Understanding Point of Sales System in Indonesian Small Medium Enterprise A Case Study in Food and Beverage Industry
Understanding Point of Sales System in Indonesian Small Medium Enterprise A Case Study in Food and Beverage Industry
By Somia Customer Experience
Jakarta, Indonesia 2018
Objectives ●
Discover business owner / merchant’s current activities, flow, and roles in the business, especially in managing / monitoring transactions with customers
●
Understanding merchant’s perception towards digital point-of-sales system and their reason for using / not using
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Discover merchant’s needs / pain points regarding transactions, and finding out opportunities where digital point-of-sales systems might fill their needs
Background Before digital Point of Sales solution is affordable, many small businesses do manual records of sales and transactions on paper or books. Business owners are typically still involved in selling activities, monitoring transactions and being responsible for any decisions eg when there is a problem, spending needs, and organizing the division of labor.
But as the business grows and the owner begins to have difficulty to get directly involved in it, the owner will feel the need for help to facilitate monitoring as well as the employees who need the work process faster. Digital solutions can be the answer, that is using cloud based Point of Sales (POS) system. Traditional and POS systems basically perform the same processes; the accounting principles and concepts are the same with differences lying in the mechanics of the process.
The rapid increase in use of POS systems recently versus using traditional system might have a different impact in enhancing customer service. POS systems are usually used by merchants to manage customer orders, speed up transaction processing, automated incoming data into the bookkeeping process, and most importantly owners can monitor whenever and wherever. Businesses ought to see if there is any gap and opportunity for next development to improve their customer service, monitoring sales activities, and business plans.
Research Process Identify Merchants
Criteria : ● Small Medium Enterprise ● Owner of Food and Beverages Business ● Have been doing business for more than 6 months ● Using traditional or Points of Sales system to input order and sales transactions data
Survey
Interview Owner and Cashier
Synthesis
Outcome
Research Report
Rolly’s Ice Cream.
Galla Gelato.
The Participants
Sasha Berry Cake & Bakery.
Mucca Authentic Coffee.
Rumah Makan Seroja.
Overview from Food and Beverage Business’ Owners Participant
P1
P2
P3
P4
P5
Name
Rolly’s Ice Cream
Galla Gelato
Sasha Berry Cake & Bakery
Mucca Authentic Coffee
Rumah Makan Seroja
Age
3 years
7 months
9 years
1.5 years
3 years
Price Range
28k - 33k
10-35k
8k-350k
20-35k
30k-60k
Traditional / POS system
POS
POS
Traditional
POS
Traditional
Monitoring Habit
Daily
Random
Daily
Once a month
Daily / couple days
Key Insights
●
What is business owner’s concerns in running business?
●
What is business owner reason to adopt digital POS system?
●
What are the need gaps between expected benefit and current POS offerings?
Business Owner’s Priorities
Maintaining the business continuity
1.
is the main concern for the business owner
Based on the survey, main priorities and concerns on maintaining the F&B business consist of 4 key activities, which are: ●
●
●
●
Monitoring revenues By checking omzet, as long as the business is making enough revenues compared to costs, owners will keep growing their business Managing resources Organize the division of labor of employees: who will interact directly with customers, record orders, product production, and manage transactions Managing stock Making sure the inventory used is proportional to the sales proceeds Marketing the business
Most of these owners aren't familiar or savvy enough with their accounting practices Business owners do transactions monitoring (at least once a month) but rarely pay attention to detail calculations, simply because they do not want to be complicated in doing time-consuming accounting process. Some of the participants are not confident to do the accounting themselves but need the feeling of the business running properly. Habits & Characteristic of these business owner: ● ● ● ●
Can’t always monitor sales activity daily No background / experience in running a business The business is not the main job Bookkeeping or accounting isn’t the main concern for business owners, or business owners rarely put much emphasize on them
“Gue buka cafe bertiga sama temen-temen gue dan kita ga ada yang punya background barista dan pengalaman bikin cafe, masa iya gue yang masih amatiran gini nanti kalau buka cafe masih di persulit buat itung-itung. Gue liat ada sistem POS, ya gue pake aja” - Mucca Authentic Coffee
To give a sophisticated service atmosphere for the customer
2.
is the main reason business owners decided to adopt digital POS system Adds up to the looks The use of a POS system that has been set on Android / iOS cashier devices, makes the merchants and services look more established.
