databases. International Journal of Database Theory & Application, 6(3), pp.11-20.
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data. XRDS: Crossroads, The ACM Magazine for Students, 19(1), pp.20-23.
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