Answers to questions about MPOS

A mobile POS system – or MPOS system – is a portable version of your stationary POS, completely independent of in-store networks and wi-fi.

It gives your sales staff the freedom to move around inside and outside your stores and still be able to use all the features of the POS system and receive payment for articles wherever they (and your customers) need it.

A mobile POS can scan articles and receive payment just like a standard POS.

52ViKING MPOS works on Android mobile devices.

Each Android device has a 52ViKING MPOS app. The app connects securely via 4G/5G to a 52ViKING POS instance in the cloud, which gives the app access to all POS features as well as article data, discounts, etc.

On the Android device, the MPOS app uses an integration to an external payment provider to receive payments and optionally integrates with device-specific barcode scanner hardware.

If the Android device doesn't have a built-in barcode scanner, you can use the device's camera.

MPOS has many applications and advantages. A few examples:

• Give your sales staff the freedom to move around your store and be able to use till features and receive payment for articles wherever they (and your customers) need it

• Personal advice and upselling opportunities when sales take place at the shelves and customers haven’t necessarily already picked the articles that they think they want

  

• Occasional sales stands outside your store (pop-up stores, sidewalk sales, flash sales, delicatessen, flowers, fireworks, party hats, Christmas trees – anything, really ...)

• Campaign or product demo stands inside your store

• Queue busting on busy days

• Continue sales during power outages, emergencies, etc. when your regular stationary tills are unavailable

For 52ViKING MPOS, pricing depends on whether you are an existing Fiftytwo customer or not, how many active days you want to use MPOS, and whether or not you want to include emergency functionality. It’s also based on your number of devices. Contact Fiftytwo for more information.

Yes, but it also depends on other criteria, such as the functionality that you require. Contact Fiftytwo for more information.

Yes, the 52ViKING MPOS app uses an integration to an external payment provider (such as Softpay , and soon also MobilePay and Vipps ) to receive payments.

52ViKING MPOS automatically opens the preferred payment provider's app on the Android device when the shop assistant is ready to receive payment and closes it again when payment is completed.

For this to work, the Android device needs access to one or more payment gateways as specified by the payment provider in question.

You can of course also take cash payment.

52ViKINGMPOS works on Android 8 or newer. The Android devices that you use for MPOS must support NFC (Near-Field Communication, a set of communication protocols that enables communication between two devices over a distance of 4 cm or less) and have NFC card readers in order to handle card payment.

52ViKING MPOS in principle runs on any Android device that lives up to the version and NFC requirements, but Fiftytwo has successfully tested that 52ViKINGMPOS works on the following Android devices:

• unitech PA768 (recommended)

• unitech EA630

• Point Mobile PM45

• Point Mobile PM85

• Zebra TC52

• Zebra TC57

• ELO M50 (device's barcode scanner not supported)

The tested devices are all sturdy and rugged enterprise-scale devices for use in a busy professional environment, and most of them have built-in barcode scanners that you can use with MPOS.

Fiftytwo generally recommends that you use a device with a built-in barcode scanner, but you can also use a device's camera for scanning barcodes.

Yes, if they run Android 8 or newer and have an NFC reader and a camera that you can use to scan barcodes, that’s in principle all that’s required.

You can, for example, start with your existing devices and then upgrade them to enterprise-scale devices with built-in barcode scanners when you’re convinced that MPOS is right for your organization.

If you already use 52ViKING for your regular POSs, it will be the same software on your mobile POS. The POS instances that the 52ViKINGMPOS app on your device connect to reside in the cloud, so what shop assistants see on their MPOS devices is in principle simply a frontend that facilitates MPOS.

Yes, through integration to the FiftytwoMasterdata API .

Our experience shows that once you begin to use MPOS and realize the many benefits, you’re highly likely to begin using MPOS much more than you perhaps originally thought.

If your staff already knows how to use a stationary 52ViKING POS in your organization, they’ll be able to use 52ViKINGMPOS in a matter of minutes. Once MPOS is in use in a store, experience shows that new staff is often trained in MPOS before the stationary POS.