Feel reassured Those who use POS system seem to be more confident or feel reassured that all revenues are well documented which indicates that the owner is in control of the business.
“Summarecon Mall Bekasi merupakan mal yang bergengsi di Bekasi, kalau pakai sistem POS kan jadi terlihat keren dan profesional� - Rolly’s Ice Cream
The intended benefits of Implementing the POS system that are communicated to merchant, are: -
Seamless monitoring Comprehensive report Integral to production with hardware support
However, those benefits do not emerge among these business owners. It is proven from the evidences down bellow. -
-
2nd Kitchen
-
1st Kitchen Order / Pay here
Most owners do not conduct regular monitoring, owners tend to monitor whenever they want since they can access the “back office� anytime Owners and employees are not fully utilize the features : owners only use cheapest features package, POS App’s language used is English which uncommon to most of the employees to get used to the system Some merchants use POS system only to calculate orders faster. About production, they usually pass the orders copy manually. No practices on maintaining good books or accounting calculations
In essence, business owners currently don’t believe that the benefits offered by POS system are the benefits they need Some owners believe that their services and sales activities will not be improved significantly by adopting the POS system. They are still doubting the system’s potential can replace owner’s role to manage merchant internal work (customer service, production, and owner employees communication, etc).
3.
Misimplementation of the POS system in SME business based on the stakeholder hierarchy
Current relationship between owners and employees ●
● ●
●
Owner is the one who customize the dashboard menu on POS system, then teach the employees how to use it Employees depend fully on the owner to troubleshoot or ask about POS system Employees don’t want to take the responsibility of handling problem themselves, as they don’t want to bypass the owner’s authority Incase something / problem happen, employees tend to go back to manual method
Intended Workflow
POS Company
Business Owner
Offer Product
Search POS system information
Set up / install POS software & hardware support
Give training
Monitor POS system usage
Troubleshoot - Send technician - via CS
Purchase POS system
Send error report
Access report / back office
- Consult Receive training from POS company
Employees
Receive error report
Implement POS system
Back to manual
Yes Access dashboard
Problem No
Continue daily operations
Current Workflow
POS Company
Business Owner
Offer Product
Search POS system information
Set up / install POS software & hardware support
Give training
?
Receive error report
Troubleshoot - Send technician - via CS
Purchase POS system
Access report / back office
Send error report
- Consult Receive training from POS company
Employees
Monitor POS usage
Back to manual method & send error report
Yes Implement POS system
Access dashboard
Problem No
Continue daily operations
Current Problems during implementation : ● ●
●
●
● ●
POS company does not monitor the usage periodically to merchants Cashiers afraid to explore the system by themselves They’re here not to diagnose things, they just want to be able to input Cashiers tend to ask the owner first when there is a problem with the system, as they do not want to take responsibility for it Owner does not have any idea of what problems faced by the cashier, due to limited visibility on what the cashier face Owner less update about the development of features in the system These problems affect owners’ current focus and responsibility when managing the business - The adoption of POS, currently, could actually cause more troubles for owners instead of easing them.
Recommendation
For POS System Company
1.
Acknowledge the BO conditions, their needs and pain points to be adjusted in the dashboard features: ● They need to see revenue ● They need to organize staffs based on their tasks ● They need to manage inventory ● They need to track marketing strategy execution
2.
Communicate more to BO & employees regarding how they can improve their business with POS: ● Give Training ● Allocate dedicated person to troubleshoot ● Set up group chats between POS company team, owner, and employees for quick troubleshoot
3.
Addressing the needs for owner and staffs ● Make the 4 points available in the dashboard: REVENUE (the first thing they see when they log in the dashboard) Staff’s organization Inventory (what’s out of stock, when to order) Add features to track digital marketing such as what’s posted on social media each day, what campaign is running ● The POS system company should provide the software in Bahasa Indonesia, it also can be improved with daily usage language to make employees could get used to the system easier ● The system should be accessible / controllable by owner and employees, so the owner will always updated with how the employees used the system in merchant’s sales daily activities. Furthermore, owner will be able to make any changes and solve some issues regarding to the POS system customize-able menu