About POS
Point Of Sale - the frontline of all retail business. From accepting cash,
credit cards, most forms of payment through to registering the sale and
producing a receipt for the customer.
Traditionally people use cashier machines that enable users to just key
in the amount and make a change to the customer. Nowadays POS is much more
complicated, not only should it manage the sales, it should manage the HR
(staff attendance), the finance (Profit & Loss), the inventory and also the
customer (CRM for membership discount or lucky draw situations).
A good POS should be able to interlink with
your ERP or CRM system and most importantly it can either generate a P&L by
itself or it should be easy for you to import into your business accounting
software’s.
From Chinese to Western restaurant/retail,
how many types of POS are there in the market? Our answer to you is indefinite.
For example, restaurant business’ requires different system set ups. Some have
kitchen system linked to their Point of Sale, and some have multiple order
stations, while some have multiple outlets in different branches and much more.
The best solution for a good business POS is a custom made POS.
Custom made POS are tailor made systems
that suit your business requirements. You can also acquire accurate and fast
response speeds from your staff. Readymade or off the shelf POS can be used too,
however, the manufacture of the company must be able to do custom solutions to
it for it, if they do not have such solutions, think ‘what if’ your company
needs to change the operation or certain parts? Will you buy new readymade
software and replace current one? What about the database? All of these factors
play an important part when you select a POS vendor.
Hardware
for POS
What is the common hardware for a POS? It
tends to be a PC with a screen, a receipt printer and a cashier drawer. Usually
the cashier drawer will only work if you have a receipt printer as it needs the
RJ-11/12 port to be connected to the receipt printer in order for the PC to pass
the “kick drawer” command to the printer and from the printer to the cashier
drawer. Some other possible hardware you may need in this industry includes;
·
External Customer Display
Panels
·
Magnetic Stripe Cards
·
Thumbprint devices (biometric)
·
Barcode scanners
·
Barcode printers
·
RFID readers
.. Combined with many items you can think of
that will benefit your business operation.
However, the most important hardware is the
PC which either comes with a touch screen LCD panel or just a normal LCD panel
you may purchase out of any computer store. Those small little systems/POS terminals
that come in a complete solution (usually black in color) look trendy and save
a lot of space, but do be careful as usually the spare parts are only owned by
the manufacture of the machine. Replacing these usually cost you a lot of
money. The most commonly spoilt item is the power adaptor which is frequently damaged
due to overheating. Unlike the PC type, you can replace any small parts easily
at any local computer store.
External
Customer Display Panel
You can commonly find this in supermarkets
or any retail stores that have more items to purchase. This is used to show the
customer the items the system has bar scanned and to show the sub total of the
purchase. However, nowadays, it is cheaper to purchase a 15 inch LCD and hang
it on the wall or in front of your cashier machine and display the items. You
may use the technology of Clone screen or extended desktop feature from your
graphics setting in Windows. The only challenge is where to hang it.
Magnetic
Stripe Card
Swipe cards usually are categorised under
HiCo and LoCo, the credit cards you are using should be HiCo. The LoCo cards
are usually brown color and easy to dispose of (like in a game center). Normally
any magnetic stripe card reader is able to read both types and these cards are
usually use for membership, staff attendance or even door access.
Thumbprint
device (biometric)
Thumbprint is the best device for staff
attendance or even customer membership. However, if you are using this
technology in certain countries, you may wish to check the privacy act first.
Every human being has a unique thumbprint comparing the three basic patterns of
arch, whorl, and loop. It is very convenient as your staff/customers no longer
need to bring along any cards, they just need their fingers. Usually the software
will allow you to register more than one finger and leave you with no worries
if people try to chop off fingers - usually such devices recognize dead skin
and body temperature!
Barcode
Scanner
Common Retail business, barcode scanners
come in 2 different types, hand held or desktop. It also has a selection of
using laser an array of tiny light sensors formed up in a row from the CCD
scanner head. The technology of using laser will be much better as taking into
consideration that it can do Omni-directional scanning. Laser can also scan
items far away compared to CCD handheld scanners. You can commonly find laser
scanners in supermarkets or retail stores with lots of products. Barcode
implementation is also has inventory management of records and usually works
hand on hand with the POS. Barcodes in different colours may also effect the
reading of barcode on laser, however, for CCD array of a light sensor method,
the chance of reading barcodes in red or curved shape is higher.
Barcode
Printer
Barcode printers can be a pain if you did
not select the correct printer to buy or the software that comes with it. The
barcode printer software that comes with the barcode works, but it usually does
not have much functionality. Some of the important functionality is the ability
to import CSV or database files and print them, without that your barcode
printer is useless as you are unable to type one barcode and print one barcode,
it will take years. Do take note of the high maintenance cost of the printer
head, ink and stickers, these are the common problems for un-readable barcode
stickers.
RFID
reader
Companies that deal with retail fashion,
hotels or advance membership systems will require RFID readers. RFID tags can
be placed in shirts, dresses or any fiber based materials. As opposed to the
barcode stickers where the customer can just peel it off and walk off the shop
without being caught. You may also create RFID membership key chains or cards
for your customers so that when they return they can just scan and the system
will display their information. It is also commonly used in hotels for door
access to rooms or facilities.
What
is CRM?
Customer Relationship Management, a system where you can store customer
information and auto generate reports or useful details that help you enhance
your customer relationship via customer service or technical support.
What
is ERP?
Enterprise Resource Planning, a system that shares a common database through a
network that enables the company to access/modify the finance, human resource,
manufacturing, supply chain management, project management, CRM and multiply
user access control.
