Critical Point-of-Sale System Vulnerability Resolved with"Easy Repair"
Experienced POS resellers and integrators update"attachment" to key system component to solve vulnerabilities that cause unexplained system crashes
An insidious threat is putting many retail and hospitality POS systems at risk. This fatal flaw in the installation of these systems takes many of these down daily across the country, creating serious problems for countless stores and restaurants. The threat doesn't come from viruses or cyber criminals. Instead, it comes from the wall socket.
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Many resellers today still don't acknowledge or accept the magnitude of the vulnerability of POS systems caused by poor power quality.
Frustrated by"no problem found" error codes and unexplained system crashes, and of course upset client calls, they opt instead to substitute different component parts of the system in the hopes the problem will stop. After the problem persists, more service calls are made and more components switched out. Perhaps a rudimentary surge protection device is eventually tried, but that amounts to little more than a Band-Aid® and does not solve the problem either. In the end, the system develops a reputation as unstable.
For an issue that has such a significant impact on the overall performance and uptime of the POS system -- and the reputation of the freelancer that defines and installs it the cautionary tale of"dirty power" seems to resonate most with those longstanding firms who've learned the lesson the hard way. Those that have, including many that service the biggest, national-brand accounts, make including suitable power conditioning in each POS package they sell a mandate, not an option.
"If you would like to avoid any sort of interruptions in your day-to-day operations, you have to attack what I call the'terror at the socket,''' says Samer Khashan, president of Team One Repair, a Suwanee, GA-based distributor/reseller of POS system for many nationally-recognized clients like interstate restaurants and banks. "To secure your customers' systems and not need to make repeated service calls, it is well worth the investment to install appropriate power conditioning equipment right up front."
Khashan clarifies that resellers should cover themselves every single installation, at every outlet. Through the use of digital power conditioning, such comprehensive coverage suddenly becomes cost-effective in helping to make sure that systems don't go down.
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Where"crashes" are no longer an alternative
With the current reliance on technology to run most over-the-counter earnings, any hiccup in the POS series can bring a retail operation to its knees and prevent cash flow in its tracks. Not only do such interruptions immediately impact the bottom line, they cause immediate customer dissatisfaction which jeopardizes repeat business. At the exact same time, it permanently tarnishes the reputation of the reseller who set up the system. The VAR receives the blame first.
"We deal with plenty of large corporations, and when any of the stores' POS systems go down and start'eating their lunch,' they get on the phone immediately," proceeds Khashan. "The customer assumes the machine doesn't work, so they want us to perform our magic and fix the problem fast."
At this stage, an inexperienced freelancer may throw new hardware at the problem, replacing card readers, registers (ECRs), routers, chips, etc. in a frantic effort to cut the losses − all at great expense, time, trouble and humiliation to the reseller.
"So many times our clients' waste money by constantly requesting replacement gear," Khashan adds. "The hard drive goes down or the money dispenser quits working, so they say,'Hey the PC blew up so let's take it out and put into a brand new one.' But they don't look at what they cannot see, that is the power quality issue."
Even if a service tech realizes that the true source of the problem stems from poor AC supply from the wall socket, many make the fatal mistake of assuming that a power strip or surge protector from a big box hardware store will do just fine. But surge protectors only work against large voltage spikes, and only one time, at that. Nor do they block the tiny dropouts or frequency aberrations that occur within any retail environment. Such Band-Aid® efforts are often in vain.
"The biggest issue in our business is competition; clients now have so many diverse options for POS providers that you can not afford to make mistakes," says Ross Patton, national sales manager for Revention--a POS system integrator that currently serves more than 10,000 global customers from its headquarters in Houston, TX. "We use electronic power conditioners from Smart Power among our competitive benefits. I would say you can not afford not to use such devices."
