Recommend POS upgrade from CAM?

[cfwdude]

I am running CamCommerce RetailStar 6.41, with 4 retail locations, and am looking for an upgrade. I have had consistent stability issues with the DB, and Cam's support isn't that great. I also have limited info for running Crystal Reports off the database, since the canned report feature is limiting, and extrememly CPU intensive (100%).
I am looking for a more robust DB, and Win2k compatible POS stations, tag printing, etc.
Anyone have any suggestons?

Thanks in advance!!

 

[WaitronUnit]

Look into SQL-based apps to satisfy your reqs for min. Win2K and DB accesibility/stability... I deal only with hospitality/restaurant solutions, but am quite pleased with the "next wave" (i.e., SQL-based). Technology has sped up while costs have decreased, so now's the time to clean house.

What type of environment (retail?) are you tracking? If it's anything to do with restaurants/hotels/bars I can objectively suggest a few routes to take.

 

[trvlace]

http://www.microsoft.com/pos

 

[ezpos]

http://www.tallysoft.com

 

[mkatzer]

Our clients migrated from CAM to RMS 1.2 spk2. My advice is what every you choose make sure it has a good datbase (like ms sql server), and you have full access (read and write) to the data.

As for the CAM stuff -- run don't walk.

We just finished a conversion -- it was a nightmare. The CAM stuff is really brain dead circa 1990 DOS stuff. I never understood why my client could not get write access to the datbase from CAM. After looking CAM's retail star it in detail, I understand why -- the DB will break if you sneeze at it.

Retail Star uses a dumb database design, with no concept of stored procs (just an over grown access style database from gupta). Everything is done on the clients; table validation, table updates etc. RMS for example, is server centric, and uses a central database for what databases are good for.

On the CAM stuff, the data you need to migrate is spread all through our their tables, so to migrate the data you need to do multiple joins (and you will still miss 5% of the data). They use a pretty old schema design, that is from the old DOS days. Do the migration on XP. it works the best

After we finished the conversion, everything runs faster, and we never changed out the POS except to add new printers and pole displays. (CAM does not use OPOS drivers).

What every you pick, make sure you look at the database, or have some one look at it for you.

Things are not always greener on the other side. there are some nice UI concepts that CAM has, but that is really about it. we are testing our a wireless pda inventory systems with RMS right now at the cleint to do a cleanup the inventory after the migration.

matt k.

 

[cfwdude]

Few questions for you mkatzer,
How long did your actual conversion take?
What was the size of your Cam database?
Are you still using the POSStar for the register software?
Did you have to change you credit dard processing software?

I am in a 5 store (5 databases) setup, each db at around 5G.
We are using an IP version of ICVerify (not supported by CAM)

I do have read/write access to our databases, as I have been working with Cam on some development issues. How would this be able to help me in the conversion?

Did you deal with a certain vendor that helped you in the conversion? If so, who?

thanks a ton, this is the exact info I am looking for.

 

[RITE1]

mkatzer can probably answer your questions about CAM better than I can but quickly answer a few of them....

Q. How long did your actual conversion take?

We typically can get a basic conversion done in less than a day. Never done it with CAM but have done it with many others.

This also depends on how intense you want your conversion to be. If you just want your items and departments bought over, no biggy, but if you want your transaction history brought over, it could be a daunting task.

Q. I am in a 5 store (5 databases) setup, each db at around 5G.

What we have done with RMS is in this type of situation is convert one of your stores with the best data to an RMS database, hookup RMS HQ > Create your other stores and use their old data to change prices at those stores. Then, all your stores are connected and converted in a pretty simple way.

How long have you been running POS in your stores? From the size of your databases it looks like you are going to need full SQL instead of MSDE.

Q. Did you have to change you credit dard processing software? We are using an IP version of ICVerify (not supported by CAM)

Credit card software is integrated into RMS and best of all, you can use pretty much any credit card processor that exists. Works really slick, is easy to setup, and is very fast. Our clients approve credit cards in 1 to 5 seconds.

Q. I do have read/write access to our databases, as I have been working with Cam on some development issues. How would this be able to help me in the conversion?

You do have read/write access to the RMS db. Best of all, its a Microsoft SQL database so there are tons of tools and utilities available that you can use to do data mining, etc. Things like crystal reports, Microsoft Access and Excel, and tons of others.

Hope that helps! Im sure mkatzer can answer your CAM specific questions.

 

[irvinec]

Hi cfwdude,

We have a similar configuration. Several stores, 4GB database, considering upgrading to version 7.

I wouldn't mind sharing experiences off-line. If possible, contact me at chrisi@darkhorse.com.

-Thanks