Point of Sale Programs - From Cash Registers to Modern POS Software

The "point of sale" (POS), or "checkout" as it is more				standardization of the developing point of sale
commonly known as, refers to the location where a				programs, aiming also to simplify interconnection of
transaction is made. The first known point of sale				multiple POS devices (hardware and software).
program was developed by IBM in 1973 and made use				Standardizations such as OPOS for Windows and
of electronic cash registers (ECR). The system utilized				JavaPOS for Java are some of the products of this
relatively new technologies at the time such as				initiative. OPOS, which stands for OLE (object linking
client-server and peer to peer communications, Local				and embedding) for POS, was the first
Area Networks (LAN) for simultaneous backups and				globally-accepted standard and was a product of the
remote initialization. A year after it was developed, it				joint efforts of Microsoft, NCR Corporation, Epson, and
was already of great use to retail stores around the				Fujitsu-ICL. JavaPOS was developed by Sun
United States.				Microsystems, IBM, and NCR Corporation. These two
In 1979, another POS program was developed, this				developments aimed to make the modern point of
time by Gene Mosher, which he used in his restaurant				sale programs and point of sale hardware platform
business. His creative software ran on an Apple II				independent.
computer and was programmed to receive customer				The unfolding of the new millennium gave way to the
orders at the restaurant's entrance, and a copy with				most advanced development of POS software yet.
full details would be printed inside the kitchen. This way,				As a result, modern point of sale programs are all
customers received their food at their tables much				expected to have fast and consistent speed, they
faster than any other restaurant. Mosher also				should be reliable and easy to use, with
developed the first graphical touch screen point of sale				multi-functionality, remote supportability, and can be
program in 1986 using an Atari ST computer and the				bought at a much lower cost than ever before.
Neochrome bitmap graphics editor.				Point of sale programs have come a long way since
In the post-1990s, the development of multi-functional				the development of electronic cash registers. Today,
POS programs went hand-in-hand with the				retailers can enjoy the benefits of point of sale
development of local processing power, local storage				programs as a way of making business transactions
data, networking, and the graphical user interface.				easier, faster, and free from unavoidable human errors.
Various POS programs were also developed for				Most of all, point of sale programs are cost-efficient,
operating systems such as Windows and Unix.				and often produce the highest return on investment
For the past two decades, vendors and retailers alike				that a retail business owner could make into a
have been working on hardware interface				technology solution.