This system has four stations on a Novell network. Two are in the first floor show room and two are in the office upstairs.
Woody's was orphaned by a software developer. We've heard this sad story too many times and it's really nobody's fault. Someone who really knew the car audio business developed a program, probably with a database approach, which was truly feature-rich and quite well done. It had bugs, however. So many that, with each copy sold, the developer had to spend more and more time helping users and had little time left to clean up the program. The traumatic day arrived when Woody called for help with yet another problem and got ... "We're sorry. The number you dialed is not a working number." Wow! What now? We're talking about a business with thousands of retail customers and several major car dealerships relying on it for sound and phone installations in automobiles.
When Woody's called a systems dealer, it already had three sales stations and a management station upstairs, on a Novell network. They needed to replace their software and to salvage as much as they could of their data...inventory, serial numbers, customer, and sales information.
This can present problems that are different from starting anew. The data has to be moved from the old files to the new and it's rarely a perfect match. Information is kept in different ways. For example, account codes for charge sales may be three characters in some programs and 10 in others. But the charges and payments must be made to correspond perfectly. A temporary problem is people using the system have to adjust to the differences. It's not a matter of right or wrong, it's just different. if you've been hitting ESC a few hundred times a day to quit and now you have to hit F10, it takes some getting used to.
Woody's needs to track serial numbers. Car audio equipment is expensive. Units are given to installers. They may do the work across town at a car dealership. Customers return weeks or months after the sale, with no receipt, wanting a warranty claim. POS tracks units from the time they arrive, as they are sold, and for as long as you like in the sales history, buy serial number. Just enter the serial number and all the records for the unit are retrieved instantly.
Many customers put a deposit on a unit, make time payments, and take a delivery when it's paid in full. In other words, layaway. POS records payments in real time so the account status is always available.
Woody's pays sales commissions so each sale is accompanied by the salesperson's sales code and commission rate to produce a sales commission report.
Woody's also had a backlog of accounting about a month deep. Store receipts were sent across town to their accounting office daily. The accountant posted them manually to their accounting program. Each account code, item, cost and invoice had to be verified manually. The solution was a link to the general ledger and accounts receivable. The sales file can now be transferred by modem (ending the daily round-trip across town). and posting is automatic. Accuracy is near perfect. Statements can be prepared much sooner. The accountant merely posts payments as they arrive.