Inland Cash Register

ATTENTION: Sharp POS Dealers

If you're like most dealers, you've been waiting for a good Windows communications and polling software to offer your Sharp POS customers. However, we think that Sharp dealers have an even bigger personal need that has been overlooked until now.

Features:

Dealer Work Station includes all models currently available
The ability to program and edit the Flat keyboards and Raised Flat keyboards

Print Flat keyboards and Raised Flat keyboards generated by the cash register's program.
Has the capability to import the Master Reset default programming values for all models supported. You can begin building a program even if you don't have a register to communicate to

Convert PLUs, UPCs or Departments from one model to another to save hours of programming time!

Presto Programmer - Greatly decreases the time it takes to program a cash register by eliminating data entry of descriptions for PLUs and Departments
Includes support for Polling/Report for customer demonstrations
Free Support for standard features
Software is licensed is for 2 computers

The SKAN_Talk32 Dealer Work Station is designed to greatly simplify program development, eliminate the need for separate keyboard template generation, organize program archiving, and speed up methods of downloading programs many times faster than current methods. Plus, it's a bargain because this single application works with All current Sharp models! (Check Here to see a list of which models are included at this time.) Good software pays for itself - and the dealers that have this cutting edge technology will have powerful advantages and cost savings over dealers that continue to do things the old fashioned way.

If you suspect that you aren’t realizing the profit you should because the time required to prepare a customer’s program exceeds what you can reasonably charge for, then you are about find a valuable solution to a difficult problem. If you would like to decrease the workload on your highly paid programmer, maximize their potential output, or safely shift some of the load to less experienced workers, you should read on. With SKAN_Talk32 Dealer Work Station, you’ll be amazed to discover that a great programmer can get their work done in a fraction of the time it presently takes, or you can marvel how you can begin delegating programming work that could never be trusted to the inexperienced before. Watch how easy it is for a beginner to start performing sophisticated programming tasks within minutes. Learn how SKAN_Talk32 automatically generates perfectly matching color keyboard templates with no extra work and how it can completely eliminate the possibility of misplacing a customer’s program or its keyboard template ever again.

Can you imagine taking a customer's program specifications and developing a complete custom program and color keyboard template for an A750 in less than two hours time, and then uploading it to the register in one minute? Sound impossible? It’s not. Here are the powerful new tools that are now available for you to utilize in your own dealership.

VIRTUAL KEYBOARD:

You gotta see it to believe it! Graphical programming that is as intuitive as it gets! This is the amazing innovation that makes SKAN_Talk32 easy enough for beginners to use. It sounds so logical you’ll wonder why nobody ever thought of it before. SKAN_Talk32 draws the model specific cash register keyboard onto your PC monitor so that you can visually build or edit a program right on the Virtual Keyboard.

DEVELOPING NEW PROGRAMS

Presenting the program in a graphical manner can actually simplify the programming tasks enough that even beginners can use Virtual Keyboard to develop new programs. Right-click on any key position on the Virtual Keyboard to pop open a small programming screen just for that key. Just fill in the blanks for pricing, descriptors, department links, kitchen printer or monitor routing, function keys or other relevant programming. Once the programming fields are filled in and OK’d, the screen closes and the descriptor appears and remains on the appropriate Virtual Keytop so that you can instantly see the results of your work as the program is being built. Hovering the mouse over any item on the Virtual Keyboard instantly shows pertinent information about that item in a ScreenTip without the need to re-open the programming screens. It simultaneously displays more detailed information about the item on the Instant Info Screen located at the bottom of the Virtual Keyboard. It’s simple to build a program one keyboard position at a time when you can actually see what you are doing.

CLONING EXISTING ITEMS

Cloning an item is even easier. Clone a similar item already programmed and assign it to a new keyboard position to eliminate the need to manually fill out all of the same fields over and over again. Since many items within the same department are linked and/or routed similarly, just change the name and price to fit the new item and see how much work you’ve saved. With seventy-four possible fields in the UP3300's PLU file, the time you save on each item can really add up!

QUICK PICK LISTS

Experienced programmers will appreciate how Virtual Keyboard can cut their development to a fraction of their current development time. Most experienced programmers will prefer to enter items directly into their appropriate files all at one time rather than programming one keyboard position at a time. Even better, they may be comfortable pasting in files directly from a spreadsheet or database. As new items are entered or pasted into the files, they automatically appear in pop-up Quick Pick Lists next to the Virtual Keyboard. There are lists for PLU’s, PLU Menus, Departments, Combo Items, Condiments, and Function Keys. You can easily page through the various lists with a click of a mouse. Best of all, you can quickly assign items from the lists as fast as you can drag and drop them onto the Virtual Keyboard. It only takes a few minutes to assign an entire keyboard. Naturally, all of the screen levels, menu levels, and price levels are accessible for programming through the Virtual Keyboard.

