Good morning (at least it's morning were I am)
I've been asked by a friend to develop aPoint of Sale(POS) app for an
electronics store. Don't get me wrong, I'd love the work, but I have done
some digging and found many app online.
Can anyone give any guidance on this matter. Would Access be a viable
solution or is one of these packaged solution better? Are there some that
are recommended (or not)?
I know I could develop a very good db using access, but wonder if this isn't
like reinventing the wheel?!
Any info, guidance, experience is greatly appreciated!
Thank you,
Daniel P
Hi Daniel
I have 13 years experience successfully developing and maintaining POS
and other business applications for a large chain of retail stores in
New Zealand. I have found the biggest issue is not what most people
think which is to get something up and running. The real concern is
to have a working application where the code is architected in a way
that is easy to maintain when ongoing changes are required by the
business.
Based on my experience I can tell you that what you need is the source
code for a simple generic working application that is structured
correctly and which you can use as is or add the customizations
necessary to suit your client. In other words what you need is the
source code for an application Framework.
Most programmers put all their effort into getting something working
and then leave the maintenance nightmare of their badly structured
code to the programmer after them to fix. From a business point of
view this makes the ongoing maintenance of the application
economically unviable. This is why there are so many businesses
dependent on badly designed applications they are stuck with but can't
afford to add any significant new features. (It also explains the
mismatch between the business world saying they can't get enough
suitably qualified programmers and the large number of qualified
programmers who can't get jobs. What they are really saying is they
can't get enough programmers able to deal with the head shrink issues
created by the previous programmers! )
There are a number of open source products available that may be
suitable for you. However we personally we recommend our own
proprietary application Framework source code (written in Delphi)
which we make available under both noncommercial and commercial
licences. This has the ability to scale up to enterprise level if the
business is likely to expand its operation and also includes
integrated accounting features in the form of a general ledger and
cashbook.
Our Framework provides an excellent model of how to correctly
structure a business application in a way that allows for future
expansion and ongoing maintenance.
Please see
http://www.responsive.co.nz/source.html for further
details.
Matthew Jenkinson
Enterprise Software Architect
Responsive Software Limited
