There is plenty to consider when it comes to purchasing a new POS system. First and foremost, you want a solution that meets the needs of your business in the here and now, with the features and performance capabilities that give your customers a smooth checkout experience, make life as easy as possible for your staff, and join up a multitude of operations seamlessly.
But after current needs, businesses also have to take a view on future requirements. To get the most from your investment in a new POS, you want it to serve for as long as possible. That’s why, when considering the ROI of a POS system, it’s advisable to prioritise longevity and robust build quality, even if it comes with more of an upfront premium. Over time, that extra investment can give you better value.
There’s another important factor in the longevity equation, however – and one that is becoming increasingly challenging to meet. It’s what we call ‘future-proofing’, or building technology to ensure it can adapt to meet future as well as present needs.
The challenge comes from the pace at which technology is changing. Five years ago, who would have thought about POS systems needing the processing capabilities to run advanced AI software? As we wrote about in this recent post, AI is now a major driver of POS upgrades.
Who knows what will come next? No sooner have you spent money on making your POS system AI-ready, no doubt another tech or CX trend will come along demanding yet more changes.
Few retail and hospitality businesses can afford to be making wholesale upgrades to their POS systems every two or three years. Fortunately, POS is adapting to allow businesses to adapt to changing trends in a more agile and responsive way, without having to cycle through full system reboots on a regular basis..
Modular POS
Modular design is an approach that involves breaking down complex systems into smaller component parts. These components are built separately and then assembled to create the larger product. Modularity has applications in construction, software development and, increasingly, in the design and build of electronic equipment. Including POS hardware.
Modular design’s benefits are all about adaptability and ease of repair. Think about what happens with your smartphone or laptop when the screen fails or there’s a fault with the motherboard. You can get them repaired and replaced. But it’s often just as expensive as purchasing an entire new device. That’s because the product is designed in such a way that all the component parts are tightly integrated. When one fails, it’s not so easy to isolate it, fix it and replace it. There’s complexity and cost in taking everything apart and putting it back together again.
Modular design is intended to overcome that. When one part fails, you simply strip it out and put in a new one in a straightforward plug-and-play fashion. That radically reduces the time and cost involved.
The same applies to adapting devices and systems to future needs. Going back to the example of upgrading your POS ready for AI, modularity means you don’t have to look at upgrading entire terminals to get the extra processing power you want. A modular build makes upgrading the CPU alone quick and easy.
Modularity also reduces the risk of onboarding new tech, both financially and operationally. Replacing one part rather than a whole system is not just cheaper, it’s much easier to manage. And if the change doesn’t work out, it’s easy and cheap to change again. The ability to try out, say, a new scanning system or customer-facing screen in a low-cost, low-risk way encourages innovation and experimentation, which are crucial for keeping ahead of the game in the fast-paced modern digital world we live in.
In this way, from AI to alternative payment methods, new customer touchpoints to the latest back-end architecture, modular design helps businesses unlock the potential of POS and embrace digital change in an agile, low-risk fashion.