1. Purpose of System
　

Department stores across the nation utilize centralized payment arrangement meaning stores residing in the department store are not assigned any cash register. The clerk will carry out the transaction at the centralized payment counter then return with the invoice to the customer waiting in the store. This kind of payment arrangement has many potential flaws that are apparent during annual bargaining sales:
 

1. Clerk need to travel back and forth between the shop and the payment counter. During bargaining sales where the floor is filled with customers, this is both time consuming and requires plenty of effort.
2. When the clerk leaves for the payment counter, the shop is left vulnerable to theft, increasing chances of burglary.
3. The shop will be left unattended, losing potential customers and possible sales.
4. Can almost always expect a queue at the payment counter, testing the patience of the customer as they wait for the return of the merchant.


Targeting these flaws the department store proposed to increase the number of payment counter on every floor in order to break the service bottle neck. However this causes other concerns:
 

1.  Bulkiness of the register prohibits installation at merchants because each merchant has very limited spacing as it is.
2. Cost of renting registers is a hefty expense. An increase in expense means cuts in profits.
3. Operating the register requires extensive training as it can be quite complex. clerks maybe incompetent to handle such a task therefore additional staff will have to be hired
4. Number of register is limited so it’s still no possible to assign one for every store.


These issues drove department stores to re-evaluate the situation, and having realized 70% of every day’s transactions are paid by credit card, the department stores propose that POS terminal unit manufacturers come up with a solution. Our proposed solution is for the POS terminal unit to control the invoice printer, therefore speeding up the transaction process, prevent queuing and increase overall profit.
 

　
　
　
2. Transaction Flow and Network Structure
　
The proposed structure of connecting the POS terminal unit to the invoice printer is different to the previous structure where the POS terminal unit was connected to the cash register. With this new structure, our POS terminal unit will control the invoice printer to print the invoice after the transaction has been approved.

The POS terminal unit will transmit both credit card and invoice related information to the Symlink Card Synergy Server. This server will transmit the necessary credit card information to the bank server for transaction authorization. When the transaction has been approved, necessary invoice related information will be stored. The MIS systems, maintained by the department store, can retrieve information on the transaction from the Symlink Card Synergy Server.