I'm confused...

I am trying to determine whether or not some of the MS Business Solutions products would be appropriate for our organization. Currently, my focus is on replacing our current POS application so that's how I got started looking at this stuff.

My confusion is in what the various product are and what they do. As far as the POS solutions go, I've managed to find an eval of "Store Operations Manager" which seems like it includes "Point of Sale" but the product comparison page

Also, I got sucked into looking at the Business Solutions web page at products like Great Plains, Solomon, Navision, and Small Business Financials. Some of these products sound slightly different from one another but for the most part they all sound like the same product with a different skin? Can anyone provide any insight?

Lastly, what is the relationship between the POS apps and the later ones I mentioned? Are they integrated?

MS POS is a basic POS for a single store. It has a nice user interface but it is missing a few essentials like fashion matrix, accounts receivable etc.... Microsoft RMS is for both single and multi store environments and has more features. If you are not sure I would recommend that you call us. We sell all over the US

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Does POS still use a SQL backend? Can you upgrade from POS to RMS?

Scott,

M$ POS is only supported on MSDE, the desktop version of SQL, in a peer to peer environment. Full blown SQL and dedicated servers, like SBS or Windows Server, are not _officially_ supported at this time

Not at this time. More stupidity!

Remember that M$ POS is designed for the _small_ retailer with minimum needs. Basically its to replace existing cash register(s), single store only, with up the 3 _register_ stations total.

Hi Scott

If you ever get tired of looking at off-the-shelf options for Retail and decide you would like to have a customised solution built to give your organization "exactly" what it needs then you may wish to check out the service we provide.

We have the basic framework of a Retail/POS system (a demo download is available at

Full integration with a general ledger (based on our free Ledger program) Three tier client/server architecture (upwardly scalable for a large operation) No licence fees Full professionally written source code included

Matthew Jenkinson

Hmm, my usual question off the hip when asked this question is, Sir, what type business do you have? I mean, what do you do? Lets start there eh? I guess when I go to the doctor I like for him to at least look before he sticks me with a needle. I feel that is fair.

So, RMS is a product purchased from a firm called SMS from Anaheim, CA. It has a stable running networkable POS, based on SQL. It has multi store modules to allow HQ to receive sales information, control purchasing, pricing and sale price reductions.

It has programmable aspects that allow a developer to customize it to meet end user requirements if they are not "out of the box" in the program. Many such "add-on's" are available thru a number or retailers here in the US and abroad. I suggest you seek local partners near you to help implement the software if this is what you choose to use. They can usually help reduce the learning curve and provide on-site support should the need arise. Always get references.

MS POS is MS's new POS as the others have said, is limited to single store and has no "add-on" capability.

MS RMS has many account exports built in and has and XML output with Quickbooks and raw XML also. RMS integrates with the GP family directly at the HQ level only.

Hope that helps. mt

Thanks everyone!

A little more info...we are a small single location non-profit. Nearly of our transactions are card-not-present. I am really interested in integration with other business systems.

Can you "upgrade" from POS to RMS?

If RMS only integrates with GP at the HQ level, does that mean that we would need to buy HQ separately? This doesn't seem to make much sense with a small single location.

Scott

Scott, We use RMS at a single location retail store. We use QuickBooks as the accounting software and manually put in the invoices. After initial setup with QuickBooks the process runs pretty smooth.

There's currently no upgrade path from POS to RMS.

RMS Store Operations can actually export some data ("GL Level" accounting) in a 'dynamics' format that I believe GP will import. This would allow you export some aggregate data like Sales, COGS and tax colected to GP, but would not let you transfer detail information like item quantity.

Also, there is a 3rd party product out there that does a deeper integration from Store Ops to GP, but I don't remember the company that produces it - they're based in California but that's all I remember.

Sorry yall, I forgot the GL to GP export...duh!

Glenn, I think the company that did all that is no longer offering it. But it is still up on their website. So maybe they resolved it.

"Glenn Adams [MVP - Retail Mgmt]" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...