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POS software explained - By: Steve Arbor Jones, Posted on: 2007-08-11

This article describes what POS software is designed for and how it works.

If you want to understand what POS software is, you should first get familiar with the definition of POS. POS means point of sale or point of service, which is practically any place where transactions occur, like the cashing register of a retail shop or a checkout counter. As it follows from the definition,pos terminals can be found in restaurants, hotels, bars, shops, stores, malls. POS stands for both the hardware and software which make up the whole system.

If you examine a given POS system, you will see that it's divided in two parts - hardware and software. Since we are discussing pos software in this article, let's start with a brief description of the history behind pos software. The early electronic cash registers had a special computer application, which provided some extra features, although they were quite limited compared to today's standards. But the main idea is that the ability to program a point of sale terminal allowed developers to be more creative and made way for a lot of new concepts, such as real time labor and food cost reports.

A protocol is a predefined set of rules which computers follow when engaged in communication with one another. POS terminals communicate with other devices (peripherals) using a given protocol, so we can say that the protocol is the language that computers speak. Every pos software comes with a support of a certain protocol, so that it can succesfully interact with peripheral devices, such as POS printer, a bar-code scanner, and a credit/debit card reader. Some of the popular POS communication command protocols are EPSON Esc/POS, ADM 787/788, DSP-800, CD 5220.

POS software has to meet certain standards, so that there can be compatibility between the different devices. The first standard in the POS software industry was initiated by Microsoft, NCR, Epson, and Fujitsu-ICL, under the name OPOS. OPOS is language independent because it's based on COM technology, hence people refer to it as "OLE for POS." SUN, IBM and NCR made a new standard called JavaPOS. JavaPOS is operating system independent, because it's entirely programmed using the JAVA language.

This article wouldn't be complete unless we examine the benefits of pos software. The first and obvious benefit is the increase of your profits as a result of using pos software. Benefit number two is that it will reduce the inventory costs. On top of that, it will improve the overall customer satisfaction, because of the higher level of customer service. It will also maximize the efficiency of your business with at least 20% thanks to repetitive task automation.

There are a lot of Point-of-Sale software systems available on the market, so choosing the right one is never easy. There are several factors that should influence your buying decision. The first one is the turnover of your business. Second one is of course the industry in which your business operates, whether it's antiques, appliances, auto dealerships. Remember that the best way to see if a pos software really works is to check with the retailers already using it.

Most POS software applications are for Windows. Linux and MAC come second and although they might be more stable and reliable, choices are fairly limimted as there isn't that many pos programs written for UNIX machines. Therefore, you will probably get a better shot at Windows pos software and if you have the system configured correctly, Windows systems can operate for months without a problem. POS software is available for support Windows 95, 2000, or XP, although some will support XP.

Article Source: http://articleowner.com

Point of sale is one of our specialites so if you want to read more about POS, visit Retail POS Software. Author - Steve Arbor Jones.
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