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Do you still remember when cash registers
did nothing more than just track cash and print receipts? Since then the
arrival of computerised cash registers and the ability to interface them
with stock control and pricing systems revolutionised the retail industry.
However, a side effect of the introduction of computerised cash registers
was the need for store personnel to become proficient with computers. Today
store personnel are expected to perform backups, run batch jobs to handle
start-of-day and end-of-day processing, initiate data exchange between stores
and the head office, and so on. Store personnel are also expected to be
fluent in the use of a mouse and a keyboard.
Yet, even the best people who work in retail are not necessarily computer
specialists and when forced to operate computers, can be inefficient and
make errors. In addition, it takes time and money to operate computer
systems and to develop the necessary skills to do it. As a result, some
retail organisations spend thousands of dollars on training and retraining
their staff. There can be little doubt that if such tasks and skill requirements
were reduced or eliminated, the bottom line would improve, and so would
customer service. This is precisely what Retail Directions decided to
do when it embarked on the development of its SMS
point of sale system.
The Retail Directions store system has been designed to practically eliminate
cashier training. Staff (including casual staff) need almost no training
before they can use the system for the first time. Secondly, the system
has been designed with the understanding that store personnel are not
necessarily computer operators. Hence, in SMS there is no start-of-day
or end-of-day routines, and there is no need to perform backups. And there
is no need for store personnel to do anything in order for the system
to exchange data with the head office. Every effort has been made by the
software designers to hide the complexities of running a retail store
system and to make it simple for the users. Even the use of a keyboard
has been reduced and a mouse isn't needed at all. Some retailers operate
SMS using only a numeric keypad.
Think of it: no mouse, no keyboard, no system administration tasks, and
an intuitive POS system. What could be simpler?
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