DataWorks has always had interfaces to Point of Sale (POS) Systems. Even when we sold our own POS  back in the late 1980s and 1990s we had to create a two-way interface to talk to ourselves.

We designed and wrote the mechanics for keeping track of what data changes (deltas) needed to be sent where, we also wrote the communication layer between the back office (HQ)  and the POS that delivered  the deltas where they needed to be and also engineered the processing  of the remote changes into the local data base.

So after 20+ years of writing two-way POS  interfaces you would think we would have everything worked out.

Next week (08/09/2010) we ship SmartSpoke™, our fourth generation point of sale interface.

SmartSpoke builds on our tradition of hub and spoke design, but turns the tables on the communication layer.  SmartSpoke sits by itself on the POS computer or  server.  It uses FTPS protocol to pull inventory down from the hub and push sales and customers up to the hub.

Our HQ software – NeXT ® -prepares batches of encrypted inventory and price changes that sit behind a secured FTPS server waiting to be picked up bySmartSpoke.  NeXT also prowls around its local system seeing if any SmartSpoke system has pushed new sales or customer information up from the field.

By switching the POS communication activity to be active rather than passive we have eliminated the need for any communication listener  on the POS side. With PCI compliance issues on many folks minds, having an open FTP port on your POS system was a security risk that the CTO or IT director had to allow – not good for your mental or physical health when you worry if your POS system is going to be hacked today. The SmartSpoke is fully PCI complaint and removes any security worries.

We are shipping SmartSpoke integrated to the Microsoft Dynamics RMS Point of Sale system first.

We plan to follow the Microsoft work  with full integration to the MICROS 9700.  After that, who knows where the market will take us…