Advantages and Disadvantages
Discuss about the IT For Business for Civil and Mechanical Engineering.
Nowadays, most of the business operations are switching to advanced technological systems to make its process more efficient and effective. It has become a need of the hour for every business from small to large to adopt to such technological ramification. Every large organization’s basic requirement is to integrate its business process with such intelligent systems which will help them in enhancing its internal operations. However, such systems are also important for small and medium scale industries too. One such example is discussed in this report where a small business firm called four seasons Greenhouse and Nursery is adopting a new POS system. The firm used to rely on manual registers to keep track of their daily business which was very inefficient and time taking. Later on they found out that the data collected through manual registers represented incorrect statistics of a product and were very vague. So the company decided to move towards a more reliable system of selling which is POS system. The report will discuss the various aspects of POS system and the need of such systems for a business operation like four seasons (Medineckiene et al., 2015).
The use of such advanced technology brings several benefits to a business process, especially for a small business like four seasons. It was the need of the business that prompted the firm to implement POS system of sale which brought several changes in the business process but also with such dynamic changes it also introduces several risks which can be categorized as a disadvantage of such system.
- POS systems reduces the involvement of human which ultimately minimizes the human error which usually can be seen in case of handling manual registers. Such systems are far more reliable than a generic means of maintaining data.
- The management of inventory becomes very easy using POS. It can help in getting the data regarding an inventory which is more profitable and which is less. It will help in focusing on the right product inventory
- This systems facilitates in taking an effective decision making. Decision making on how many units are to be flagged for a reorder which was earlier based only on a speculation.
- The prediction of accurate inventory counts can be made using POS which eliminates the chances of unnecessary expenditures.
- By analyzing the data from the POS, it helped in pricing the products more effectively according to the customer needs so that a perfect price can be chosen for the consumers maintaining the business profitable at the same time (Pugh et al., 2016).
- A transparent operation can be seen running in the business with implementation of such system. Now, the employee and labor schedule can be controlled using the POS system and it sets up a realistic goal for the employees of the organization.
- Switching a business operations completely on a POS system is very heavy for the pocket as it involves investment of huge amount of money. Also, migrating to a new system will also take some time as large amount of data is to be handled.
- POS systems is completely based on software and a timely update and upgradation is required for such software related systems in order to keep the business process flow moving.
- There are various security risks too which comes along with such systems that might compromise the data of the business (Voege et al., 2017).
- It is very important for such systems to be connected with ISPs so that the process remains uninterrupted and unaffected.
- There are several issues that are concerned with the hardware of the POS. As troubleshooting the hardware is a hectic work and might also result in investment of money (Eason, 2014).
In a market of intense competition, it is very important for a business to gain competitive advantage and the same can be achieved by implementing an intelligent POS system. There are certain points through POS helps in gaining competitive advantage in a business which are-
- POS systems helps in getting accurate data results which helps in predicting the exact inventory units needed which helps the business to operate on leaner inventory and reduce expenses
- It helps in making predictive decision making through which the business owners can get the idea about which of the product is actually generating profits and to invest efforts in that particular product (Pantano, Priporas and Dennis, 2018).
- One major feature of POS systems is that it can be used to run reports regarding the sales pattern and sales history of a product. With the help of these reports, strategy can be formulated in order to get maximum profits (Farias, 2015).
It becomes important for a business to maintain its data in a database as when a business expands, a large amount of data is running through the systems and to collect all and save them, requires a setup of a centralized database management system. There are several advantages associated with having a centralized database, especially if a business is at a small or medium scale.
- The preservation of data is important so that it can be used whenever required. To keep the data safe, a centralized database system is a suitable way to ensure that there is no data loss even in case of a major breakdown.
- The data security aspect is not compromised when a business is running on a centralized database system, as it limits the probability of risk to an individual place instead of distributing the data at several locations where it should be ensured that every location is secured so that there is not data breach.
- The space required for such database system is very less, as all the data is stored at a single place which in turn reduces the cost involved.
- The reliability factor of such system is very high as it helps in reducing the data redundancy (McLaughlin and Lyon, 2016).
A proper analysis of large amount of data can help taking an effective decision that can enhance the business process and can provide a significant advantage. A real time data is available using the new POS system and data can be tracked at the time a product is sold. This data tracking feature was not possible with conventional methods as there were possibilities of human error and data redundancy (Ingram et al., 2015). By evaluating all the data of the POS system, it can provide us the answer regarding a product sales, purchase history and number of inventory left. All these data further facilitates in taking an effective decision and better management of the business process can be done.