Located in Houston, TX, Smart Power Systems is an innovator and manufacturer of hi-performance power quality and UPS products and a current recipient of a Retail Service Provider's Association (RSPA) Vendor Award of Excellence. Designed specifically for mission critical markets, the company's Smart CordÔ device compresses digital power conditioning functionality into a 17-ounce bundle the size of a person's fist − making it particularly fitting for space-constrained POS applications.
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Electronic power conditioning to the rescue
Today's electronic power conditioning devices differ greatly from what technicians have traditionally relied on to control AC power.
Common surge protectors can protect against catastrophic high-voltage spikes. However, they're not"smart" enough to handle the relatively small voltages that interrupt POS devices. At the opposite end of the spectrum, isolation transformers (ITs) can suppress power surges. But they are prohibitively expensive, big, heavy, and limited in their performance; greatly reducing their use within the tight quarters routinely encountered in POS installations.
Some techs are also under the mistaken belief that a very low cost uninterruptable power supply (UPS) will fix their problems. But, consumer grade UPSs are nothing more than a battery back-up combined with a rudimentary surge suppressor. By themselves, UPSs only help when power is completely lost--such as when lightening strikes a transformer--but that accounts for only 1-2% of failures. The majority of UPS units does not perform electronic power conditioning and for that reason do not address the cause of 98-99% of POS problems. On the other hand, UPSs that include electronic power conditioning are better equipped to deal with the smaller versions that cause the overwhelming majority of POS issues.
Electronic power conditioning supplies computer grade power − a clean, filtered power supply − in a fraction of their cost and size of bulky isolation transformers, and with significantly greater performance.
The electronic power conditioning (TBF™) technology, initiated by SmartPower Systems, continuously monitors the line power and makes corrections. If AC voltage goes a little too high for more than a few cycles − strong enough to blow the motherboard out of an ECR − then it cuts the power to the protected device.
TBF circuitry also addresses a particularly perplexing problem for many POS installations: that of ground loop present that can play havoc with microprocessors embedded within POS devices.
"Nowadays, many fast food restaurants are all enthusiastic about smoothie machines," notes Khashan. "But these are absolutely the worst thing because turning on the whirling motor drives every piece of computer-related equipment crazy. They can cripple the counters and even slow back office operations. To avoid this tragedy we send the customer a smart cord for every POS terminal, which solves that problem."
"We had a classic case in which a restaurant had a station down for a couple days, and any time a piece of equipment dies there is always a reduction in productivity," states Reventon's Patton. "The customer wanted a new piece of gear, but after the third one still did not work we finally convinced them to try digital power conditioning. We sent the SmartPower device, walked the customer through plugging it straight into the system, and it ultimately solved the problem."
"The client only had to purchase one device in order to see the results, as he managed to accelerate service leading to more orders and more money," continues Patton. "He has since bought a new system from me and made sure he bought electronic power conditioning units for all his equipment."
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What's good for the customer is good for the vendor
Ultimately, it is the system integrator who reaps many of the benefits through the understanding of the need for electronic power conditioning.
"As a service business you need to look at how much it costs you to send a tech out into the field to repair an emergency situation; perhaps $200-250 dollars depending on the time of day or night and the weather?" Khashan points out. "Instead, I can send the client an electronic power conditioning kit which gets them out the bind."
Such success stories are paving the way for broader acceptance of digital power conditioning for a necessity of doing business, for both system integrators and their clients.
"We highly recommend electronic power conditioning devices to all of our clients and explain the benefit of having them versus not, and nine times out of ten they will go with them," adds Patton. "I've not run into any client challenges that we couldn't handle."
"If you would like to avoid'blue screens' and every other type of interruptions in your day-to-day operations, it's well worth the minor expense to safeguard your POS system and get some reassurance," sums up Khashan. "As I like to say, you must protect tomorrow's investment now."
Smart Power Systems is the patent holder and manufacturer of this Transformer-Based Filter (TBF™) technology. For 35 years, we have developed and sold power protection and conditioning products including Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) to traders of office automation equipment, point-of-sale and security systems, digital signage, AV parts, gaming machines, ATM's and electronic scoreboards.
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