Abacus Business Solutions - Essay Example

Abacus Business Solutions: Final External Analysis Industry Definition The industry for POS systems for restaurantmanagement is highly competitive industries with a multiple number of companies are in competition for the market share. The industry involves the sale, implementation, servicing, and repair of point of sale equipment that are used for payment processing, maintaining vendor contacts and for the value added service they provide for the restaurant’s bottom line operations. The customers in the industry are other businesses, making transactions between sellers and buyers. Most of the customers in the industry are restaurants. However, the IBIS report provides that the customers can be further--- categorized in terms of the products sought by them. The main categories of the restaurant customers catered to buy the industry include the retail POS software customers, the food service POS software customers, the hospitality POS software customer and other general POS software customers. The products provided by vendors in the industry are differentiated in terms of their use, the product’s price as well as their respective functionality. Company Definition The Abacus Business Solutions is company that is privately owned and operated. The company has been operating since 1974. Its main objective is to provide POS solutions to players in the hospitality industry. The company has its headquarters in Fort Lauderdale in Florida, United States. The main product that is sold by the company is the Aloha POS software system. This system is sold by Abacus Business Solutions to the customers in the market through a proposition of multiple hardware platforms. The two main types of Aloha POS that are sold by the company in the market include the TableService POS that is based on the windows platform using touch screens, an open architecture, and the QuickService for the fast food customers in the hospitality industry. In addition to the product itself, the company provides value added services to its clients. For instance, the organization offers servicing and installation facility as well as support and training for the Aloha POS for its customers in the market. The company highlights that its mission is to make the businesses of its customers more productive as well as profitable. The organization has set high standards for operation where it not only targets customer satisfaction but also seeks to provide business wide integrated POS solutions for any type of hospitality and restaurant business in the industry. The main customers of the company include the likes of Lime Fresh Mexican Grill, Green Street and The Addison in Fort Lauderdale. Natural Environment The natural environment for the business and industry is volatile. The main reason for this volatility is the frequent occurrence of natural disasters and other such incidents that cannot be forecasted by the industry. The hospitality POS industry never the less is negatively effected by the onslaught of these natural disasters which can effect the business of the customers as well as the POS suppliers in the industry by causing problems in terms of data loss, infrastructure and financial loss as well as loss of information. It terms to mitigate for these potential factors, companies in the industry provide back up solutions whereby the POS system operation and data stored can be routinely backed up to prevent significant loss. Those natural environment factors which are not related to the natural disasters yet can occur in the natural environment of the industry pertain are many. These factors include loss of power or mismanaged power distribution that affects the system performance. The use of faulty cables that hamper data transactions and third party vendors that can reduce the effectiveness of the POS solutions due to interference with the system operations and interface. In addition to this, the staff of the customers in the industry can also pose as an external natural environment influencer, especially when they are undisciplined and not trained properly when it comes to using and maintaining the POS. Broad Environment – Political Legal The political and legal environment for the industry requires the companies operating in the industry to comply with industry wide standards of operations and product and service delivery. The legislation specific to the hospitality and restaurant industry also influences the POS industry as the system configurations have to be adjusted for the specific changes in the legislation in the hospitality industry. One of the most significant legislation that companies in the industry have to adhere to and cater for is the PCI data security standard. Essentially this standard has to be managed for by the companies in the hotel, restaurant and hospitality industries. However, as the systems provided by the hospitality POS industry are highly correlated with processes involving transaction processing, these regulations and standards have to be accounted by companies in the equipment and POS industry as well. The companies in the POS hospitality industry have to be more proactive in responding to the changes in the PCI laws and the stringent standards set by this legislature. Specifically the changes that have to be managed by the POS providers include adjustments to the different software versions, changing the settings in the software and making infrastructure change corresponding to the network security. Currently the PCI DSS and FACTA standards are more regulated and have to be accounted for by companies in the industry. Industry regulators should always be on the look out of industry players who flout these rules and regulations. Players caught flouting the rules should be heavily sanctioned to deter others from doing the same. It is also important for the Abacus Business Solutions and other industry players to come up with products that are not susceptible to cyber attacks. The IT industry is currently facing an increased rate of cyber attacks and thereby, it would be