EPOS Buyers Guide

EPOS Guide - Helping you choose the right system

A basic electronic cash register will meet the needs of many small startup businesses with small product lines and low turnover. However, few purchases can have as dramatic an effect on your retail or hospitality business as a carefully selected EPOS System (Electronic Point Of Sale). These are also often referred to as Point Of Sale systems, Tills, EPOS Tills and POS Systems.

An EPOS system chosen to suit your business needs will offer a new dimension and level of control over day to day operations, allowing you to react quickly to competitors and changes in customers buying habits. It will bring a host of business benefits, boosting profitability, controlling costs, increasing efficiency, and helping you fine tune your business model and processes.

Choosing to upgrade from a basic cash register to an EPOS system can be time consuming and there are many decisions to be made, however the  benefits of an EPOS system and potential ROI (return on investment) will make it time well spent.

To help you understand the differences we have broken down the different types of products into three broad categories:

Cash Registers

Apart from the most basic cash registers, modern cash registers like the Uniwell LX5600 and EX570,  now come network ready and allow you to connect the cash registers together so data and customer bills can be moved or shared between machines. They also support devices like barcode scanners or kitchen printers and you can even link them to a PC-based back office software package such as EPOS Sales or EPOS Office to form a basic low cost EPOS System with stock control.  

EPOS Systems (Embedded)

These are highly sophisticated POS terminals well suited to high volume operations where speed of service is essential, like bars, nightclubs, stadiums, general retail, quick service restaurants, pubs etc. Designed to be networked together on standard PC-based networks they are available with either an operator keyboard or a touch screen, where items are sold by pressing buttons displayed on the screen.

Systems like the Uniwell QX8000, SX7005, SX705,  TX875, DX895 and DX915 may be installed on their own, but are typically networked together and often supported by back office software. Packages like EPOS Office offer stock control, ordering, reporting, daily & weekly cash sheets, product maintenance, price management and give you full control over your POS terminals.

These EPOS terminals offer greater functionality than cash registers plus more system integration options such as CCTV cameras, hotel room billing packages, loyalty software, kitchen order printers, cashless smart card devices and hand held order terminals.

Embedded EPOS systems do not have a PC engine inside them, do not require a Windows operating system or hard disk drive (HDD) and there is usually no cooling fan, so with no moving parts they are ultra reliable and resilient.

Often selected for their robustness, they are less susceptible to overheating problems, data corruption, computer viruses or hacking and usually they aren’t reliant on a central server so down-time is minimal. They also have the added attraction of being energy efficient and startup in just a few seconds rather than a few minutes. Embedded EPOS systems can be turned off mid transaction without losing any transaction information or corrupting any sales data.

With low maintenance and longevity they have an overall lower cost of ownership than many PC-POS systems and can provide an excellent ROI. If you are looking for speed at the point of sale or hand held Orderman terminals then you won't get much faster than the Uniwell AX3000 EPOS touch screen. 

Multiple outlet operations are well catered for with head office software products such as EPOS Office-MS, EPOS-HQ and Uniwell’s DataSmart web based reporting software.

PC-POS Systems (computer based)

PC-POS terminals traditionally consisted of a computer, a monitor, keyboard and mouse, however many modern PC-POS systems now embrace touch screen technology and are manufactured as an all-in-one unit, they are specially designed for Point of Sale (POS) use increasing speed of operation, robustness and ease of use.

The Uniwell IX-15 and J2 580 are good examples, their modern designs also allow them to be wall or pole mounted along with a receipt printer and other devices such as a credit card terminal, or customer advertising screen, freeing up valuable counter or bar space.

In addition to choosing your PC-POS hardware you will also need the  PurePOS software package, along with a cash drawer, receipt printer, order printer, scanner etc. Uniwell offer a bundled solution to ensure seamless compatibility and a one-stop solution.

PC-POS systems can potentially offer the highest levels of features and functionality and are by their nature more suited to running multiple applications or software packages on the same machine if this is what you require. So you may have your retail or hospitality POS software on the same machine as your restaurant booking system for example.

With a range of operating systems and POS software solutions they provide choice, flexibility, industry standard networking, user friendly operations, speed and many integration opportunities to third party applications or devices such as biometric fingerprint readers, point of purchase advertising screens, postcode lookup software etc.

PC-POS systems allow individual and multi outlet retailers alike to capitalize on latest technologies, and benefit from solutions such as a remote log-in software that allow you to access machines remotely or to view live data on the POS system. Suppliers too can take advantage by offering remote support, software upgrades or product, price and menu changes. 

Choosing your EPOS system

When deciding if you need a Cash Register, EPOS System or PC-POS system it’s worth spending a little time understanding your business requirements to make sure you select a system that's right for you and that helps you build your business.

If you would like our advice you can call us on 0845 602 4347 or simply fill out our on-line form Contact Uniwell and we will get back to you as soon as possible.