Point of Sale Systems that Grow with You

Not all businesses grow up and become nationwide sprawl mall custom fair. But any solid business that can be replicated is a potential Star Bucks. I worked for a major nation wide retailer for three years. I actually didn?t work in one of their 400+ retail locations, but in one of the service centers that repaired the wide variety of electronics that company sold. They sold everything from washing machines to computer systems. I was a computer tech, beta software tester and the network admin for a location of seventy some employees.

While working there they spent a lot of time pounding in the corporate culture and the legend and myth of their humble beginnings. It was designed to brainwash us into loving the company and sharing in its success. They happened to be big on propaganda and a lot of silly micromanagement junk that almost ruined them during the time I worked for them.

Let me set the stage for you and tell you part of the corporate tale of this company that shall remain unnamed. They started as a music store up north a couple decades ago. Car stereos and music sales made for rapid growth. A second location was opened and also proved successful. Before long there was four locations and they expanded from stereos to all kinds of electronics and appliances. Then they sat stagnant for a while and one of the stores was wiped out in an unfortunate accident. Then without warning they bankrolled an ambitious expansion plan and a new corporate giant was born. New stores started popping up everywhere. They were growing at a breath taking speed and within a decade they had conquered America.

Move to 1998 when I had my interview and accepted a job that lasted three years and held so many responsibilities that many times I wondered if it was worth it. At this time a new fear was sweeping the nation and it went by the code name of Y2K. The company I worked for was in big trouble. Their point of sale software that had helped them create their empire had been developed without concern for Y2K. Limited tests showed that the software would fail in dozens of ways after January 1, 2000. I don?t know the final dollar amount of developing the replacement software but halfway through I remember the engineer leading the project saying they had hit Nine Million Dollars and it wasn?t even done yet.

I was lucky to be one of the beta testers and involved in the direction and development of the software. I learned a great many lessons during that crazy hectic time of insanity. The most important lesson is that when your business starts to grow it?s a whole lot cheaper to make sure your software is going to grow with you rather than to pay for it later. They survived the hit to their bottom line and the software, although buggy at first it was eventually ironed out and launched to all their locations before Y2K (but it was so close a couple people almost lost their jobs).

The Point of Sale software for any business is so critical that I can?t stress enough how much effort should be put into getting the right system. No one can foresee all the Y2K bugs out there and every software tool has its flaws. But businesses that don?t take their technology seriously are not the one?s that survive to the point where it takes almost ten million dollars to fix their mistake.

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Author Box - ? Ed Duval (2006) Ed Duval is contract writer and software developer for www.AndTechComputers.com and Creator of the HotPotato Restaurant Point of Sale Software System. With over a decade of experience in software development he shares his unique insight on today's point of sale software systems.