IT for Business: Evaluating POS Systems for Four Seasons Nursery

This report explores the advantages and disadvantages of implementing Point of Sale (POS) systems, particularly for a small business like Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery. It details how POS systems can enhance business operations by improving data management, decision-making, and customer relationship management, while also addressing the associated security and data privacy risks. The report further discusses the competitive advantages gained through efficient data utilization and improved business processes. It highlights the benefits of a centralized database and the telecommunication options, such as Local Area Networks (LAN) with wired Ethernet connections, suitable for small businesses. Ultimately, the report emphasizes the importance of understanding both the potential benefits and risks associated with POS systems to make informed strategic decisions.

IT for Business

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Technologies have facilitated the companies to smoothen and fasten up their work process.
POS systems are helping the companies in managing their works like accounting or
management of sales and transactional data. This report describes the advantages and
disadvantages of using POS systems. Along with this it also describes about the way in
which centralised database helps the organisation. POS system facilitates decision making
hence they can help in making the effective strategies. It also describes regarding the
telecommunication option that small firm can use. It also describes about the risks that is
present by the usage of POS systems.

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Contents
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................3
Benefits and disadvantages of Point of sale..........................................................................................3
Competitive advantage provided by POS system..................................................................................4
Centralised database advantages............................................................................................................4
POS system facilitates decision making................................................................................................5
POS systems processes business operations effectively....................................................................5
Manual methods effectiveness in tracking data................................................................................5
Questions which could be answered..................................................................................................6
Information used for better business management.............................................................................6
Telecommunication option available.....................................................................................................6
Types of network...............................................................................................................................6
Type of media....................................................................................................................................7
POS systems risks.................................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION.....................................................................................................................................8
RECCOMENDATIONS.............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES......................................................................................................................................9

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INTRODUCTION
In the present age of technology based business, information has turned into new tool for
successful business. It has become essential for the organisations to make sure that they have
effective technological equipment present at the workplace in different units (Adeoti &
Osotimehin, 2012). POS system is one such device that helps in the maintenance of sales and
transactional processing. It helps in storing of the data whenever transactional processing is
done. This report analyses the benefits and demerits linked with the POS system along with
the telecommunication network that will required for usage of Point of sale system.
Benefits and disadvantages of Point of sale
Point of sale brings a huge number of benefits and drawbacks to the business (D’angello,
2018). For the small organisations like Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery POS gives
following advantages and disadvantages:
Advantages
 It helps in storing crucial data related to sales and transactions on the real time basis.
 It helps in customer relationship management as it alerts users about the transaction
being made (Dontigney, 2018).
 As data can be received anytime hence it is very helpful in the case of decision
making process as very effective and real time decisions could be made using this.
 It ensures that almost no transactional errors due to human faults occur and same time
quick services could be provides to the users using this system.
 It ensures that no data redundancy problems exist in sales information management
(Guinn, 2018).
 The POS ensures accountability at the same time it brings transparency in the work
process
Disadvantages
 There are many security and data privacy risks associated with the use of POS
systems.
 Maintenance of the information system is not easier and generally done by IT
professionals (Hansen & Sia, 2015).

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 If the system got damaged then it may lead to huge data loss which is not good in the
present business environment.
Competitive advantage provided by POS system
Since huge benefits are linked with use of POS system in the firm hence it directly provides
competitive advantage to the firm. POS system helps in making many of the processes easier.
The first thing that POS system does is that it increases the quality decision making capacity
of the firm (Hongqiang, 2011). With the data that is available through the POS system, a firm
can understands about the products that is increasing their profits and which are not. This data
is crucial as the firm will also focus on the sale of that product only. The collected data is also
utilised for the process of making efficient strategies since the data available are time and
accurate. POS system improves the business processes like accounting, decision making,
product performance management etc. These are the major factors in the modern day
business to provide competitive advantage to the firms.
Apart from this also speed up all this process which is necessary for entertaining larger set of
customers on daily basis (McCarthy, 2018). The data that is gathered through POS system
helps in satisfaction of the clients as proper details regarding the purchase is provided to the
customers and in case of any query it provides the required details regarding the sale. It
removes the flaws that are may arise due to manual errors as well as it also assist in the
process of forecasting the demands. If the company is ready for its future demands which
they have to face, it can easily gain competitive advantage over the rivals.
Centralised database advantages
There are various functional units in an organisation. All these units need to work in
collaboration. Database plays a very essential role in this regards as they help in the process
of decision making (Szell, Lambiotte & Thurner, 2010). This calls for the need of having a
centralised database system. There are several advantages of using centralised database
within an organisation. Some of them are:
 As the data is not distributed hence the places at which data can be attacked by the
malicious contents is less.
 It is easier to retrieve data especially whenever required as it can be availed through
one location.