EDITING EXISTING PROGRAMS

Modifying an existing program has never been easier because Virtual Keyboard is not just for building new programs; it can be used with existing programs as well! SKAN_Talk32 reads the files and tables of an existing program and not only draws the Virtual Keyboard onto the PC monitor - it maps each item or function from the existing program to the correct Virtual Keyboard position, and displays each item’s descriptor on the appropriate keytop. You’ll be amazed the first time you watch a programmed cash register’s keyboard duplicate itself onto a PC monitor. Right-click on any item or function on the keyboard to open the appropriate programming screens to view or modify the existing program. If you want to rearrange the keyboard, you can easily move items around by dragging and dropping them into new key positions. SKAN_Talk32 will save the changes and upon download automatically re-maps the item’s new keyboard position to match the Virtual Keyboard. SKAN_Talk32 does all the hard work while the programmer engages in tasks that require computer skills less difficult than many children’s games.

TEMPLATE MAKER

Perfect color keyboards every time - generated automatically with no extra work!!! Whether you build the program through Virtual Keyboard or simply connect to a register that was previously programmed, Template Maker extracts the item’s descriptor from the program and maps it to the correct position to generate a perfectly sized keyboard template. Drag and drop from the Color Pallet onto the Virtual Keyboard’s individual keytops to customize the colors to your liking. You can even preview it before printing if you desire. Then print, cut out, and install directly on the register. If the customer wants last minute keyboard changes, just drag and drop items to the new keyboard locations to rearrange, then re-print. There’s no need to go back and update the program to match – that happens automatically because the program and its matching template are both created simultaneously. Spending countless hours to create perfect keyboards is finally a thing of the past!

FILE MINDER

File Minder’s smart programming assistance is there to guide those with a lack of experience, or to assist the seasoned programmer who proves that they are only human on occasion. Some examples: File Minder won’t allow you create more PLU’s than you have allocated in the register, let you enter more descriptor characters than is allocated, or access price levels that were not specified in the setup. It’s on guard all the time!

PROGRAM ARCHIVING

Whether you are building an original program or want to back-up an existing program, it can be saved right in the SKAN_Talk32 Dealer Work Station. You’ll never have to look around to locate an old discarded diskette again. The programs will always be in the most logical place – in the same application used to generate the programs. Since the program can automatically generate the keyboard template whether or not it was originally created in SKAN_Talk32, you won’t ever have to load separate software to look for a matching keyboard. Now you can start building a library of common programs that can be easily modified for new customers

PC/POS COMMUNICATIONS THROUGH RS232, SRN, or TCP/IP

For the first time you have an option. You can communicate through a traditional RS232 (serial) port, or you can communicate from a PC to Sharp POS through an SRN port, or TCP/IP. SRN is Sharp’s own proprietary Inter Register Communications protocol and is much faster than serial communications. The special SRN board is designed and manufactured by Sharp Electronics Corporation specifically to be installed in a PC. The SRN communications capability is available for Sharp ER-A750’s, ER-A770’s, and UP-3300’s (Sharp’s part # is: ER-01INPC board.) TCP/IP is high-speed Industry standard Ethernet LAN communications available on the UP-600 and UP-700. SKAN_Talk32 can automatically detect which communications mode you have selected and will communicate accordingly. Now you can upload or download an entire register program at a fraction of the time of RS232. An average A750 that takes an hour to load over a serial port takes only about one minute through SRN. How convenient might it be to be able to change a demo room program in just a minute? TCP/IP is even faster. Even more important, if a customer calls with a question about their program, your dealership can now load the customer’s entire program into a register in the time it takes to get a cup of coffee. No more trying to second-guess what the customer is experiencing. Then use RS232 to communicate with the customer’s register over a modem if necessary. Eliminate unnecessary warranty calls, and provide instant help to your customer no matter how far away they are.

CVM PROGRAMMER

Too cool to be believed. If your customer is using the CVM system with their Sharp POS, this tool will make the programming a breeze. CVM Programmer is a graphical module that draws the correct quantity of monitors in the system, and labels them with user-defined names. (i.e. Grill Monitor, Front Monitor) so that items can be routed as easily as selecting each desired monitor with point and click simplicity. Want an item routed to five different monitors? Five clicks and a couple of seconds later – it’s done. Colors of modifiers can be programmed just as easily by clicking on the desired colored button. The CVM Programmer calculates and programs the CVM attribute automatically. Now, anybody that can click a mouse can easily route items to the kitchen.

Now you can see how easy the whole process can be. Clever people will think of even more ways to utilize this powerful tool. Our programmers have already figured out that they can speed things up even more and greatly reduce the possibility of any entry errors by providing our own customers with an electronic worksheet to fill in with their programming specifications. They paste the files directly into SKAN_Talk32, and quickly assign the keyboard by dragging and dropping. They print out the keyboard for approval, and upload the program to the register. Voila! The whole thing can be done in less time than it used to take just to make the keyboard.

To learn more about how your dealership can simplify, organize, and speed up your Sharp POS programming call Kay at (909) 884-0475.