Keeping Your MIS Staff Updated

Often major problems and support bills can be avoided by simply making a short phone call and/or sending and email to the CCS Support Department before making questionable software or infrastructure changes.

A recent example of this involved a end-user who uninstalled his existing POS Registers, Anti-Virus software program and replaced it with a Anti-Virus/Anti-Malware Suite product that has  a history of issues with poor performance, un-reliability, and not being user-friendly.

The results of this process did the following to the register...

• Increased the Memory and CPU resource usage to the point that the register was basically unusable.

•  ALL of the default settings for the security software were not conducive for use with a POS system.  The user had no knowledge of how to correct these issues.

• The software had a personal firewall component that overrode the existing Windows Firewall Settings and blocked all of the TCP communication ports.  This completely disabled the ability for anyone to remotely access the register, and blocked access for Credit Card authorizations over the Internet.

• Even after spending considerable time tweaking settings at the insistence of the customer, it was confirmed that the software was placing to great a performance hit on the register to make it viable as a tool. 

To add insult to injury... the end-user was instructed to remove this existing offending software suite, and restart the register, BEFORE re-installing the original Anti-Virus software.  However, Instead, the old Anti-Virus software was installed over the top of the Anti-Virus/Anti-Malware suite software, resulting in both programs fighting for control of the register.  This caused the register to randomly lock-up.

In the end, the result was a great waste of time for the end-user, an unnecessary support bill, and a lot of aggravation.  A simple phone call could have avoided all of this.

If you are a CCS Retail Systems Customer and anticipating making any security or infrastructure changes, please call the CCS Retail Systems Support Department or email us for assistance first.