Planning to develop a Cloud based POS(point of sale) system.

Is there a market for this here in the Philippines?

development

asked Jul 14 '10 at 14:00

What advantages do you envision such a system will have by "being in the cloud" over traditional (typically, client-server over simple LAN/WAN) POS systems?

(Jul 14 '10 at 17:18) Alistair A. Israel

I can say that the advantage of having this system in the cloud is one, quick deployment. two, ease of maintenance(browser-based, remote-access) three, data security(backup, encryption). I believe these exists already in cloud apps today.

(Jul 14 '10 at 19:01) Drev23

I don't know. "POS" means point of sales—which generally means physical hardware at the point of sale. This physical hardware will need to interface with card readers and receipt printers. So as far as quick deployment is concerned—I'm not sure how having the rest of system "in the cloud" will really help. You will still have to move inventory and install machines. The most you'll save is from software installation and patches (maintenance). As far as security—having all that data moving around the open internets actually opens up more security concerns than in a private network.

(Jul 15 '10 at 07:46) Alistair A. Israel

well it doesn't have to be completely PC-based only. a cloud-based POS, in my mind, can have client devices that don't look like PCs. it would still have a barcode reader and credit card reader but it would be connecting to an app in the "cloud." it would be cost effective to not have to own (and operate) servers (and a data center) to store data. if it can be made to run off regular DSL/cable Internet connections (more than one, for redundancy), it would be much cheaper to operate too :)

(Jul 15 '10 at 15:51) cruizer

I never said the terminals have to be PCs. The only thing I can think of that's radical enough to warrant being "in the cloud" is having POS terminals that are lightweight, 3G-enabled devices (like Android or iPad/iPhone handhelds). This would make sense for sales agents that are "on the field", and not for typical retail POS applications (grocery, mall shops, restos). So, maybe insurance agents, medical representatives, and so on. For typical POS scenarios—moving your servers/data center "to the cloud" is just that (with all its attendant benefits)—but the rest of your POS stays, well, put.

(Jul 15 '10 at 16:17) Alistair A. Israel

7 Answers:

oldest newest most voted

Maybe not at present, but in the future, who knows?

Issues that need to be overcome by your solution, in case you pursue this path:

Availability and affordability of reliable Internet connection
Trust - your cloud-based app will contain the lifeblood (POS, inventory, sales figures, etc.) of a company. Right now I'm not sure if companies are willing to do that, but that can definitely change in the future.
Accessibility to data - can you allow your customer to easily access/backup/copy/replicate their data that's stored in your cloud?

link

answered Jul 14 '10 at 17:22

cruizer
1.5k●9

I do agree that one issue here in the philippines is the internet connection. Ever since I was in college alot promised reliable and affordable internet yet it feels like progress for that is still on dialup.

(Jul 14 '10 at 19:04) Drev23

+1 on security. Having the POS data move from terminal to server in a closed circuit, private network means it's harder for someone to 'snoop' on the data. On the open internets, you'll have to be doubly sure that you're using secure connections (commercial-grade encryption and secure hashes). On a traditional LAN-based POS, connections have near-zero latency and no dropped packets. On the open internets, especially over VPN connections, you'll have to deal with latency issues and lost packets or messages. Then you have privacy issues (e.g. consumer purchase data) to contend with, as well.

(Jul 15 '10 at 07:53) Alistair A. Israel

another issue: what's the advantage of it being hosted on the cloud? if there are none. then.. you know what i mean.

instead of developing it, find a company that is interested in using your experimental system as a parallel. or rather, what i mean by this, "create" the market :)

not only that your POS will have to comply with strict BIR guidelines or if it's opensource, be easily customizable by everyone for it to be ubiquitous.

fact: have you heard of anyone using gnucash, or other financial opensource equivalents, for their shop? frankly, if there are please tell me, so there you go.

(Jul 18 '10 at 06:44) whatever

I'm not very enthusiastic about this because of the following points:

In the Philippines, anything that has an ability to issue receipts (manually or computerized) will have to be registered to the BIR.
Device integration. You need to integrate with existing devices (if there are any). Such devices are existing POS terminals (and software platforms), card readers and printers. Based on personal experience, you will have to go through a lot of entities just to get integration details, especially if you're integrating with the big guys (ISVs like Micros, Sweda and major OEMs). Most shop owners are not willing to migrate completely away from existing infrastructure and you will have to deal with it.
Trust. This is the greatest roadblock you're going to face. Filipino enterprises aren't just ready to entrust their business completely to third parties.

I've been thinking about this for a while now and I'm convinced that penetrating existing markets with this kind of technology is far fetched. Your approach need to be disruptive enough to create new markets out of unserved niches.

If you want to make it globally, I would advise to take a look of what SquareUp is doing.

link

answered Jul 19 '10 at 08:19

leypascua
1.6k●1●15

I have to say yes. But this is based on seeing one deployed or more accurately hearing of one deployed from a fellow developer.

link

answered Jul 19 '10 at 10:00

AnGoL
1.3k●3●18

edited Jul 19 '10 at 11:02

I have to add that after subscribing about 4 months to the RSS feeds of The Hacker News, I am beginning to believe that people shouldn't implement cloud based POS systems. The security risks are just too high.

(Dec 27 '11 at 15:07) AnGoL

Yes, I have a friend who owns a restaurant who has seen the potential of such systems. I can't recall the exact name of the product which he saw abroad but he was thinking of implementing a similar system here. The main advantage is that the head office can be informed of supplies and sales levels from all the branches in real-time. But of course, the system should still be able to support working offline, in case there's a power failure or there are connectivity problems.

link

answered Jul 19 '10 at 14:35

paul_sns
1.7k●1●16

If it's just real-time updates and reporting to a head-office, then that can be accomplished even with a traditional (i.e., client/server-based architecture, in an in-house or hosted or co-located datacenter). It doesn't necessarily have to be "in the cloud" (generally taken to mean purely or mostly running on managed, often virtual servers in remote datacenters).

In fact if the ability to operate despite lack of connectivity then that makes a pure "cloud-based" solution riskier than a distributed, multiple 'workgroup' client-server architecture.

(Jul 19 '10 at 21:36) Alistair A. Israel

agree. there has to be measures in place -- and those measures should still be cost-effective compared to having your own POS system+servers -- to allow the solution to work without network connectivity, or to switch operations to a backup connection

(Jul 21 '10 at 16:56) cruizer

maybe you can change the market to sales people.., those people who sell lots of different kinds of products/services.

in this alternate scheme, "sales" for the masses kind of thing. (like force.com, but for the masses)

this is more like for entrepreneurial people who are selling stuff to calculate how much they've sold. for them to sort of have a system to record their profit.

it's essentially the reverse of mint.com (financial calculator based on the cloud).

features would include POS-like abilities: inventory tracking, receipt recording, and also as an added extra feature, force.com features like email promotion/lead tracking etcetara.

maybe offer it at a cheaper price (i.e. for the philippine market) than at force.com

link

answered Jul 21 '10 at 14:23

whatever
1.1k●1●3●29

0	in my opinion, yes, but you would have to price it competitively that its less than whats commercially available without having you go bankrupt. my advice is to target small clients first, lets say, stores with 5 to 10 branches.. link answered Jul 27 '10 at 11:38 Pogz Ortile 877●8

-1	Hi OP, kindly email me at martin.veerayah@yahoo.com. We might entertain the idea of cloud POS for our business. link answered Dec 27 '11 at 14:28 mawts 0

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Asked: Jul 14 '10 at 14:00

Seen: 1,916 times

Last updated: Dec 27 '11 at 15:07

Planning to develop a Cloud based POS(point of sale) system.

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