The effect of ICT on the way we bank and shop (Part 1)

EPOS
The EPOS system allows stock management, purchases and refunds to occur over one network in a shop. This improves efficiency, it all occurs over the same system. It will use data from a stock database to work out when stock needs to be re-ordered and when stock is full. This can connect to a company site to display when certain products are available. The EPOS can also be used to price check products to ensure all of the products are labled with the correct price. The EPOS runs on a server which is accessed by several work stations in the shop; the tills, warehouse management and usually an office computer. At the tills, the EPOS calculates whether there are offers on products, how much change to give to the customer and prints off the customer's reciept of purchase. This whole system has increased turnovers in shops across the world because more customers can be served in a shorter amount of time.

An EPOS Workstation

Advantages:

• Elimates staff errors when "counting"
• If an error is made, the system can track which member of staff made the error.
• It is cheaper in the long run - It is expensive to buy, however this money is soon payed off especially due to more customers being served.
• "Reports" can be made, showing increasing/decreasing trends in certain products.
• It allows stock control and purchases to run simultaneously over the same system.

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Disadvantages:

• The tills/workstations are expensive, costing roughly £700 each.
• If the phone line becomes disrupted, cards could be rejected, losing many customers.
• If a price is wrong on the system (e.g. too low) the products will get sold at that price and end up in the company losing money
• If a powercut occurs, it can be difficult to carry out manual transactions.

Bibliography
http://www.epos.co.uk/