Observations

The availability of Mac OS X-friendly Point of Sale solutions is giving Apple VARs a new window into small businesses. Retail and restaurant outlets looking for good-looking hardware more and more buy the Apple designed hardware, together with POS software such as XSilva Lightspeed (I will blog about this product in a separate post later). Besides the Apple hardware and the POS software, Mac resellers earn extra money with networking and typical Point of Sale devices such as barcode readers and receipt printers.

Read more at Apple VARs Cash In On Point-of-Sale Solutions

Biometrics (ancient Greek: bios =”life”, metron =”measure”) is the study of automated methods for uniquely recognizing humans based upon one or more intrinsic physical or behavioral traits.
In information technology, biometric authentication refers to technologies that measure and analyze human physical and behavioral characteristics for authentication purposes. Examples of physical characteristics include fingerprints, eye retinas and irises, facial patterns and hand measurements, while examples of mostly behavioral characteristics include signature, gait and typing patterns.

Source: Wikipedia

More and more point of sale systems come with support for biometric readers. As you know, speed is king in the POS world, and biometrics help improving the service speed at the counter. The biometric readers are used for two purposes: to authenticate employees and to authenticate customers.

The fingerprint scan is most widely used for authentication of employees, as it is a fast and inexpensive biometric technology. Different from other technologies such as the MSR or the Dallas key, employees don’t have to carry a token with them which can be lost, broken or transferred to another person.

Few retailers use biometrics for authenticating customers; and most of the users have a fixed group of customers such as school canteens, sports events, etc. Also in this case the fingerprint reader is used mostly, but there are special situations requiring other techniques. Iris scanning is the most accurate biometric, but systems are more expensive, slower, and can be perceived as intrusive because a beam needs to scan the iris. Self- service kiosks usually implement facial recognition as it is a passive technique. However, it is exactly this property that raises concerns about privacy.

You want to buy a POS system and don’t know where to start? Or you have tried out and even purchased 10 different EPOS solutions and don’t know where to look for the right software and hardware? You’re facing a difficult task, as there are thousands of solutions available in the market. In this post I will try to give you some tips to keep in mind when searching for the right solution.

First of all, I will have to warn you that the perfect solution for your business might not exist. Though the features and options offered by modern EPOS systems will overwhelm you, you will find many of them of little use. Keep the focus on the most important features you must have, and then go through the once would be nice to have. You will have to compromise or custom build your POS.

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In the current competetive markets, pricing is crucial. Yet, I have found that many small firms often do not have well-conceived pricing plans. And many such firms seem to panic (or ignore the problem) when large discount-oriented retailers enter their trading areas.

This is not necessary; small retailers can prosper in today’s discount-oriented environment, as long as they have a good understanding of their niche in the marketplace.

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By Jerry Wilson

After over 25 years of consulting and helping business owners like yourself analyze their business and decide to invest in a point of sale system I have found that many reasons drove their decision. I have seen their problems, listened to their complaints and caught quite a few employees taken extra benefits directly from the cash register. To simplify things just a little, let’s look at the top 10 reasons you need a point of sale system.

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[Via Don't Back Down]

I just found an excellent buyer’s guide for Point Of Sale systems over at BuyerZone. The buyer’s guide explains the benefits of an EPOS solution and talks about the differences between Retail and Hospitality and the various peripherals involved. There are tips about selecting the right POS dealer and they give some general pricing guidelines.

These pages are a good place to start when you’re looking for a new POS system, though I would not use the vendors they suggest at the end of the guide. I’d rather use the knowledge from the guide and go shopping locally. After all, support is what makes the difference, and there are not that many dealers in your neighbourhood.

EDI is a general name for a number of techniques to communicate electronically (via e-mail or an FTP server) with your supplier. By linking your POS system of business software directly to the sales software of the supplier you save a lot of time and you have less errors in your supply chain.

EDI documents contain the same data that would normally be found in a paper document used for the same organisational function. An EDI document may contain a ship to address, bill to address, a list of product numbers (usually a UPC code) and quantities. It may have other information if the parties agree to include it.

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Barcode scanning can save you a lot of time. That is what Joel Spolsky found out when he decided to ship his own DVD’s:

Barcodes are the greatest thing since sliced bread. I didn’t think we’d need a barcode because all we had to type was an eight digit order ID. Lo and behold, typing an eight digit order ID three thousand times adds up. The three day ordeal would have been a two day ordeal if we had thought to put barcodes on the packing slip and had a scanner to read it.

Scanning barcodes is the fastest and most accurate way to sell products at the Point Of Sale.

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