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 Data portability becomes simpler.
 Management of data especially when there is a need of making changes in it
(Qawami, Talaich & Farrell, 2014).
 For managing and controlling of data very less amount of resources are required
which makes it highly cost effective system.
POS system facilitates decision making
One of the core benefits of using POS system is the fact that it makes the decision more
accurate and realistic. As the POS systems stores a huge amount of data that could be used by
Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery for making of decisions. This would help them in
their growth. It has become essential for all the organisations to maintain the accurateness of
data (Cunningham, et. al., 2015). This can only be possible in the case when real time data is
available with the firm at the time of decision making. A data driven approach is facilitated
by the use of POS systems. It also supports decision making as a more analytic and decisive
decisions could be made with the help of the data that is generated by the use of POS
systems. It also helps in making the decisions regarding the flaws that are present in the sales
procedures which will be beneficial at the time of decision making.
POS systems processes business operations effectively
Earlier the data management especially related to the accounts was considered to be as the
time taking process. This was because the manual methods were very slow and has many
types of flaws in it. It was having direct effect on the business operations because of the
probability of generation of wrong decision through such data (Duvall, Reece, Hrabosky &
Burton, 2012). POS system eliminated the chances of data redundancy and it can be tracked
at the same time it is generated. The information gathered through use of POS systems can be
easily sorted out and hence decisions can be made very easily based on various variables.
POS system assists in finding the fact that which seller is performing well and upon which
Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery has to focus upon. In their process segmentation and
targeting, this sales data plays a very crucial role. It smoothens up the other process like
accounting, sales management, demand forecast etc.
Manual methods effectiveness in tracking data
At previous time yes it was tracked with the help of manual procedures. The demerit of it was
in huge numbers. First is the fact that it was a highly slower process and does not fit up the
expectations of modern day business (Samek & Hernandez, 2013). With the chances of data

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redundancy, it was always possible that wrong decisions could be made. Manual tracking of
data required a huge amount of human efforts. An element of doubt regarding the accuracy of
data was always present. In manual processes it was not possible to make instant decisions
which have become a crucial aspect in the modern day business.
Questions which could be answered
With the use of POS systems many type of questions could be answered with the help of POS
system. It helps in answering the question that is linked with sales and transactional
procedures. It also solves the questions that are linked with accounts procedures within the
organisation. It also provides answer regarding the trending products or says about the major
choices that are made by consumers. Analysing these data can be used for finding the
competitive gains (Dai, 2015). Questions related to required changes within the organisation
can also be answered through it. Data related to performance of sales unit within Four
Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery can also be answered.
Information used for better business management
There are various types of data that is gathered through the help of POS systems. This crucial
information can be used for the process of decision making regarding making changes in the
operational mechanism (Redmond, Huang & Heisinger, 2012). The gathered data could be
used for finding out the demerits in the system and hence plays a crucial role in the
management of systems. Information obtained through this can help in removing the
operational inefficiencies of the business processes. It is necessary for making the business
processes more accurate and as per the requirements of the market.
Telecommunication option available
Advancements in telecommunication sector have been very fast. This has provided firms with
many kinds of options. As the Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery is small business
enterprise hence its telecommunication requirements is very unique. For any firm it is crucial
that select the telecommunication option as per their requirement. Some advanced
telecommunication options are also available in terms of the type of networks.
Types of network
There are wide ranges of options that are available with Four Seasons Greenhouse and
Nursery Company. They could use of any of these options but it would be better for the
organisation to adopt Local Area Network. As the number of systems that has to be arranged

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in a network is lesser in number and all these devices that has to be linked is also at the
nearby place. LAN provides a facility of connecting the systems that are present at nearby
location in a very high speed connecting network. As Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery
Company is having limited amount of resources hence it would be beneficial for them to
connect their systems in a LAN network.
Type of media
There is a wide range of options available with the cited firm in terms of the ways in which
they can connect their systems. The selection of media plays a very decisive role in the
performance of the network and the IT system. All the systems can be connected with both
wired and wireless media. Since the distances at which the systems are to be connected are
not so far hence it will be effective for the firm to connect it through wired connection. The
selection of the media has been on three bases:
 First is the fact that wired connections are easier to maintain.
 The speed of connection provided by the wired connection is very fast.
 There is a less chance of data through the wired connection.
For connecting in wired connection there are many types of cables are also available. Since
the resource available with the firm is less hence use of Ethernet cables could be a better
option. It is also beneficial as Ethernet cables are lower cost and the probability of data
leakage is also less.
POS systems risks
With the use of POS system, there are various kinds of risks that are attached with the use of
POS systems. Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery Company have to deal with these risks
by the help of better strategic methods by understanding the impact of these risks. Common
risks that linked with the help of POS systems are as follows:
 Security: Huge amount of data is available with the POS systems. These data are of
strategic importance and if goes into some wrong hands can lead to strategic failure. It
is crucial that an organisation safeguards its financial data so that no monetary losses
can be noticed by the firm (Xian, Ellis, Good & Zhu, 2013). Financial reputation of
cited firm will also go on stake if the security is compromised. Use of data protection
software can be crucial in this regards.

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 Confidentiality: There is a huge amount of confidential data stored in the POS
systems. In order to manage the performance of various units confidentiality is a
major issue. For example since a whole lot of cards are swiped through the POS
machines hence confidentiality is a major issue.
 Privacy: There is various privacy issues linked with the IT systems and so is the case
with POS system use (Cheng, Hsu & Chou, 2013). Privacy related to stakeholder’s
data needs to be maintained and use of firewalls can be highly beneficial in this
regards.
CONCLUSION
On summarising the report it can be said that POS systems are of greater importance in the
modern data management of financial data. There are several advantages and disadvantages
linked with the use of POS systems. A centralised database has higher numbers of benefits.
POS system facilitates decision making as it provides real time and data without redundancy
at the time of decision making. LAN with the help of wired connection can be a better option.
In that also Ethernet cables can be highly beneficial in this regards. Risks such as privacy,
security and confidentiality are present with the use of such systems.
RECCOMENDATIONS
POS systems have been very useful in terms of managing the data that is related to sales and
transaction hence must be used inside the firm for its different purposes. The use of LAN
connection and connecting the system with the help of wired system can beneficial in terms
of cost saving and ensuring high speed performance. The cited firm must use Ethernet cables
for connecting systems as the data leakage through these cables is least. There are many risks
that are present in the business with the use of POS system hence company must use effective
security software so as to ensure the security of the systems.

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REFERENCES
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