Advantages of implementing a Point of Sale system

Discuss about the POS System for Design, Implementation and Management.

The definition of POS cab be stated as the exact amount of time that is needed for the retail sale transaction till the transaction gets complete. When the retailer evaluates the exact time when the customer takes the good from the user, that exact point is known as Point of Sale (Rese, Schreiber & Baier 2014). In Point of sale exact time as well as exact amount of money is evaluated. For the POS to be completed, the customer is to be provided with an invoice for the amount that the customer is paying and for the good that is customer is taking. After the giving the invoice, when the customer pays the amount of money to the manufacturer and at that time the sale is known as Point of Sale. Without the invoice and without the payment method, the POS system is not being completed. The POS system can be used by big companies as well as small companies where transactions take place.

The Point of Sale serves with many advantages as well as many disadvantages. When an organization implements the POS system, the organization will have to face advantages along with disadvantages. For the organization of Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery, the advantages that the company can get from the Point of Sale is are stated below.

1. The advantageous features that the Point of Sale provides to Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery is that the system is very efficient and provides a rapid result. The organization can increased the efficiency of the system by the using the Point of Sale system (Madden and TAN 2015). the transaction that are to be take place in the organization should be efficient enough so that there is no mistake and there is no wrong transaction that is possible for manual transaction. POS system makes the transaction process faster.
2. As the Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery is maintain its inventory through manual system. There are some register in the organization that are most often not maintained properly (Dai 2015). To make the inventory most efficient and most to keep a track on the store, the Point of Sale is Used so that the organization can keep track on the store. The employees are not able to maintain the system properly in the organization. If a POS system is implemented, this problem can be mitigated.
3. The system of POS cannot be wrong, and the exact amount of money will be taken from the user as well as the suppliers. The chance of making mistakes increases when the system is manually. There can be calculation mistake in manual process (Wang et al. 2014). But in Point of Sale there is no chance of such mistake. The system is perfect for Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery.

The system of Point of Sale cannot be always flawless. In fact, all the system in the universe provides the user with some issues. So, the POS system also has some disadvantages that are stated below.

1. The infrastructure of the system that is needed for implementing the Point of Sale is the very costly. The organization of Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery is a small sized company that deals with the garden equipment and plants, is basically a small sized company that does not have much capital to implement a costly system in their system (Orr et al. 2015). For implementing the system of POS in the infrastructure, the organization needs to have huge capital. To implement the POS system in the nursery may lead to financial crisis in the organization.
2. The maintenance of the Point of Sale system is also not that easy for the employees of the nursery. The Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery has to hire new employees for maintain the software of Point of Sale. Or the existing employees will have to be given proper training to the employees for maintaining the system. 

The system of POS is very fast as well as efficient because it is an exact system that makes the system automated. The transaction system of the nursery becomes easier with the implementation of the POS system. The organization deals with the buying as well selling of the garden equipment and plants, the system is to exact as the organization cannot keep a track on the inventory. To make its work performing more efficiently POS system is used. There are many such nurseries who provides similar kinds of services and products (Falzone and Ciabarra 2016). To make the working process more automated and unique, the system of Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery is suggested to use the Point of Sale in the system. The errors that the organization usually are expected to make can be mitigated by using the system of POS. The decision making of the organization is also improved by using the POS system. The organization can collect the exact amount of money by implementing POS and mitigate loss in the organization.

Disadvantages of implementing a Point of Sale system

A simple database is basically considered to be as a centralized database that helps organizations to keep all the data securely stored. The centralized database uses many advantages for making the information technology system more efficient (Meagher 2014). The information are very vital for an organization and they are to be kept safe. So, the advantages that the centralized database offers are very useful to know. The advantages are stated as follows.

1. The centralized database use to preserve data as this is a huge storage system for the organization. This is the foremost advantage that the system offers. Increasing the space in database is not at all ctly.
2. The centralized database provides security to all the data that are stored in the system. The database is a safe place where the data can be stored without any fear of data breach (Yang et al. 2015). The confidentiality of data is therefore maintained by implementing the centralized database.
3. The centralized provides security of space as no unauthorized user can access the data of the organization. The organization needs to keeps the data safely in the centralized database.
4. The system of centralize database is very cost effective. This is the most advantageous feature that the database provides. The system is very much cost effective. All organizations from small to big can use the centralized database very easily. 