Competitive Advantage
The type of telecommunication that is to be implemented should be based on the process of a business. There are several options available when it comes to laying down a proper telecommunication channel but the choice is to be made according to the feasibility and keeping in mind the financial condition of a business (Hall, 2012).
Among the three options LAN, WAN and MAN, the best suitable option for such business would be a Local area Network (LAN). As four seasons is a small business confined in a small area so the type of network requirement is also very small. Laying down LAN would provide the business with a high speed internet connectivity and also compared to other types, LAN is more economical.
When it comes in choosing between a wired and wireless technology, both have their own advantages and disadvantages. For a business like four seasons, the most suitable option would be a wired connectivity as it is faster in comparison to a wireless technology. Also, in wireless technology there are more security concerns and it is not secure and information can be accessed sometimes by a third party (De Velasco Cortina and Rietzler, 2017). However, wireless technology is more economical as it reduces the cost of lying down of the wires but still when it comes to reliability, the preference is always given to wired technology.
For wired technology, an Ethernet cable is suitable. It is a twisted pair cable which has high speed and is more secure. There are several wireless technology available but not all are cost economical. Technologies such as infrared communication, satellite communication, mobile communication and Wi-Fi are some of the examples. However, for a wireless technology, the most suitable technology is a Wi-Fi technology.
With every advanced technological system there is always some kind of risk associated with it. There is always a physical security threat associated with POS as the system is easily exposed to everyone. Before switching to such systems it should be ensured that all the risks associated with POS has been taken care of. The major risks associated with POS is basically related to privacy, security and confidentiality of the data and using several authentication methods these can be protected.
- Security: The data security is the major issue associated with a POS system. As a large amount of data is at stake, a proper security system should be implemented so that the possibility of data breaching can be minimized. A multi-level authentication system can be used which allows on restricted users to access the data (Von Solms and Van Niekerk, 2013).
- Privacy: Data is one of the important assets for a company. Every organization ensures that the privacy of their data is maintained and there is no sharing of unnecessary data. By encrypting all the data the privacy can be maintained to the optimum limit (Rachels, 2017).
- Confidentiality: Data confidentiality is basically ensuring that the data doesn’t falls in the hands of an unknown person. As this might result in misusage of the data for their own personal needs. Confidentiality can be maintained by using a secure server for transaction and also by monitoring the online activities regularly. This would ensure that the sensitive data should not be shared with any person.
Conclusion
The report discusses the significance of the POS systems for a business operations. For a firm like Four seasons switching to POS system might not be economical for short term, but for a long run it would help the business to excel more and more by keeping track of sensitive data. The discussion is wholly based on how POS system can change the way how a business operates and can help in gaining competitive advantage. Before implementing POS sale systems the risk factors should be checked as there are some set-backs that are also associated with this system. With advancement in technology, POS system will be more reliable and secure which will help the business processes to become more efficient and earn profits.
References
De Velasco Cortina, F.M. and Rietzler, M., Neology Inc, 2017. System and method for providing secure identification solutions. U.S. Patent 9,558,385.
Eason, K.D., 2014. Information technology and organisational change. CRC Press.
Farias, A.S.P., 2015. System for accessing a POS terminal, method for downloading and updating applications and method for performing electronic operation using such a system. U.S. Patent 9,131,012.
Hall, J.A., 2012. Accounting information systems. Cengage Learning.
Ingram, T.N., LaForge, R.W., Williams, M.R. and Schwepker Jr, C.H., 2015. Sales management: Analysis and decision making. Routledge.
McLaughlin, Q. and Lyon, B.H., LivingSocial Inc, 2016. Systems and methods to implement point of sale (POS) terminals, process orders and manage order fulfillment. U.S. Patent 9,275,407.
Medineckiene, M., Zavadskas, E.K., Björk, F. and Turskis, Z., 2015. Multi-criteria decision-making system for sustainable building assessment/certification. Archives of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, 15(1), pp.11-18.
Pantano, E., Priporas, C.V. and Dennis, C., 2018. A new approach to retailing for successful competition in the new smart scenario. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 46(3), pp.264-282.
Pugh, B., Robinson, E.L., Pallas, D.S. and Ross, K.M., MEIJER Inc, 2016. System and method for linking pos purchases to shopper membership accounts. U.S. Patent Application 14/965,823.
Rachels, J., 2017. Why privacy is important. In Privacy (pp. 11-21). Routledge.
Voege, M., Najafi, F., Schultz, E. and Govindarajan, S., PayPal Inc, 2017. Merchant/customer POS interaction system. U.S. Patent 9,568,955.
Von Solms, R. and Van Niekerk, J., 2013. From information security to cyber security. computers & security, 38, pp.97-102.
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