NEW DEPARTMENT STORE COMPUTER SYSTEM1
New Department Store Computer System
Following the Guidelines of the American Psychological Association
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Introduction
This essay is based on the following scenario. A department store plans to upgrade its IT infrastructure to support a new order-processing application with rich features. The store currently uses eight stand-alone computers when customers check out. The specifications of these computers are: quad core processors, minimum of one terabyte hard drives, minimum of 5 GB RAM, Windows XP, Linux, or MAC OSX. The management of the store wants to upgrade four of the computers and use them to process client orders. The initial study done by the management reveals that the computers will perform the following tasks: run an order-processing application that requires a multiprocessing operating system. The application will take orders from customers over the Internet, process the orders and create invoices. As well, the computers will perform the task of communicating with customers using e-mail to resolve customer queries. The computers will also perform the task of storing customer data on the local computer. The store will use this date to promote new products. This essay will focus on how all of these new devices for the new department store will operate and how the new department store will function due to all of this new technology.
Current Use of Department Store’s System
The store currently uses eight stand-alone computers when customers check out. The specifications of these computers are: quad core processors, minimum of one terabyte hard drives, minimum of 5 GB RAM, Windows XP, Linux, or MAC OSX. This is a good system, however many department stores are using much more advanced networks in order to operate their stores. Sometimes, touch screens from laptops or mobile devices are being used. Operating systems are now being updated to Windows 10 which was being offered for free recently even for commercial use just over this past summer of 2016. Some stores are even utilizing apps and/or applications that are available on the mobile devices of customers so they can be sent an estimate of the items they want to purchase from the given store and then come to the store to pick the items up and pay for the items at the store. Other department stores are utilizing online technology such as shopping online where the person pays for both the item plus postage and has the item delivered right to their door. All of these functions are making it possible for department stores to move more into the modern age. In Figure 1, there is an illustration of the current effectiveness of how technology is revolutionizing the traditional department store, new or old.
Figure 1: Technology Revolutionizing Retail Shopping
As you can see from the image above, the customer in the store can use their mobile device in order to scan the price of the product and this information is then sent to the computer network at the check-out stand. The items of the basket then just need to be checked for accuracy from the customer and the cashier can link with the mobile app of the customer through a card or through the app on a mobile device in order to help the customer pay for the items in this retail store. This results in a faster checkout experience for the store and it is all done with the use of technology. This leads to a discussion of a multiprocessing operating system for the new store.
Multiprocessing Operating System
The initial study done by the management reveals that the computers will perform the following tasks: run an order-processing application that requires a multiprocessing operating system. The application will take orders from customers over the Internet, process the orders and create invoices. As you can see from Figure 2, it gives an illustration of how a multiprocessing operating system would work within a retail store.
Figure 2: Multiprocessing Operating System
This figure shows how highly networked in technology that retail store needs to be. A retail store not only needs to account for their accounting needs and sales processing, a retail store also needs to be highly networked in terms of the security cameras to guard from theft, the double mirrors in dressing rooms which can help to protect the store from losing clothing and other items from people stealing and such issues such as this.
Many department stores are also using what is known as radio frequency identification (RFID) (Loebbecke & Palmer, 2006). The RFID is attached to tags to the merchandise is used to prevent theft of the merchandise in the store. In the past, the RFID tags used to be larger and rather quite bulky. Technology has slims these tags down making them sometimes close to invisible to the eye for thieves who may not realize that a store is utilizing this technology.
Technology and the Department Store
Where the most powerful technological changes are being created with a department store is their power to have not only a brick and mortar store, but the power of having an international audience of consumers by having an online store (Childers, Carr, Peck Carson, 2002). According to Chen & Tan (2004), and their research came out in the same year that YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and the like took the world by storm, these researchers write that online shopping can be one of the best ways to utilize technology for any department store in terms of gaining in added profits for the company. What some people may observe now is that the Internet will even track your use online and advertise to you through email functions such as Yahoo as an example the kinds of things that they think you would be interested in buying in order to have you purchase that online. Amazon will also keep a close track on your purchasing habits and design their opening pages just for you as a personal client in order to ensure that what you have purchased before is advertised back to you in case you want more of the same thing that you purchased before.
Conclusion
This essay has discussed technology and department stores. The following scenario was the basis for the discussion of this essay. A department store plans to upgrade its IT infrastructure to support a new order-processing application with rich features. The store currently uses eight stand-alone computers when customers check out. The specifications of these computers are: quad core processors, minimum of one terabyte hard drives, minimum of 5 GB RAM, Windows XP, Linux, or MAC OSX. The management of the store wants to upgrade four of the computers and use them to process client orders. The initial study done by the management reveals that the computers will perform the following tasks: run an order-processing application that requires a multiprocessing operating system. The application will take orders from customers over the Internet, process the orders and create invoices. As well, the computers will perform the task of communicating with customers using e-mail to resolve customer queries. The computers will also perform the task of storing customer data on the local computer. The store will use this date to promote new products
References
Chen, L. D., & Tan, J. (2004). Technology Adaptation in E-commerce: Key Determinants of
Virtual Stores Acceptance.European Management Journal,22(1), 74-86.
Childers, T. L., Carr, C. L., Peck, J., & Carson, S. (2002). Hedonic and utilitarian motivations for
online retail shopping behavior.Journal of retailing,77(4), 511-535.
Loebbecke, C., & Palmer, J. W. (2006). RFID in the Fashion Industry: Kaufh of Department
Stores AG and Gerry Weber International AG, Fashion Manufacturer.MIS Quarterly Executive,5(2).