PLDT unveils ‘cheaper’ web-based POS system for small enterprises

Monday, May 23, 2011

NOTING the large investment needed to add point of sale (POS) machines for daily business operations, a telecommuncations company is offering a cheaper web-based option for small and medium enterprises.

PLDT’s SME Nation introduced to Cebuano entrepreneurs PLDT Checkout, their web-based POS system.

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Jerameel Azurin, SME Nation assistant vice president for marketing, said they came up with a solution that addresses daily challenges facing SMEs, such as pilferage of stocks, sales and inventory tracking, coordination between branches and availability of business analytics.

He said acquiring a POS system meant added expense for the small-time entrepreneur, noting an investment of at least P60,000 plus hiring of additional personnel to manage it and the hassle of coordinating with different suppliers to make it work.

Monthly fee

Azurin said PLDT Checkout simplifies things.

He explained that since it is web-based, there is no need to shell out funds for hardware. Instead, the entrepreneur pays a monthly service fee of P2,750.

With Internet access, the entrepreneur only has to log in to the PLDT Checkout website and view each branch’s sales records in real time.

The software allows the user to see comparative sales revenues by the hour, the top products sold for each branch, a clear audit trail for monitoring and a per person access level provision for security.

This means there will be no need to spend for virtual private networks or VPNs, maintenance charges for servers and IT personnel.

With the data provided, PLDT officers pointed out that entrepreneurs can plan their next strategy based on the data they get. Product manager Christian Lim said this would increase profitability by 15 percent.

Azurin added that branches located outside of the country can make use of the same POS system.

Kat Luna-Abelarde, SME Nation head, claimed there were studies that showed sales can increase by 20 percent while net profits can grow to 30 percent just by having a POS system.

“The retail and food industry can benefit from this. Many SMEs may be cost-conscious and they may not have the sophistication to handle the technical aspects of setting up a POS system,” she said.

Bazaar

To demonstrate the advantages, PLDT held a Summer Biz Bazaar featuring 15 merchants displaying their products last Friday.

For an hour, those present were made to shop for items they liked on display while the merchants made use of PLDT Checkout to record their transactions.

By the end of the hour, they were able to identify the stall with the highest revenue and the stall that sold the most popular product.

PLDT awarded Silverworks a cash prize of P30,000 for selling P20,200 worth of dogtags, bags and tumblers or 16.1 percent of the total sales revenue. In second place was Stitches and Wear, which sold P13,930 worth of clothing items. Heldred Export International, which had 9.4 percent of the total sales, came in third, selling P11,810 worth of bags and fashion accessories.

Special awards were also given to Balamban Liempo and Ben’s Lechon, as they had the most popular products during the bazaar.