Manage monitoring tabs in 52ViKING POS Designer

This topic is primarily for administrators and other people who manage a Fiftytwo solution

In 52ViKING POS Designer, the Monitoring tabs component provides the ability for a POS to monitor events on other POSs (typically self-service checkouts (SCOs)) so that staff can automatically get alerted and help customers when specified events occur.

Example: A customer attempts to by alcohol at an SCO, but alcohol requires that the customer is 18+ years old. The attempt to buy alcohol triggers an event on the SCO (the monitored till), and that event triggers an alert on the neighboring staffed till (the monitoring till) so staff can quickly verify the customer's age and approve the sale.

When used, the monitoring tabs feature opens an instance of the monitored till's display on the monitoring till's display, so staff at the monitoring till can quickly help out.

The monitoring tabs component can also be useful for monitoring a till that's operated by a new or inexperienced employee, so that an experienced colleague can quickly help out if problems occur on the till.

Local legislation may require you to notify customers and/or employees if you monitor the tills that they use.

When you've added a monitoring tabs component to your layout, do the following to set up its basics, including which tills to monitor:

On the layout, select the monitoring tabs component.
In the right side of POS Designer, open the component's Basic properties.
In the Monitor type field, select how the monitoring tabs should be displayed:
- Menu button: Display as a button that opens a menu when tapped
- Tabs: Display as tabs
If you know that you or your Fiftytwo consultant has used a #MON text file to specify the tills to be monitored, proceed to step 7.

If not, clear the Use till monitors box.
In the right side of the Monitors field that appears, click .
In the Edit monitors dialog, click to specify the following information about the first till that must be monitored:
- URL: URL of the till to be monitored
  
  Example: https://127.20.120.33:8443
- Label: The name of the monitored till as it will appear on the monitoring till, for example SCO3 to indicate that the monitored till is self-service checkout 3.
- Monitor display: The till display to monitor on the monitored till:
  - Primary: The monitored till's shop assistant display (if the till is a regular till)
  - Secondary: The monitored till's customer-facing display (if the till is a regular till)
  - POSUI: The monitored till's self-service display if the till is a self-service checkout (SCO)
- Icon: Optional icon displayed together with the label. You can, for example, use icons to represent different tills or till display types. You must add the icon as a resource before you can use it.
To specify more tills, click and repeat. When you're ready, click the Edit monitors dialog's Save button.
Verify that the monitoring tabs component's other properties suit your needs.

Especially the Assistance phase colors properties play an important role because, when a specified event occurs, the monitoring tab colors on then monitoring till highlight the various states of providing assistance at the till in question:

Example where the till SCO2 awaits assistance:

You can specify the colors of the following phases in the assistance flow:
- No assistance needed
- Will require assistance: Currently only relevant in connection with delayed age verification on SCOs.
  
  With delayed age verification, the SCO automatically alerts staff that age verification is required on a customer's transaction, but it doesn't prevent the customer from scanning further articles – it only prevents the customer from completing their entire purchase by paying until they've proven that they fulfill the purchase's age requirements. That way, staff can approve even multiple different age requirements (for example 16 for an energy drink and 18 for a beer) in one go.
  
  The Will require assistance phase thus serves as an early indication that staff will soon need to verify a customer's age. It'll apply from the moment that a customer at the SCO scans the first article that requires age verification until the customer attempts to pay, at which time the Awaiting assistance phase will begin to apply.
- Awaiting assistance: Assistance required but not yet provided.
- Assistance present: Assistance being provided. Once assistance has been provided, this phase will typically be followed by the No assistance needed phase.
- Assistance status unknown
Because the purpose of the colors is to alert shop assistants when a specified event occurs at a monitored till, you may need to adjust some or all of the default colors to make them stand out against your POS layout's other colors.
When you're ready, click to save.

How do the monitoring tabs know which events to look out for? The events are defined on the monitored till. The monitoring tabs simply provide access to a representation of the monitored till's display, so you can't define the events on the monitoring tabs themselves.

How do the monitoring tabs know which prompts to trigger for handling events? The handling of events are defined on the monitored till. The monitoring tabs simply provide access to a representation of the monitored till's display, so that shop assistants at the monitoring till can remotely access the monitored till's display in order to handle events there. This will become clear if you look at the example in the following.

Video: Monitoring tabs used for remote age verification

Example of monitoring tabs in action: When a customer scans an alcoholic drink at an SCO, a monitoring tab alerts the shop assistant at a staffed till that they must verify that the customer is over 18 years old.

Duration: 0.37
Language: None

In the video, note the following:

On the staffed till, the monitoring tab changes color when the customer scans the alcoholic drink. That's because scanning the alcoholic drink triggers an event at the SCO:

The shop assistant at the staffed till then taps the monitoring tab to acknowledge that they'll assist the customer:

The monitoring tab on the monitoring till now temporarily shows the display from the monitored till, in this case the display from the SCO.

The shop assistant has higher user rights than the customer, so even though the customer and the shop assistant are now both looking at versions of the same SCO display, the shop assistant has the rights to do things that customers can't do themselves.

On the shop assistant's version of the SCO display, the article that triggered the need for age approval is highlighted:

The shop assistant visually verifies that the customer is of the required age, and remotely approves the customer's age in a two-step prompt:

In some situations, countries, or regions the customer may be required to show photo ID (for example a driver's license) in order for the shop assistant to verify their age. Ask your supervisor if you're in doubt.

Finally, the shop assistant can close the monitoring tab and return to their own display on the monitoring till:

The result: The customer gets a smooth shopping experience with an absolute minimum of waiting time. The shop assistant is able to assist the customer remotely without physical intervention. Both customer and store effortlessly live up to legal requirements.