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Systems
Overview
Today Software offers two suites of Integrated POS and
Retail Management software:
POSperfect
II
POSperfect is the POS and Branch Back Office
system. It is written in
Delphi
and the latest versions use an Interbase or Firebird
database through the InterBase Objects (IBO) Database
engine.
The
principle design criteria was that “The POS
Terminals must not depend on a Server or Network to
process sales” and that “Online/Offline
transitions must be seamless”.
The system maintains a mission critical
database on every terminal so that the POS
functions are not Server dependent. This allows the
POS terminal to function when a network or Server is
down which eliminates the need and cost of a Backup
Server to achieve redundancy. In addition this design
divorces the POS processing functions from any network
or Server bottlenecks so that a major processing task
on the Server does not impact on standard sales
processing. The background network management
processes in POSperfect handle any offline/online
conditions seamlessly.
The
Server or Master terminal for each store maintains an
up-to-the-minute detailed stock and sales history of
every stock item movement and every transaction. In
addition, the database automatically consolidates
individual product history into group history for up
to 4 hierarchical groups (e.g. Department/Class), plus
Vendor consolidation and up to 4 horizontal user
definable groups e.g. Label, Brand, Pack Type, etc.
The system also supports SKU/PLU, SKU/Barcode and
SKU/Size/Colour (matrix) merchandise types.
POSperfect provides a comprehensive suite of reports
that allow reporting across ANY
Date
Range
, and with drill-down through the group levels to
individual products and a detailed audit trail of
every stock movement and transaction. No 3rd
party reporting tools are required. Flexible data
export facilities are provided for loading into 3rd
party applications.
POSperfect also provides a Multi-Store Controller (MSC)
that manages a Wide Area (WAN) or a DUN (Dial-Up)
network with multiple stores. Updates and data
retrieval into the Multi-Store Controller system is
seamless and automatic. The MSC offers individual or
consolidated reporting for a single store or all
stores. Typically an MSC will be the Back Office of
the main store or Administration store.
Corporate
Controller
The Corporate Controller (CC) is a
multi-branch Retail Management System written in the
Progress 9 GUI (Graphical User Interface) Development
Suite and typically using the Progress RDBMS database.
The CC retrieves every transaction and stock movement
from every store and records this in its database. The
database is designed for maximum efficiency and
performance when reporting on sales and inventory in
large retail chains. The store selections are
completely versatile so that any combinations of any
stores linked to store types, regions, advertising
groups etc may be selected for a report and the report
optionally consolidated.
Drill down is also provided with Graphical reporting
at any of the drill down levels. In a few seconds the
system can provide an Inventory snapshot report for
any combination of stores and across any date period
with consolidation of stores if required.
Powerful tools for central administration of the many
aspects of the Product/Price and Group catalogues are
available. The flexibility of the database and
communications allows for data elements to be either
centrally or store level maintained, and for different
stores to have different capabilities.
The CC can allow store level inventory management, or
central inventory management. A Centralised Purchase
Ordering system allows single purchase orders for
multiple stores/warehouses integrated with store level
stock receipting and Interbranch Transfers. The CC
retains a copy of every inventory order or other
control document such as Inter-brand Transfers, and
distributes these documents to each branch system.
Flexible Fiscal periods can be defined for Weeks,
Months, Years, Seasons and other user defined fiscal
periods. A suite of integrated multi-branch accounting
modules are integrated with the inventory, stock,
sales and purchasing modules to deliver a
comprehensive and flexible multi-branch Retail
Management System integrated with the POSperfect POS
and Branch Back Office system.
The data communications between systems are integrated
into the applications, but make use of standard TCP-IP
networking protocols. Communications can be inline
(permanent but non-dependent) connections to each
store, or via scheduled batch polling.
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