Cybertill

[Luddite]

Any B&M shopkeepers out there use it? Any views?
Doesn't link to Actinic at the moment - unless someone out there knows different?

Your thoughts.

Cheers - Nick

[John Ennals]

Cybertill is a thin client till system: it's a brilliant concept but its Achilles heel is that if anything goes wrong with cybertill's servers or your broadband connection, the till in your shop will stop working. There is no local database, they have all your data.

Have a look at Intelligent Retail: similar idea but with a local database as well, so if the broadband connection fails the till keeps going without interruption.

Both systems offer a SOAP services module for linking to websites, but I don't think this would work with Actinic - I stand to be corrected though.

John

[SOAPisGreat]

Cybertill is effectively a thin client, but does have a local database running. This is called emergency till, and is only required if there is a problem with the ADSL connection. Although Emergency till does not have all of the functionality of the 'live' product, it is powerful enough to keep a retailer trading whilst any ADSL issues are resolved.

[John Ennals]

That's true, but the emergency till has to be invoked manually which isn't ideal if there is a queue of customers. It also doesn't help with the issue of the till slowing down when the server is busy.

I believe the local database is essentially just a product table which is refreshed overnight from cybertill's server, and is only used in emergency mode.

Personally I would go for a system that retains full functionality at the till regardless of what the server/ADSL line is doing.

John.

[SOAPisGreat]

Not quite sure where your informaiton comes from.
Emergency till does automatically start if there is a problem.
The product file is only updated overnight, but this I have been informed is currently being looked at to become more frequent.

[John Ennals]

Thanks for the correction Gary - somebody told me it could be invoked manually so I assumed it had to be. Doh!