very important for industry players to come up with high quality products that would not be attacked by malicious files such as viruses and malware. Competitor Identification + As mentioned earlier in this paper, the competition in the industry is significantly high with many large as well as small POS product and service providers operating in the market. The main competitors that operate in the hospitality POS industry include Micros Systems Inc., NCR, Squirrel Systems, Menusoft Systems Corp, and Action Systems. Micros Systems Inc. operates in the industry with its main products the Micros 3700 and 9700. The company is a leading service provider in terms of software solutions in the industry and provides POS systems that are focused towards operational application, back end operations as well as those for the management of inventory and finance. The systems provided by the company are highly versatile and scalable with the changing scale of the customers operations. NCR operates in the market with the Aloha software which is ideally suited for the restaurants and hospitality business. The main reason for this is that it has a business model that is offers quick service, casual dining, fast dining or fine dining type of services. The software is easy to use, efficient as well as provides comparability of performance in the industry for the competitors of the customers as well Squirrel systems operate in the market through the Squirrel Professional systems which was the pioneer software employing the touch screen technology for POS. The solutions provided by this company are tech savvy, sleek, stylish and highly customizable offering object oriented interface that is easy to comprehend and use. Menusoft Systems Corp is well known for its Digital Dining POS that is mostly used in bars and nightclubs as well as independent restaurants. The Action Systems Inc on the other hand provide the Restaurant Manager as the POS in the market targeting hospitality and restaurant businesses having business features of delivery establishments, online reservation and china operations. The strategy of the company has to be considered one more time as its competitors use low-cost strategy that makes them more competitive. The high prices set by Abacus turn into customer’s disaffection. Thus it is essential to consider the issue one more time as the customers may not need additional services provided by the company for high price. Task Environment – Supplier Power The supplier power in the industry is moderate as the POS product and service providers have dedicated suppliers that provide the technical hardware and software components for the companies. Often alliances are formed for the integration of software and hardware of POS. In the recent years, outsourced supplying has also been employed for the new value additions and updates of the POS. another reason why supplier power in the industry is considered moderate is that the supplies needed in this industry are not scarce and thereby, a large number of people can join the industry as suppliers. This considerably reduces the suppliers’ bargaining power. (This is not as well with , or through out as the rest if the page ) Task Environment – Threat of New Entrants The industry already has many POS providers operating in the market targeting the hospitality industry customers. The low level of barriers for entrance into the industry provides a high threat from new entrants. However, this is moderated slightly by the regulations that have to be adhered to by the companies in the industry. The technology used for the POS is complex, but there is significant resource available to develop such systems. Moreover, the availability of highly skilled human resource makes it possible for small new entrants to develop customized POS for dedicated customers in the industry. As a result, entrants tend to come and go, with only the successful ones being able to create loyalty for their products retaining long-term position in the industry. It is important to mention that the risk posed to industry players by new entrants in the industry is real. Any serious business venture can come up with new and high quality products. These new players will then gain a considerable market share from existing industry players. Key Success Factors: Industry The key success factors for companies operating in the industry pertain to the following Having POS solutions which are scalable Having differentiated and customization add-ons for the POS Having a loyal customer base, preferably those with a chain of retail operations Provision of POS solutions that comply with the changing data security regulations and legislation Provision of POS systems that have comprehensive functionality from kitchen to the customer interaction point Provision of POS that in short provide for high level of guest/customer satisfaction, increased sales, increased efficiency, process optimization and lowering of costs of operations The threats presented to the industry are in the form of changing legislation, which impact the business operation as changes have to be made in the products. Aside from this other enterprise wide solution providers are creeping on the market for POS as well, by providing ERP systems that operate via cloud computing to deliver customized functionality in a more versatile manner References “Point of Sale Software Developers in the US”, IBISWorld, Inc., 2012 Thompson, J., “Abacus Business Solutions”, University of Tampa, 2013 “Environment”, Abacus Business Solutions Corporate Website, 2013, retrieved from “About Abacus”, Abacus Business Solutions Corporate Website, 2013, retrieved from NCR Corporate Website, 2013, retrieved from Squirrel Systems Corporate Website, 2013, retrieved from Dynamic Products Midwest Corporate Website, 2013, retrieved from Micros Systems Corporate Website, 2013, retrieved from “I need to know your opinion about Aloha Pos Software”, 2011, retrieved from “PCI SSC Data Security Standards Overview”, PCI Security Standards Organization Website, 2013, retrieved from Read More