HC1041 - Implementing a POS System at Four Seasons Greenhouse

This report assesses the potential implementation of a Point of Sale (POS) system at Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery, a small business in Colorado currently using manual registers. The report details the advantages and disadvantages of adopting a POS system, including improved efficiency, stock management, and reporting, versus costs, updates, and security risks. It explores how a POS system can provide competitive advantages through better inventory tracking and decision-making, and discusses the benefits of a centralized database for data preservation, security, and cost reduction. Furthermore, the report suggests telecommunication options like LAN, WAN, MAN, wired, and wireless media for the POS system and addresses potential security and privacy risks, offering recommendations for protection. The analysis provides a comprehensive overview to assist Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery in making informed decisions about integrating a POS system to improve business operations. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments and reports for students.

Running head: POS SYSTEM FOR BUSINESS
POS System for business
(Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery)
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author Note

1POS SYSTEM FOR BUSINESS
Executive summary
Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery is a small business located in Colorado. . The company uses
the manual registers. They use the registers to track their inventory and to earn more productivity.
They decide to adopt information system to manage the inventory and manage the resources of the
business. The point-of-sale system in the system will allows the owners to track the sales transaction
data. The report illustrates the pros and cons of the POS. In the report, POS includes the idea of the
centralized database, the contribution of database in the decision making. Recommendations have
been made in the report which will help Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery to conduct the
business efficiently.

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Table of Contents
Introduction:..........................................................................................................................................3
1. Advantages and Disadvantages of new POS systems:......................................................................3
2. Ways in which POS system help business gain competitive advantages:.........................................4
3. Advantages of having a centralized database:...................................................................................5
4. Process in which POS facilitates decision making:...........................................................................6
5. Recommended telecommunication options for POS system:............................................................7
6. Risks brought by POS system and protection of business against the risks:.....................................9
Conclusion:..........................................................................................................................................10
References:..........................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction:
Every business requires information technology to carry out the business. The small business
can be benefitted by the POS system and it has been illustrated in the report.
The Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery is the small business based in Colorado. The
garden center small business has been using the manual registers for carrying out the business
operations. They are planning to adopt information system to enhance their business and POS
system is going to offer them several useful benefits (Rahman and Ripon 2014). Four Seasons
Greenhouse and Nursery with the help of POS can track the inventory; can track the customers and
the employees.
The report explains the usage of the information system at the nursery. There are several
advantages and disadvantages of POS that has been highlighted in the report. Again, the idea of the
centraised database has been defined in the report.
1. Advantages and Disadvantages of new POS systems:
Advantages Discussion
Improved
efficiency
The POS system records the price of the inventory and the products. The
employees do not have to calculate the financial data manually
Stock
Management
POS helps to know the current available stock. The data will be entered into the
digital database. The employees can enter the data, can access the data and can
process the data with ease
Accurate
Reports
POS has the capability to identify the general sales trends such as the seasonal
variations as per demands of the stock (Rahman and Ripon 2014)

4POS SYSTEM FOR BUSINESS
Employee
tracking
POS can be helpful to track the behavior of the employees. The employees are
asked to submit the sales goals for the next reporting period. Thus POS can help to
process and report for the enterprise

5POS SYSTEM FOR BUSINESS
Disadvantages Discussion
Cost of Web Access Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery will have to spend heavy to take up
the POS software. They will have to pay the cloud vendor. Also they require
a network connection having high bandwidth
Updates Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery will have to update the software
resources at regular interval. They will have to upgrade the hardware
components as well.
Security Risks Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery will have to implement the antivirus
software in their system otherwise there is a chance that their sensitive data
will get breached
2. Ways in which POS system help business gain competitive advantages:
POS system can assist to track the business transaction details. POS facilitates Four Seasons
Greenhouse and Nursery to facilitate the business of the company. The software is also useful to
track the internal stick, they ca be able to schedule the replenishment stock from several external
resources. The inventory management is crucial for Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery. The
POS aids in inputting, tracking and distribution of the data. The company can be able to track the
items that have been manufactured (Johnson 2016). The POS also assist in decision making. The
Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery can help to track the employees as well as they can keep
track of the products which are being manufactured. The company can earn the maximum profit,
they can be able to earn for the business. They must choose the POS software and the will have to
consider several aspects of the POS software. The software will help them to meet the deliverable s

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for the business. The POS systems that can provide several benefits to the software are Bindo,
ShopKeep and Vend.
3. Advantages of having a centralized database:
Advantages Discussion
Enhances data
preservation
Preservation is offered by the centralized databases. The database involves
an efficient setup of the fault tolerance and redundant storage preservation
data. This occurs at the time of the catastrophic failure of hardware within
the drive.
Enhances physical
security
The data which are stored locally denotes the physical safety hazards
Enhances Physical
Security
The server room and the centralized database blocks the direct access to
the system and the database
Enhances Data
Security
Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery maintains data of the customers
and the employees. Thus privacy and security is a challenge. The database
administrators will have to ensure data safety otherwise the sensitive data
will get lost. They will have to maintain the policies to restrict the harm
that can prove to be harmful for the server (Keith, Buckler and Hamilton
2015). They need to implement the virtual private network, will have to
install antimalware software. This will help to ensure the firewalls.
Reducing costs POS will surely curb down the process and expenses for the project. They
do not require specialized hardware and software resources as most of the
work activities will be conducted over the cloud platform
Enhances Reliability The centralized database storage is associated with redundancy and

