Looking for sql intergrated POS system
Has anyone had any experience working with point-of-sale systems and integrating them with a database, preferably ms sql? My friend is going to start a business next year and she asked for some input. While my sql knowledge is good, I've never worked with a point-of-sale network before. Open source would be nice but not needed. Thoughts?
Comments
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pizzaboy
Member Posts: 244 ■■■□□□□□□□
Microsoft Retail Management has SQL as the back end, you could take a look at that. I haven't fooled around with it in a while (3yrs), but when I used to it was fairly decent.God deserves my best -
brad-
Member Posts: 1,218
We used to use one called POS Partner, but stopped using it about 2 years ago. It used SQL express IIR. It was somewhat like quickbooks where you could install the database on one machine and all the others accessed it.
I tried looking htem up but seems they're out of business...but they'll probably all be similar. Setup on one, accessed from the others via shared folder. -
JDMurray
Admin Posts: 13,099 Admin
I used to write software for POS systems based on MS SQL and the Pick database system. I say stick with MySQL for server-side systems and SQLite for client-side systems. And use Linux and Ruby if you have the experience. Stay away from stuff that needs to be commercially licensed until the business is making a profit.
It's a bad market for the small business POS shop to be in because the market for restaurant and hotel POS is cornered by Aloha and Maitre'D, and retail POS systems are usually from NCR. They have massive sale departments to woo customers and bad-mouth the much smaller competition. We tried to offer added-value with custom integrated security and auditing systems, which really worked well at loss prevention, but we just couldn't get enough sales to stay afloat despite our competitive prices. To compete in that market we needed far more sales and advertising than we could afford. -
phoeneous
Member Posts: 2,333 ■■■■■■■□□□
I used to write software for POS systems based on MS SQL and the Pick database system. I say stick with MySQL for server-side systems and SQLite for client-side systems. And use Linux and Ruby if you have the experience. Stay away from stuff that needs to be commercially licensed until the business is making a profit.
It's a bad market for the small business POS shop to be in because the market for restaurant and hotel POS is cornered by Aloha and Maitre'D, and retail POS systems are usually from NCR. They have massive sale departments to woo customers and bad-mouth the much smaller competition. We tried to offer added-value with custom integrated security and auditing systems, which really worked well at loss prevention, but we just couldn't get enough sales to stay afloat despite our competitive prices. To compete in that market we needed far more sales and advertising than we could afford.
Thanks for the input. What do you think of OpenBravo?
Openbravo POS: Open Source Point-of-Sale -
JDMurray
Admin Posts: 13,099 Admin
Never heard of them. I haven't been in the POS game since 2004, so the name might be newer than that.
If your friend is thinking of marketing yet-another-Point-Of-Sale system, make sure he does marketing research first to determine if there is a need for another POS. With the bad economy causing a lot of stores to close, there won't be a lot of first-time customers for a POS, and he will need to convince merchants (stores, restaurants, hotels, etc.) to give up their existing POS and switch to his. Salesmanship and customer support is what sells POS systems.
Oh--if you need a lot of POS source code, check out all the freely available POS systems on SourceForge.net. -
phoeneous
Member Posts: 2,333 ■■■■■■■□□□
Never heard of them. I haven't been in the POS game since 2004, so the name might be newer than that.
If your friend is thinking of marketing yet-another-Point-Of-Sale system, make sure he does marketing research first to determine if there is a need for another POS. With the bad economy causing a lot of stores to close, there won't be a lot of first-time customers for a POS, and he will need to convince merchants (stores, restaurants, hotels, etc.) to give up their existing POS and switch to his. Salesmanship and customer support is what sells POS systems.
Oh--if you need a lot of POS source code, check out all the freely available POS systems on SourceForge.net.
Sorry for the confusion, he is looking for something for his retail shop and not looking to sell pos gear. Nothing big, three or four kiosks. He is going to sell cosmetics so they want something that can take payments, track order and supply and whatever else basic pos systems can do. -
Psoasman
Member Posts: 2,687 ■■■■■■■■■□
We use Infogenesis at work, with IBM terminals. They work fairly well.
IBM also has their own POS software.
Agilysys Hospitality Solutions -
JDMurray
Admin Posts: 13,099 Admin
Another type of POS is the Electronic Cash Register (ECR). The basic models, like they have at concession stands, only have basic cash register functionality, but there are also models that are closer to a self-contained POS system with the features that you describe. They all network into a local server that stores the transactions and prints the reports.Sorry for the confusion, he is looking for something for his retail shop and not looking to sell pos gear. Nothing big, three or four kiosks. He is going to sell cosmetics so they want something that can take payments, track order and supply and whatever else basic pos systems can do. -
sakshisyan
Registered Users Posts: 1 ■□□□□□□□□□
No, Actually i am using possible pos with linux o.s So dunno much about SQL pos system. But you can contact possible pos team. I think they can help you with that!!
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JDMurray
Admin Posts: 13,099 Admin
You mean excellent thread from 2011.
Does anyone have any updates on popular open-source PoS projects in 2019? I'll bet they're all based on Linux these days.
