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Re: The Future of the Point of Sale

 

Hi,
Our company can contribute around 2000€ but that raises several
fiscal/accounting question.
What type of transaction will this be? will it be a standard sale with an
invoice ?
Also, as someone else asked elsewhere[1], will our contribution be subject
to VAT ?
Last question, can contributions be made without paypal?
[1] http://www.theopensourcerer.com/2013/10/crowdfunding-and-vat/

Lionel, for Numérigraphe

> Hello Everyone,
>
> I'm the maintainer of the POS at OpenERP and
> I would like to discuss with you the future of the POS module, explain
> what
> is our point of view, our priorities, but also gather feedback from you,
> and
> have a nice discussion on this subject :)
>
> First, as many of you have noticed, we have launched a campaign on
> Indiegogo to fund a cleanup & evolution of the hardware part of the POS,
> and I invite you to check it out:
>
> http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/opensource-your-shop
>
>
> As this campaign is already successful we'd like to extend the goals,
> we'll
> start with electronic scales, but maybe there are other priorities ? But
> first
> Id'like to explain the goal of this campaign in more details:
>
>
> Our point of view on the hardware:
> ============================
>
> There are two side on the hardware: The platform (where the POS Client
> runs)
> and the peripherals.
>
> For the platform we are seeing a big shift in demand from the
> PC/Industrial
> touchscreens to tablets (iPad,Android), and making sure the POS runs
> perfectly
> on those platforms is our first priority.
>
> And for us platform support means:
> - having the POS working on the platform's web browser with peripheral
> support
> - having at least a receipt printer and barcode scanner working out of the
> box
> - having the same level of peripheral support on all platforms
> - having the same peripherals work on all platforms, so we can build a
> small list
>   of perfectly supported hardware. (no usb for pc  / bluetooth for
> tablets)
> - having the same 'driver' repository and install system for all platforms
> (no custom
>   iPad app, with custom iPad drivers)
> - having it all work very simply, with only trivial levels of
> configuration
> needed.
> - everything must be open source
> - providing ways for the community and partners to easily extend the
> system
>   and add support for their own devices
>
> By these standards, the current proxy system doesn't even support a single
> platform.
>
> It's to solve all these issues that we came up with the PosBox concept.
> With the
> posbox, all the drivers are OpenERP python modules that run on a linux
> platform
>  embedded in a raspberry-pi. The POS then connects itself to the PosBox to
> control the peripherals.
>
> This has the following advantages :
> - The same system, with the same peripherals works whatever the platform
> the POS
>   is run on.
> - It re-uses much of the proxy system we had in place before, it is likely
> that the
>   majority of the driver code can be ported to the PosBox with little
> modification
> - It makes use of OpenERP to manage the drivers delivery and installation,
>   something we're all familiar with.
> - Even if it is hardware based, it can reduce the total cost of an
> installation
> - The configuration is much easier as the linux on the PosBox is already
> configured
>   with the correct device access rights, etc.
> - The raspberry-pi provides USB, but also HDMI and video-out for very
> cheap
> and
>   easy secondary displays. Non-USB peripherals can be connected via USB
> adapters.
> - If you run your POS on a full PC and don't want to use the posbox, you
> can run a local
>   openerp install with the posbox module installed and I expect that most
> drivers will work.
>
> So I think that the posbox is a very good base for the future of the POS
> as
> far as
> peripheral support is concerned. There is also the possibility to use the
> same system
> for other modules than the POS altough I am less familiar with their
> requirements.
>
> Electronic Scales, Secondary Displays & Other peripherals
> ==============================================
> With the campaign's current target we will provide receipt
> printer(ESC/POS)
> & barcode
> scanner support in standard. But we want to extend that range in the
> future; next target
> is electronic scales, that we'll develop it as part of this campaign if it
> reaches 30K.
>
> As for other peripherals I guess it depends on what the community is
> interested in and
> what it can contribute ?
>
> Electronic Payments Systems
> ========================
> The problem with electronic payment system is that there is too much
> country specific concerns
> for us to handle and we're not sure that a generic implementation is of
> any
> use.
> Has anyone experience implementing electronic payment systems or a working
> implementation to contribute ?
>
> Software evolution
> ===============
> From our point of view, concerning software, the role of OpenERP S.A. is
> to
> make sure the POS is
> stable, extensible, integrated with the rest of OpenERP and has the
> generic
> features that benefit mostly
> everyone. Custom features that fit specific buisnesses needs are best made
> by partners & community :)
>
> So our next big change, as part of the indiegogo campaign, is to make it
> run on android & iOS,
> and that should happen quite shortly. Our primary goal is to make it work
> in the browser, but we'll probably
> provide native apps, and maybe native apps for Windows/Linux/OSX as well,
> to ease certification process,
>
> But there are other things  on our radar, namely:
> - customer management : fidelity cards / points / discounts / etc. this
> seems to be one of the
>   most often requested features. This could be part of an extention of
> this
> indiegogo campaign, or maybe somebody
>   has already something that works ?
>
> - Bars & Restaurants:  Table managment, Backend orders, etc. It seems like
> a big project and we'd
>   like to concentrate on the shop part first, but I'd still like to hear
> if
> any of you has experience
>   on the subject, any development to contribute, etc. ?
>
> Community
> =========
>
> The POS Centralisation projects seems like a nice initiative, that I'll
> follow with interest :)
>
> - Fred.
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