An API Test

Should we Upgrade our Point of Sale System.

Dear Mr. Peterson,
I was one of the managers present at the Zara meeting regarding their POS system upgrade. Zara’s business model relies customer’s satisfaction and getting products in customer’s hands as quickly as possible A sales associate has very administrative duties at this point which allows for them to interact with customers and determine which items must be ordered based on customer preference. . The Store associate has a PDA on hand that allows for them to  collect data from the customer and even place an order to the central warehouse to ensure that the new product will be on the shelves within 2 weeks. The goal is to ensure that the customer is engaged, and buys something during any one of their 17 visits to the store.
My understanding of our current POS system is that it is DOS based and that we use dial up modems during the information backup procedures. This ultimately leads to our current measure of our inventory being only an estimate. The original system has been in place for about 7 years now. This means that it was installed back in 1999.

Now with the perfunctory information properly explained to provide context, I can give a proper recommendation. I would recommend upgrading our POS system, only after certain questions are answered. What Operating system would the new POS run on? This question is about whether the system runs on DOS or Linux based. This would determine how easy the new POS system can be used in the event we need to upgrade Operating Systems. For example, a Program that runs on Windows 98 can run on Windows Xp. My second question would be with regards to how easy would it be to upgrade the new POS system in the future. In a previous internship at Wakefern ( the people that run the Shop Rite Stores),  I was able to see the future of check out technology in the testing phases. The system was way more advanced than I could have imagined and looked like something belonging to airport security.  While Zara does not have a checkout line, it should be noted that any technology is a moving train. Once you jump on board, one must continue to jump to the new car when the time is right. 

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