Enhance and Extend your Investment in SAP POS via User Exits

There is considerable excitement in the SAP POS user community over the recent release of v 2.3, largely because of the extent to which it exposes POS logic to outside developers via User Exits (UE’s). These User Exits enable retailers to stay on the mainstream core release of POS while extending the system to provide functionality key to supporting their unique business processes. Business agility is increased, and the costs associated with maintaining unique code “branches” eliminated, resulting in much improved overall value for the retailer. DBS, an SAP POS consulting and development partner headquartered in Virginia Beach, VA, is taking advantage of this capability to deliver solutions for its SAP clients.

DBS made an early commitment to User Exits (more limited in earlier POS versions) to develop a family of solutions that enhance and extend SAP POS. These applications are built around the DBS User Exit Framework, a set of Microsoft .NET services that abstract and unify the native SAP User Exits and simplify application development by enabling use of modern development tools and languages (MS Visual Studio, C#, VB.net, etc). The User Exit Framework also enables applications built for earlier versions of POS to migrate easily to v 2.3, and take full advantage of its new features. The real business value, however, is delivered by the applications created using the UE Framework technology.

These take two forms: first, a suite of commercial applications in specific functional areas, and second, in the development of “custom” applications specific to a particular retailer’s requirements. In many cases, the two are combined to deliver the overall solution.

Examples of client implementations using the above (for a variety of POS versions) include:

1. EFT using FDMS’ TransArmor Tokenization and P2PE for a west coast sporting goods retailer.
2. Bounce Back Coupons and integration with Instream vendor coupons for a national discount retailer.
3. Full points-based Loyalty, Continuity and Serialized Coupons for both a golf and tennis retail superstore chain and a regional apparel & accessories retailer.
4. Customer Data Capture for a luxury apparel retailer.
5. Mobile POS and Blackhawk Gift Card integration for a home goods retailer.
6. Monitoring and Integration Services, EFT (including EBT) as well as numerous customer-specific enhancements (custom pricing, customer display enhancement, custom receipt design, etc) for a west coast discount chain.

In each of these cases the client organization’s business and functional requirements were met and future agility increased without resorting to POS source modifications – utilizing a combination of SAP POS User Exits and DBS TransAction + applications and services.