EPOS & Cash Registers
Today’s modern computerized EPOS (Electronic Point of Sale Systems) have there heritage in the humble mechanical cash register and before this the cash tin.
At the beginning of the 20th century the cash register was a humble mechanical device with keys and mechancial levers.
Some of the modern EPOS manufactuers heritage stems back to these early days, the likes of NCR used to produce a mechanical cash register that would record the days sales on a roll of paper tape, for accounting and auditing purposes.
IBM are really the pioneers of EPOS having brought out hardware early in 1973, that connected electronic tills to a central mainframe computer so stock control could be monitored centrally.
Up until the early 1990′s most EPOS systems were entirely propitiatory. These days separate software and hardware can be purchased from different manufactuers and will largely be interoperable.
There are several communication protocols POS systems use to control peripherals. Among them are
- EPSON Esc/POS
- UTC Standard
- UTC Enhanced
- AEDEX
- ICD 2002
- Ultimate
- CD 5220
- DSP-800
- ADM 787/788.
These days EPOS has developed beyond the vertical POS systems to horizontal line of business based POS systems that are closely linked to the other business applications. Some of these vertical systems are specially built for such industries as the hospitality industry, hair and beauty industry and hardware industry. Each providing its own tight integration to business processes.
The site looks at all aspects from the humble cash tin through to the development of the fully integrated vertical EPSO systems.