POS systems evolve just as quickly as the payment options customers demand. Today, point of sale software continues to see a growing demand for options like PayPal, and multichannel selling demands software that can handle varied points of sale. Technological advances will also affect the future of your business’s POS system. Rapid advances in both software and hardware have dramatically changed how many business ring out customers in the past few years, and these changes will continue to sway the POS market. With these factors in mind, what does the future of desktop POS software look like? In the near future, we can expect to see the benefits of unified platforms along with the influence of borderless enterprise and the growing world of online sales.
Unified Platforms
QuickBooks is already an industry leader in several software fields. Rather than celebrating their successes independently, however, QuickBooks also leads in software integration. QuickBooks software isn’t just designed to be compatible, it’s designed to do its best work as a full team. It’s the first step towards pushing a unified platform.
Unified platforms have a number of advantages. Chief among those is fewer errors and incompatibility issues. Software often fails to interact well with other programs, even if it is supposed to, due to miniscule coding and demand differences. A unified platform presents a suite of programs that fit together like puzzle pieces. They enable users to perform many more functions together than any could provide on its own. QuickBooks’ software uses data from POS software to ease bookkeeping duties. If you run both POS and bookkeeping software from QuickBooks, they can transfer data directly to the appropriate bookkeeping files, straight from your sales records. QuickBooks also makes payroll a breeze. Together, the two systems can take that chore right out of your hands. They can manage not only regular, hourly pay, but also commission fees and bonuses. A unified platform allows software to fulfill independent, specialized functions, but streamlines communication between programs to maximize benefits and reduce labor. Bookkeeping and payroll are only the start.
Borderless Enterprise Compatibility
The age of the borderless enterprise has arrived, and with it, the gradual fading of traditional desktop software. That doesn’t mean desktop software is doomed, but it does mean you should expect some serious changes in the near future. Desktop POS software is already evolving in order to keep up with new demands and obstacles brought by big data and borderless business practices. Many new and altered features will aim to borderless enterprise solutions and compatibility.
The borderless enterprise also brings increased specialization. New software is already emerging; it’s specifically designed to gather data across various platforms for report generation. Even if brands like QuickBooks generate a unified dashboard of some sort for their own products, it’s unlikely they’ll branch out into this new, wider field. It’s possible the brand may make bargains with existing BI software, which they can offer in partnership, much as they do with merchant services now.
Handling Diverse Points of Sale
Sales are no longer restricted by the location of your cash register. Even desktop POS systems face the increasing demand for mobility. Desktop software that can also support two or three mobile devices, such as tablets and smart phones, is crucial for today’s businesses. In the near future, these demands will only grow more essential to daily business. Not only is this a cost effective way to ring up remote sales, but it allows you to take your business with you wherever you go.
Just as important as mobile hardware compatibility is online sales compatibility. If your POS system can integrate with your website, you’ll save your business the cost of a secondary POS application. You’ll also shave down labor hours. Although the borderless enterprise has many advantages, adding the information from two entirely separate POS systems into bookkeeping and accounting programs is a chore. By creating a desktop system with built-in app features for online sales, you combine two chores and streamline them into a single process. Since many small businesses make just as many, if not more, sales online, it’s possible that desktop software could be entirely redesigned to give online sales precedence over in-store transactions.
The future is always in motion, but recent developments will always bear on its course. With borderless enterprise, unified platforms, and diverse points of sale on the rise, tomorrow’s POS software will have to adapt to meet the new demands. Many of these adaptations have already begun. QuickBooks is leading the field in unified platforms for business management, and desktop software is now compatible with mobile technology. These are only the first steps, but they are already key selling points. What performs well on the market always inspires the next round of development. To keep up, desktop must deal with a world that has expanded beyond traditional desktop restrictions.
