Retail Management Systems

[ddrueding]

We are currently using an older version of Microsoft Retail Manager (1.2 or 1.3)

Frankly I am fed up with the lock-in and distribution chain maddness. Does anyone out there know of a good POS/RMS system? We have two retail locations and admin/reporting is done at the central office. Looking for something that will handle POS, credit card processing, inventory, reporting, the works. If I can avoid dealing with "authorized resellers/distributers" it would make my life much easier.

Anyone have experience with this crap?

 

[Mercutio]

There's a Microsoft Dynamics package for just about every type of business there is. I've done a couple setups, most recently for my comic book shop.

 

[Fushigi]

No experience with retail systems (we use ERP systems), but Googling 'open source pos' returns a number of options.

 

[Howell]

From my limited experience you will have a hard time finding a popular accounting package that is not defined by "authorized resellers/distributer". It is a pain as a consultant as they won't even talk to me.

 

[Chewy509]

What's the issues with RMS? (Speaking as someone who installs RMS at least once a fortnight).

If you look at what MS offer, then I will admit RMS can be very lacking in some areas. The company I work for has for the past 2yrs written a complete backoffice management system, that sits on top of RMS. All we currently use RMS for is the front shop till components.

Most Dynamics/RMS resellers tend to write plug-ins for RMS to extend functionality to help overcome the areas that are lacking...

But in all seriousness there are 1000's of POS/Retail system out there, all tailored to a particular vertical market, (we as a company target retail pharmacy and pharmacy supply chain). Mots of the open source ones I've looked at all do the basics very well, but once you need something a little more advanced, like multi-store setup/accounting they tend to fall over very quickly. (This may have changed since I last looked at them over 12mths ago).

 

[ddrueding]

I don't have any specific complaints about RMS, really. It is the system that it is tied into that seems so incestuous. Special protocols for receipt printers and cash drawers, proprietary interfaces for credit card processing, very little transparency or documentation anywhere. The worst was really the reseller that I had to deal with. Is anyone here interested in being my vendor for a small MS RMS upgrade (and ongoing support)? Can you sell internationally, Chewy?

 

[Chewy509]

I don't have any specific complaints about RMS, really. It is the system that it is tied into that seems so incestuous. Special protocols for receipt printers and cash drawers, proprietary interfaces for credit card processing, very little transparency or documentation anywhere. The worst was really the reseller that I had to deal with. Is anyone here interested in being my vendor for a small MS RMS upgrade (and ongoing support)? Can you sell internationally, Chewy?

I'll ask, but doubtful. (If you have an Australian office/branch, that would help).

OPOS isn't that bad, once you understand the product. I just wish EPSON drivers were a little more forgiving about the PC setup.

 

[ddrueding]

The fact that we are printing industry standard text and still need drivers at all is a sign of how much suckage and lack of innovation there is in this market.

 

[Chewy509]

The fact that we are printing industry standard text and still need drivers at all is a sign of how much suckage and lack of innovation there is in this market.

What about the groovey store logos you now need to print (at customers request), or even barcodes at the bottom of the receipt? Not fun having to find the ESC codes when dealing with generic printers, (even for simple things like sending a signal to the printer to pop the cash drawer).

OPOS is good for the singular reason that it gives a standardised generic interface for multiple models of printers, cash drawers, pole displays and other peripherals. From the application developer view it gives a wider range of peripherals to choose from, and gives you the consumer choice in what you need and want to use. Mind you, I can list quite a few things wrong with the various OPOS implementations I've had to deal with, including ones from EPSON, Star, Citizen, etc.

You could go back to QuickSell 2000 and deal with the Database falling over each 20secs, and needing to do repairs on it, or the DB getting too big. (QuickSell 2000 uses a Access 97 compatible MDB for the back end, and hence comes with all the limitations and issues of the above). On the flip side, QS2000 didn't use OPOS and sent raw data to either LPT or COM ports of you choosing, and you had to find the ESC codes for the various functions needed on the receipt printer, like cut page, pop cash drawer, etc.

PS. QS2000 is no longer supported or for sale from MS.
PPS. If you are looking at upgrading to RMS v2.0, you need to know that the hardware dongle is now defunct, and you get a license key per till which needs to be activated online, ala Windows Activation. RMS v3.0 is still in development, release date is still unknown.

 

[ddrueding]

Thanks for the tips, Chewy. I just want it all to be USB, visible within the device manager, and with standard drivers installed through the existing device manager MMC. Looks like the move from RMS 1.3 has been back-burnered, so I get to go back to my wireless troubleshooting.