Integration and Reliability
Integrating data successfully between the point of sale and the back office systems is a crucial function of a POS. Because accurate records and information are vital for the everyday decisions of a retailer, 'tight' integration (matching feature sets in both ends of the business, the correct data captured the correct way, and provided to both ends without a loss of information) is needed.
Unfortunately, POS systems have traditionally struggled to integrate to back office systems. Most POS systems are designed in one of two ways:
- Originally intended for use with one particular back office system. This method allows tight integration between the two systems. Unfortunately, these systems suffer when integrated to other back office systems because they were never intended to cope with anything other than the original back office.
- POS systems which tend to be feature rich and claim they can integrate to any back office system. However, integration usually involves either the POS or back office vendor developing a translation program to sit between the POS and the back office system. The engine reformats the data required, throws away data not required, and if necessary invents default data for information that cannot be supplied from one system to the other. Not only is this expensive, but it can also prevent some of the features of either system being used - as well as the cost of keeping these engines up to date when one system changes.
Most POS systems also use old file-based technology to send data between systems which can lead to problems with data corruptions, whole files going missing, or whole files requiring re-processing due to a single bad record in a file. Because files are used, information is often ‘batched’, so the information is not updated in real-time (and in many cases not even in near-real-time).
This means the retailer faces bad choices - either vital information can be 'lost in translation', the retailer's choices of business software is limited, or heavy costs are incurred trying to make the POS do what it needed to in the first place!
Ontempo Store is different. It's based on it's own unique componentised architecture. It can interact with any head office system, allowing the head office system to use all of it's features. While we can't go into detail about design secrets here, we can promise that Ontempo Store is designed to integrate to back office systems reliably and with ease, saving you money. Store allows for ‘tight’ and feature rich integration between the POS and back office systems while not limiting the POS to any specific head office or increasing the complexity of the system when new back office systems are integrated to.
Ontempo Store can provide the data you need, with easy integration, into any back office system.
To find out more about Ontempo Store's unique design, please contact us.
For more information, please contact us