ICT in Organisations Essay Example for Free

ICT in Organisations Essay 1: Introduction: What is EPOS? What is epos? Epos is a name for a till that operates in big organisation. EPOS systems are mainly used by businesses that have large numbers of regular sales like debenhams, EPOS stands for Electronic Point of Sale, is an electronic system that processes credit cards transactions so that the credit card has the right funds in it ,it is also Checkout tills that are connected to a computer with a bar code scanner that scans the products . The EPOS also provides full stock control; it also provides the tracking of refunding goods. It electronically receives and sends bar code information. How debenhams use epos is that it controls Product handling at point of sale, stock control, automatic reordering and rate of sale information and also is set up to retain a database of all customers volunteering their name/address/telephone number, for the purpose of mailing lists or other marketing database. EPOS can hold details on a maximum of 100,000 stock items. It Takes about 0.25 seconds per product to find its name /country / expiry date, With a 10,000 item stock file. The barcode can be read with a hand held scanner at the checkout .the scanner makes a light appears the reflects off the barcode. The white lines on a barcode reflect the light strongly while the black lines reflect less strongly. There are many differnet types of epos systems that have different makes and different types of size , proccesor , speed a Epos systems include the following features that are on EPOS systems that are in debenhams * Barcode entry sales * Discounts for staff customers * Stock search * Refunds to customers * Stock control * entry for credit card details * customers details * suppliers details * statements * invoices * make barcodes * stores details 2 : description of each of the components Input devices Input devices that are used at debenhams are à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Keyboard à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Mouse à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Scanner à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Barcode reader à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Sensors à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Magnetic stripe reader à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Touch screens Input devices are devices that can enter the computer, input devices can give access to information so that it can be stored or entered in the computer for processing or the act of storing goods or the state of being stored on a magnetic tape or a storage device that stores information. Input devices One input device that is on an epos system that is used in debenhams that I will be discussing in detail will be a keyboard. One of the most used input devices in debenhams is called a keyboard, it changes key presses into the computer code, say for example pressing the C key produces electrical signals which the computer uses to represent that letter. Computer uses a different code for each character on the keyboard. A key board is also A hardware device consisting of a number of mechanical buttons (keys) which the user presses to input characters to a computer. How keyboards input devices work is that When a key is pressed, it pushes down on a rubber dome sitting beneath the key. A conductive contact on the underside of the dome touches (and hence connects) a pair of conductive lines on the circuit below. This bridges between them and allows current to flow changing the signal strength. A scanning signal is worked by the chip along the pairs of lines to all the keys. When the signal in one pair becomes different, the chip generates a make code corresponding to the key connected to that pair of lines. The code generated is sent to the computer either via a keyboard cable or over a wireless connection. A chip inside the computer receives the signal bits and decodes them into the appropriate key press. The computer then decides what to do on the basis of the key pressed (e.g. display a character on the screen, or perform some action). There are many different types of keyboards that are used in a epos systems but one that is used at debenhams is called a QWERTY keyboards named after the first six alphabetic keys on the keyboard . Keyboards are especially useful for entering text and numbers. How a type of input device that is used in debenhams which is called a keyboard is used is that it helps the employees working at debenhams to find prices of products that loses it barcode or if they have a mistake in the receipt it can resolve the mistake and give them there money back or if they have to multiply a product more than once so that they dont have to carry it because if its to heavy . They input devices used as part of EPOS in debenhams There are many input devices that are used at debenhams for EPOS systems , one of them is a Bar code scanner its make is Symbol LS6000 , the second input devices that I will be talking about is a Magnetic stripe reader its make is NCR and also its a 3 track reader . Processor used The processor (also called Central Processing Unit, or CPU) is the part of the computer that actually works with the data and runs the programs. the processor is called the brain of the computer, It is a microchip which carries out all of the searching, sorting, selecting and calculating within the computer. Specification of the processor used at debenhams is that most common CPUs in PCs are Celeron Processors made by Intel , it has a fast speed measured in MHz and also it has a hardware that can get the computer up to scratch . .the processor is needed in debenhams epos systems because it helps debenhams to sort everything up to date and get everything sorted to scratch so that it can run like a functional company and also helps debenhams to calculate its shares so that they can know whither the have loses or profits . I think the processor helps debenhams get up to date for that debenhams can gain profits because they have a well fulfilling company that meets its processing needs. The processors used as part of an EPOS system in debenhams There are many processors used at debenhams for epos systems ,one of them is a Store server its make is NCR Worldmark 4455 and the processor type is Pentium Xeon and its processor speed is 500MHz and the size of the RAM is 500MHz. the second processor I will be talking about is the mainframe , its make is IBM ISeries model 840, its size is 3.1Tb, its processor type is 64 bit RISC #23FC , and its processor speed is 16,500 CPW batch 2,000 CPW Interactive . Output devices devices that are used at debenhams are * VDU * Printers * Monitor * Scanner * Hand held barcode scanners