The organization of Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery needs to communicate with all the employees and the telecommunication process should be very a cheap one as the organization is not a big organization and does not have such huge capital to invent on telecommunication (Januzaj, Ajdari and Selimi 2015). A cheap, affordable, as well as efficient telecommunication that the small nursery can use if the Wide Area Network (WAN). There are other networks as well such as LAN (Local Area Network) and MAN (Metropolitan Area Network). Both of these networks are not appropriate for the nursery because the area of Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery is wide to implement LAN, and not that large to implement WAN. So, the most appropriate network that the nursery can use WAN.

There are many technologies that are basically used for communication to take place. The most suitable telecommunication that Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery can use is the wireless technology. There is no headache of using high cost cables in other communications. The wireless technology provides the organization with most appropriate telecommunication medium for the organization.

The Point of Scale cannot be flawless. So, the POS system also provides some disadvantages that the nursery may face while implementing. The disadvantages are as follows.

1. The security that the Point of Scale provides is the not always appropriate. The network of the system is not always secure (Coronel and Morris 2016). The hackers can hack the network of the POS to get the data or the information that is related with the Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery. Hacking of data from POS network may lead to data breach. This data breach can be mitigated by implementing a proper antivirus in all the systems of the organization. This will help to find out any abnormalities in the organization.
2. There is a confidentiality as well as privacy issue that the organization may face by implementing the Point of Scale is that there may not be confidentiality of data and the data sometime cannot be kept private by the employees of the organization (Horn et al., 2017). The confidentiality of the data can be maintained by not allowing other users to access the data of the organization. No other users are allowed to access the data that are associated with the organization. And to maintain the privacy, the organization should implement accurate user name as well as passwords for logging in the system so that no other unauthorized user can login the system. 

Conclusion

It can be stated that the POS system is the most appropriate system that the Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery can use to make its system organized and automatic. To keep a track on the inventory of the organization, the POS is the best system that can be implemented. This report clearly defines the advantages as well as disadvantages of the Point of Scale and all possible ways by which the organization can mitigate the issues the POS system. This report also states about the advantages that the centralized database system provides to the organization and at last a recommendation is given to the nursery that will help the organization to improve the telecommunication system. 

References

Coronel, C. and Morris, S., 2016. Database systems: design, implementation, & management. Cengage Learning.

Dai, X., 2015. Secured point-of-sale transaction system. U.S. Patent 9,129,269.

Edwards, T., Skoog, L., Babu, A. and Dorogusker, J., Square Inc, 2016. Point-of-sale system. U.S. Patent 9,424,721.

Falzone, L. and Ciabarra, C., Revel Systems Inc, 2016. Point of sale system. U.S. Patent Application 15/043,163.

Januzaj, Y., Ajdari, J. and Selimi, B., 2015. DBMS as a Cloud service: Advantages and Disadvantages. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 195, pp.1851-1859.

Madden, C.A. and TAN, G.P., VeriFone Inc, 2015. Point of sale system. U.S. Patent Application 14/103,298.

Meagher, M., Metrologic Instruments Inc, 2014. Bioptical point of sale (POS) checkout system employing a retractable weigh platter support subsystem. U.S. Patent 8,822,848.

Orr, R.N., Lemley, D., Hotchkies, C.J. and Dehoux, J.L., Atx Innovation Inc, 2015. System and method for interfacing a client device with a point of sale system. U.S. Patent 9,195,982.

Rese, A., Schreiber, S., & Baier, D. (2014). Technology acceptance modeling of augmented reality at the point of sale: Can surveys be replaced by an analysis of online reviews?. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 21(5), 869-876.

Van Horn, E., Kearney, S.P., Giordano, P.A., Good, T., Dickinson, C., Au, K.M., Wilz Sr, D., Furlong, J.A., Hejl, B., Walczyk, J.A. and Coyle, L., 2017. Multifunction point of sale system. U.S. Patent Application 15/612,332.

Wang, C.X., Haider, F., Gao, X., You, X.H., Yang, Y., Yuan, D., Aggoune, H., Haas, H., Fletcher, S. and Hepsaydir, E., 2014. Cellular architecture and key technologies for 5G wireless communication networks. IEEE Communications Magazine, 52(2), pp.122-130.

Yang, N., Wang, L., Geraci, G., Elkashlan, M., Yuan, J. and Di Renzo, M., 2015. Safeguarding 5G wireless communication networks using physical layer security. IEEE Communications Magazine, 53(4), pp.20-27.