The ARTS/OPOS^® standard has been around long enough to expect it to generate real-world solutions to retailer business problems. ECR Software Corporation (ECRS, Boone, NC), this year created what we trademarked The POS Dream Team 2000 site, our demonstration project that proves just how powerful this standard will be.

Retail system resellers can reap rewards from integrating hardware, networks, applications and specialized POS peripherals into finely tuned solutions. The customer's budget can be one of several limitations to orchestrating the best possible solution. But the tight integration of a range of products can be a strong selling point for an ARTS/OPOS-based system.

To create our demonstration site, we selected Bare Essentials Natural Market, a health food grocer located just down the road from ECRS headquarters. The customer, Ben Henderson, allowed us to use his newly built 5,000-square-foot market as our live retail environment.

Catapult, our 32-bit Windows POS application, brings the entire system together with offerings from POS component manufacturers active in the channel. We conduct weekly training classes for dealership staff for certification in the sales and support of Catapult, and each class visits the Dream Team site.

The specialized grocery store is an ideal testing ground for the system, as Harvey Ruffin, ECRS testing technician, explains: "We wanted a site that could demonstrate Catapult's true integration with the selected hardware components. For example, we wanted to demonstrate to our dealers how effectively a third-party multiple-port RS-232 board can eliminate IRQ [interrupt] problems that are common with the high number of peripherals often required. We also wanted to prove that a high-volume site such as this one can benefit from using touchscreens at the point of sale."

The POS Dream Team 2000 installation also demonstrates the success of Windows NT workstation as an effective O/S in retail, as well as true POS terminal redundancy.

"We're constantly pushing the envelope at the site, maximizing the feature benefits for the retailer," says Mac Mast, ECRS dealer training instructor. "Dealers also know if we find conflicts between the hardware and software at this site, they won't find the same problems at their sites."

On the surface, the system may look like a typical retail system, but underneath it is seamlessly tied together. ECRS' Catapult works exclusively with OPOS peripheral drivers. Scanner, scale, receipt printer, customer display and card swipe all connect to Catapult via each respective manufacturers' OPOS drivers. OPOS connectivity benefits the customer by providing complete compatibility with each participating peripheral manufacturer, allowing selection of the appropriate model to do the job at hand. As the system ages and peripherals are replaced, OPOS drivers assure compatibility of the new devices. Catapult is compatible with literally hundreds of peripheral models right out of the box, thanks to the standards.

Bare Essentials has been in business since 1984 using countertop cash registers and manual reconciling techniques. With the Dream Team system in place, the entire store is automated. All shelf items are scanned for faster checkout and more accurate physical inventory checks. Scaled items—many prepackaged at the store—are quickly and accurately rung up. And customer discounts are easily controlled with Catapult's Authorization Security system, which gives management discretion to choose which cashiers and assistant managers can authorize transaction discounts.

With Catapult's pricing control and automatic item-level discounts, the independent market has begun to effectively compete with the large grocery chains by offering specials that draw customers into the store. Included with the Catapult base application, Sybase SQL Anywhere efficiently stores and distributes data, and the Seagate Crystal Reports print engine enables detail and summary reporting.

"With precise reporting, we can quickly analyze where we've been and project where our business might be heading," states Henderson. The ability to quickly see net profits by item, departments, and any number of categories empowers management to make better buying decisions.

Henderson appreciates the benefits at the front end as well: "The POS touchscreen is very fast and has lowered our cashier training time significantly. This along with the scanner/scale has sped up our customer throughput allowing us to focus on the customers."

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