Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems Ltd has launched a new point of sale application, Calypso, which it claims is the first multinational, multi-sector system of its kind. It has been designed to suit the needs of the small independent retailer and large multinational store chain alike, in any sector, and can be scaled to support either a single terminal or several hundred on a network. It covers front office or point of sale applications, running on any MS-DOS terminal (although Siemens is anxious to recommend their new state-of the-art Beetle machines as the ideal complement) and back office applications such as stock control or payroll running on a Sinix Unix System V.4 server. The system supports the Ethernet local area network with Open Systems Interconnection communications options and is designed to cope with international variations in tax and currency values. For single terminal configurations, the Calypso point of sales peripherals and back office screen and keyboard are combined in a single Unix-based system. Single server configurations, aimed at small to medium-sized stores, incorporate a Unix server to provide back office functions and disk-based front office sales facilities. Multi-server configurations, for medium to large supermarkets, department stores and the like, employ several Unix servers to store data for front office clients without local disks. Other features supported by Calypso include a programmeable point of sale keyboard with integrated swipe card reader, alphanumeric customer and operator display, scanner and cash drawer and report generator. Of particular interest to retailers, Siemens believes, will be the price and promotional tools built into the system, including a facility for the implementation of customer loyalty schemes. According to Siemens UK product marketing manager Andy Smith, the system has been very aggressively priced with a typical single terminal configuration costing around UKP2,000. But is not easy to tie down figures since users can select various items of Calypso software and hardware to run in combination with their existing technology: Calypso is compatible with existing NCR Corp 7052, Fujitsu Ltd Atrium, IBM Corp 4684 systems and with an IBM 386X terminal and Siemens Nixdorf card. Some 20 companies, some of them ‘major’, have shown an interest in the system, Siemens say. Negotiations are also under way with prospective business partners that, in addition to Siemens, will be distributing the system worldwide.
