Advantages of Using the POS System
The use of the advanced technology has helped different sectors to enhance the business process. The use of the information technology has helped the small and the medium size business organizations to manage the business in a proper way. One of the application of the managing of the business is the application of the point of sale technology in the business sector (Aleksandrovna, Fedorovich and Viktorovna 2016). The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the advantages and the issues regarding the implementation of the point of sale (POS) in the Four Season Greenhouse and Nursery. Apart from that the implementation of the POS system in the organization and the type of the network used in the implementation has been discussed in this paper. The conclusion of the paper is drawn on the basis of the findings from the discussion.
Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery has implemented the point of sale in the business process of the organization. After the implementation the organization has faced certain advantages and the disadvantages of using the point of sale in the business process.
There are certain advantages of using the point of sale system in Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery. Some of these are-
The implementation of the point of sale helps the owners of the organizations to use the data from the transaction for the business process. There is no need to track the sales manually. This save sthe time for the company (Chen, Preston and Swink 2015). The point of sale helps to store the sales data in an effective way which helps in managing the inventory. This eliminates the chances of the human error for counting the inventory items and keeping track of the sales record. The data and the information related to the business can be easily tracked through POS.
The accurate data stored by the POS helps the organization in the decision making process. The decision making is regarding the purchase of the inventory (Saarijärvi, Grönroos and Kuusela 2014). The purchase of the inventory is not based on the guess work after the implementation of the point of sale. The accurate information helps to take the right decision regarding the purchase of the inventory.
The implementation of the POS has helped the owners of the business to know more about the business situation. It has helped to indicate the less profitable products and provides the cost reporting in details. The operations of the business can be easily managed by the effective decision making based on the information.
Disadvantages or Issues of Using the POS System
The management of the employees can also be possible after the implementation of the point of sale system in the organization (Rezaei et al.2016). The review of the expenses of the labor along with that allocation of the different employees to the different department can be done suing the point of sale system (Saeidi et al.2015). The accountability of the employee performance can be evaluated through this system. With the help of the data from the system the evaluation of the sales report and goals can be maintained for the individual employees.
There are certain disadvantages or issues regarding the use of the POS system in the organization. One of the main issues is the complexity of the newly implemented system. In order to get the benefits of the POS system the complexity of the system along with the working principal of the system are needed to be evaluated in a proper way (Ivanov, Tsipoulanidis and Schönberger 2017). On the other hand most of the employees are not aware about the operation of the system. It will create a problem for the employees to use the data and the information through the system.
Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery has implemented the POS in the organization. This has helped the organization to gain certain competitive advantages. The use of the information regarding the inventory and the sales are done in a proper way. This helps the organization in the decision making process (Shankar et al. 2014). Apart from that the managing of the inventory will help the organization to mitigate the wastage. The organization can track the dynamic nature of the market situation and the ever changing demand of the consumers from the sales data. Apart from the modification in the products can be achieved through the identification of the less profitable products. All these things will help the Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery to gain competitive advantage over the other companies.
The database used for storage of the data in the POS system is centralized. There are certain advantage of centralized database. The managing of the centralized database is relatively easy compared to the traditional database system. Apart form that the managing of the authorization for accessing the data can be easily managed in the centralized database system.
The decision making can be done through the help of the information stored in the POS. The information stored in the POS indicates the rate of the purchase of the products. It also indicates the non-profitable products and the popular products. Based on these information the inventory can be controlled (Wu and Chen 2014). The products which are profitable can be promoted by the organization in large scale. Apart from that based on the information of POS different employees can be employed in the different sectors of the business organization. All these activities indicates the tracking of the business activities is an effective way.
Competitive Advantages of Implementing POS System in Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery
On the other hand before the implementation of the POS in the organization, all data were manually tracked and managed which was not a proper way of handling the information. There was the chance of the human error in handling the data which may lead to the improper decision making for the business of the organization.
Certain questions regarding the business process can be answered correctly through the use of the POS in the organization (Christopher 2017). The questions are regarding the decision making process, and the modification and the selection of the products for the inventory. It also indicates the situation regarding the investments in the organization. All these information can be helpful for Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery for managing the business by providing the proper business condition.
The POS is connected with the server where the information is stored. In this case, the connection is done through the LAN and MAN. In this case the use of the wireless technologies can be implemented. It will save the overhead cost of the organization. Apart from that this also provides the better connectivity. There are various types of wireless technologies which can be used in this context. However, the use of the WLAN which is also known as Wi- Fi can be used for establishment of the connectivity of the system.
There are certain risks associated with the use of the POs system. The risks are associated with the security of the system along with the privacy and the confidentiality (Simkin, Norman and Rose 2014). The information and the data stored in the POS system contains the confidential and the sensitive information regarding the organization and the users and consumers of the organization. The cyber-attack in the POS system can cause the breaching of these information which may raise the threat for both the organization and the users (Lin 2014). The breaching of data is not desirable for the organization as it can manipulate the decision making system for the organization. The breaching of the data regarding the customer information can cause the violation of the privacy and the confidentiality of the consumers which can affect the goodwill of the organization.
The mitigation of the risks can be done with the usage of the proper security system in the process. The POS system is needed to be protected through the user name and the password (Luxton, Reid and Mavondo, 2015). On the other hand the security of the server system can be maintained through the use of the certain security protocol. Apart from that the wi—fi used in the organization is needed to be password protected.
Centralized Database and Its Advantages
Conclusion
The consequences of the implementation of the POs has been discussed in this paper. It has been found out that there are certain advantages and disadvantages of using the POS in the organization. However, the disadvantages can be mitigated through certain steps. There are certain technical risks associated with the usage of the POS in the organization. However, those can be mitigated using proper security measures. It can be concluded from the discussion that the use of the POS in the organization will help to increase the accountability of the system apart from that it will give the organization competitive advantage.
References
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