The supermarket scale as data and information center
Functions follow the technology trend
Modern scales in the supermarket are increasingly evolving to be weighed and print terminals of computer networks. The latest generation no longer requires a keystroke, but may differ apples and pears itself thanks to optical image processing. And when it comes to differentiating tomatoes with and without stem from the bush, then asks a spirit level at the customer narrowly Menu selection Return. Formerly a retail scale was only in use to determine the weight of a sales article. Today, this idea seems to downright antiquated. Scales are fused not only with receipt and POS systems; they provide the seller extensive product information and advise the customer the recipe item or a matching wine. All this works only if the balance is connected to a data network and is equipped with appropriate software. But precisely because the problem starts, white Tudor Andronic from technology specialists Bizerba http://www.bizerba.de in Balingen: "At the moment, if that is what we expect from a balance, then a balance must learn the language, the talk the other systems in the field. And that is SOA. "
However, SOA is not a programming language in the strict sense. It is a design principle for IT networks. The three letters stand for service-oriented architecture. The central idea is impressively simple: what a specific unit does for the entire network is firmly defined as a service. Every other unit in the system can call up this service via an interface and access the relevant information. "In a certain state, I ask for a service and I get it: I'm thirsty, I ask for something and I get a glass of water," says Andronic. The basic idea is not new. “It was always the case that applications tried to reason with each other. However, the technical means were not yet there to be able to realize such a dream - i.e. speed, size, independence from operating systems and platforms," says Bizerba manager Andronic.
That is what is revolutionary about SOA. An overall system can consist of completely different building blocks and they can still communicate with each other across platforms. Think of it like a big highway with cars going in all directions, notes Richard Mader, executive director of the Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS). www.nrf-arts.org, which is based in Washington and develops global standards for retail technology. According to Mader's experience, SOA is a great thing, but some misunderstandings need to be cleared up: "It's not a product that you get in stores. You build an SOA from individual components.” For the end user, this construction principle of IT networks has very tangible advantages: “Solutions that follow the SOA guidelines are extraordinarily flexible. Whenever business processes change, the software keeps pace without the entire IT landscape having to be rebuilt at the same time,” emphasizes Mader.
A multimedia shop scale in a butcher's shop may fulfill completely different tasks than a scale that is networked with the global data streams of a large retail chain. “Our customers have investment protection thanks to the SOA architecture. The functions follow the technological trend. In this way, everyone benefits from SOA, both small and large customers. However, the following also applies: Not everything that says SOA on it really contains SOA,” warns Bernd Hoffmann, Development Manager for Retail Systems at Bizerba. For his company, SOA weighs so heavily that it strictly follows the specifications of the ARTS committee.
Source: Balingen [Bizerba]