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and Update Speed components. This makes the system reliable when compared to the local
storage (Min and Park 2017). The cloud vendor will update the database
and the system. Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery thus ca get the
reliable updated system all the time.
4. Process in which POS facilitates decision making:
Efficient processes
facilitating decision
making
Discussion
Creating smarter ways
of marketing
Email marketing is the valuable means for promoting the services
as well as the products. One can easily boost up their business
through email marketing and Four Seasons Greenhouse and
Nursery is no exception. The company by using the CRM can be
able to target specific group of people (Muyo et al. 2017). CRM
facilitates ways to reach out to customers in more reliable means.
The CRM will help Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery to
know the buying habits of the customers.
Close eye on gross
margins
POS aids in analyzing the why and seeks for the scopes to
increase the average sale. POS also helps in setting margin goal of
profit. The software will help them to know the performance of
the company and they will have to wait longer till the end of the
quarter or the month.
Rethink sales floor It is required to understand whether Four Seasons Greenhouse
and Nursery can earn certain profits within the store. The Cloud

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based POS will help them to recognize the areas and the
departments where they can earn more. Thus the company can
know the scope of the project.
Purchasing with
insights
Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery with the aid of sales
reporting and information inventory can make smarter decisions.
POS will help the Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery to know
the preference of the customers and they will display the
customers those items which they prefer to purchase. They can
provide discounts and in this way they can facilitate the
customers.
5. Recommended telecommunication options for POS system: LAN:
The terminals of POS can be able to connect to POS servers with the aid of LAN. POS supports
TCP/IDP protocols and other UDP data transfer protocols. To use the connectivity option, POS is
connected to the LAN router. The system is set up in such way that the POS is operations data to the
LAN. The router of LAN is connected to the server of POS. WAN:
WAN provides a secured mode of data transmission among the networks. WAN makes the
data transmission reliable and comparatively less expensive. Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery
can use the WAN for the gaining access to the distant support agents. This can aid students to the
download the logos or run the various utilities like the analysis of the potential issues. WAN is also
used for the remote administration such as programming of latest POS parameters with Q-Prog and

9POS SYSTEM FOR BUSINESS
uploading of POS parameters (Myatt and Redman 2015). One can call up reports and can assess
after that can sales data from office premises to home.
 MAN:
MAN supports the POS hardware. The software is also useful to control the inventory and
the stock. The invoices are sent to the customers quickly and relatively faster via email. Cash flow is
considered as the monitors and the accounts generated by the POS helps to develop the financial
statement and the financial performance (Shu 2014). POS software is relatively easy to use and all
the customers can use the software.
 Wired media:
Wired media is a fixed and easy to use terminal. The POS terminals are secured and reliable and
are contactless. It is enabled and be conveniently and incorporated in the POS system. POS system
can go well with the debit as well as the credit cards lie the Visa card, America Express JCB, Union
Pay and Master Card. Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery can make payments through several
contactless chip cards as well as magnetic stripe cards (Stamam et al. 2016). The POS is thus
relatively to use and it associates back tilt screen along with the keypad regarding each and every
lighting conditions.

10POS SYSTEM FOR BUSINESS
 Wireless media:
Wireless POS is the usage of wireless devices which facilitates the payment for specific products
and services. The wireless POS is also termed as WPOS and it comprises of the base situation that is
connected to the central network. The WPOS is used to handle the devices to communicate
wirelessly.
6. Risks brought by POS system and protection of business against the risks: Security:
There are several risks associated with the POS system. The vendors manage all the encryption
keys without ant security module. Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery uses the corporate network
to send the emails and data. The security breach is a matter of concern. The attackers can attack the
system can make the system vulnerable to use. The confidential data and the financial data of the
customers can be at risk due to the virus attack or the malware attack.
 Privacy:
Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery responsibility is to provide security and privacy of the
system as well as the database. The company takes several initiatives to safeguard the confidential
data of both the customers as well as the employees. The employees will have to setup username and
the password and they should not share those confidential data with the outsiders. Thus sharing of
the confidential data can lead to data breach. The customers must also keep their passwords secret.
 Confidentiality:
Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery must ensure safety as well as security of the system and
the database. The business must take the initiatives to safeguard those confidential and sensitive data

11POS SYSTEM FOR BUSINESS
of both the employees and the customers. The security breach can lead to disaster. The
confidentiality can get threatened due to the hacker’s attack.
Conclusion:
It can be concluded from the above discourse that POS has several benefits to offer and all
the benefits have been defined in the report. The competitive advantage that POS can get has been
defined in the project report. The security issues, the privacy issues and lastly the confidentiality
issues have been defined in the project. Recommendations have been made in the report alongside
all the benefits. They must install the antivirus program, the antivirus program can provide several
benefits to the company. Thus POS will offer them several benefits and all have been defined in the
project.