52ViKINGMPOS supports digital receipt repositories as well as sending digital receipts to a phone number or an e-mail address.

However, some customers or transaction types may require physical, printed receipts. In those cases, you can connect the MPOS device to a receipt printer via Bluetooth or wi-fi.

Alternatively, you can reprint MPOS receipts on a stationary POS in your store.

• Battery time on the Android devices. See also How often will we need to recharge devices? in the following

• Carrying as little hardware as possible. If you have to carry a mobile printer, a cash belt, a decoupled scanner, etc. around with you, it makes it harder to succeed with MPOS.

• Gift-wrapping, handling exchange stickers, and demounting security tags can be to do hard on the floor, unless you set up a dedicated stand for handling these types of workflows.

That’ll depend on the type of Android device and how much you use it.

It’s a good idea to place your 52ViKINGMPOS device in its charger or dock when you don't use it. That way, you and your colleagues can also easily find the device the next time you're going to use it.

It'll not be necessary to update your entire 52ViKING solution.

You will, however, need to update relevant store controllers (that is the store controllers in stores that should be able to use MPOS).

POS instances in the cloud – that the MPOS devices connect to – must run the latest master release, but you can run different versions for MPOS and for your stationary POSs.

The 52ViKINGMPOS app can provide any POS feature that a regular, stationary Fiftytwo POS can offer.

That means that you can embed/integrate your customer clubs and loyalty schemes, your webshops, click & collect, etc. in your MPOS solution too.

Each 52ViKINGMPOS app on your devices connects to a Fiftytwo POS instance in the cloud via a secure 4G or 5G connection.

The POS instances in the cloud get their configurations from 52ViKING store controllers in the relevant stores. If your organization is a large chain, you can set up synchronization between your store controllers and a Fiftytwo enterprise controller for central chain management of article master data.

Payment integration between your MPOS devices and payment services also takes place via a secure 4G or 5G connection.

Because of its limited reach, we don't recommend wi-fi for MPOS, except for ad-hoc use, such as connecting an MPOS device to a receipt printer.

• Theft of physical devices: Because the 52ViKINGMPOS app requires login – typically by scanning an ID card or typing login credentials – the MPOS app can't be abused if physical devices are stolen.

• Theft of MPOS app: Deploying the 52ViKINGMPOS app requires an activation code, so even if someone was to obtain a copy of the app, they can't use it with the POS system without having activated the app via the activation code. The code is generated in connection with the setup of the 52ViKING POS instance in the cloud. On top of the activation code, use of the app also requires a valid shop assistant login.

• Network issues: Make sure that devices are always connected and truly mobile by equipping them with SIM cards. When you enable MPOS for a physical store, the store's Fiftytwo store controller must be upgraded to be able to communicate with the cloud-based POS instances that your 52ViKINGMPOS apps will connect to.

An emergency POS is a POS solution for emergency situations, for example situations where a cyber threat or ransomware attack puts your standard POSs out of order and prevents you from operating your business for hours or even days.

Emergency POS devices run on a separate POS system integration, which means that they, and the article data that they use, are isolated from your standard POS system, so you can continue your business, should the worst-case scenario occur.

Yes, if the following applies:

• Your MPOS devices are powered up and have sufficient battery capacity.

• The 4G or 5G connection from the 52ViKINGMPOS apps on your devices to your cloud-based 52ViKING POS instances is unaffected by the emergency (4G and 5G service providers have advanced backup and redundancy solutions, so your connection will very likely work).

• Your 52ViKING POS instances in the cloud are available (cloud service providers have advanced backup and redundancy solutions, and uptimes of up to 99.99%, so your POS instances in the cloud will very likely be accessible).

• Your article master data is uncompromised (in case of, for example, a cyberattack). Fiftytwo can store snapshots of your uncompromised master data in the cloud if you want to have the insurance of being able to switch to such uncompromised master data (which may then not be fully up to date, but safe to use) during an emergency. Contact Fiftytwo for more information.