Store Operations Basics (required)

Pentium class processor 500mhz or higher (Pentium 3 or higher for workstations; Pentium 4 recommended for server)
Note: You can run on lesser specs, but you will take a speed and performance hit.

256 MB RAM if Win98, Me, 2000 (NT not recommended); 512 MB on XP (especially if you will run POS and Manager at same time); double the RAM on your server

10 GB free space on hard drive or greater (to ensure room for backups and free space)

CD-ROM

VGA color monitor, 800x600 resolution; 1024 x 768 recommended, especially on PCs running Manager

Pointing device (i.e. mouse)

Keyboard Note: POS register operation is completely keyboard driven, but a mouse can be used if desired.

Network: peer-to-peer (up to 5 stations); Windows XP Pro or SBS recommended for server (or more than 5 users)

Full SQL Server license recommended for high volume locations with more than 10 POS stations and any multi-store systems running HeadQuarters (HQ)

Note: Depending on your network set up, these requirements may vary and are subject to change without notice. Contact our sales office for more information.

Peripheral Devices/Software

Receipt Printers – Epson TMT88 & TMU375, Citizen, Star, and Ithaca printers all perform well. Problems have been experienced with the lower end models such as Epson TMU-200 (parallel) and Star-SP200 (parallel and serial). RMS is designed to work with OPOS. Windows drivers may work but you will not have full control over the cash drawer.

Report Printers – Any dot matrix, laser or inkjet printer will perform fine with the associated Windows driver. We recommend laser printers, especially for full page receipts.

Label Printers – Cognitive Barcode Blaster Advantage, DelSol (Solus), Eltron/Zebra brands are all supported. Laser printers will work with Avery-style labels. Lexmark ink jet printers cause problems.

Cash Drawers – Serial & printer fired drawers work well. Avoid parallel pass through configurations. Supported brands include Logic Controls, Peninsula and MMF. Contact us for latest approved hardware. The cash drawer must be compatible with the receipt printer brand if you will be using a printer fired drawer.

Pole Displays – Look for Aedex/Ultimate compatible displays. Avoid parallel pass through configurations. Logic Control’s PD3000 works well. Contact us for latest approved hardware list.

Scanners & Portable Hand Helds – RMS will work with either a keyboard wedge or a serial scanner. Using a keyboard wedge is suggested, as they are significantly easier to set-up and do not take a serial port slot. Popular scanners include Symbol, Metrologic and Percon.

Mag-Stripe Readers – Keyboard wedge readers are the only type that will work. Mag-Tek and Cherry Keyboard card readers are also being used successfully. Contact us for latest approved hardware list.

Pin-Pad Machines/Check Readers – Contact us for latest approved hardware list.

Scales – Popular scale brands include Spectraphysics and Weightronix. RMS also supports random weight UPC and EAN.

EDC – While RMS can interfaces with IC-Verify, Atomic Authorizer and PC Charge, we recommend utilizing the internal card processing in RMS which does not require any 3^rd party software. Check to see if your merchant processor supports Vital/Visanet if you want to deploy the internal card processing available in RMS. You will also need an always-on Internet connection to process authorizations (fast 4-6 sec approvals). We also recommend a thermal receipt printer with auto-cutter.

Microsoft RMS Store Operations System Requirements

RMS Store Operations is designed to run on any PC-compatible system under Windows 98se*, Windows Me*, Windows 2000*, or Windows XP. One central design goal for the package is to make the software scalable and extensible. It relies on Windows DNA and Microsoft SQL Server as framework and the architecture for scalability. SQL Server easily scales from desktop to enterprise server to accommodate a database of any size.

*RMS Version 1.3 (December 2005 release) can only be installed on XP or Windows 2003 Server (SBS). If you will be running RMS with old equipment running an OS other than Windows XP, you will need to request the version 1.2 CD and install that version on all PCs instead.

The minimum requirements below will yield a functional level of performance. Higher levels of performance can be gained with hardware upgrades as indicated above.

Database Requirements

RMS Store Operations requires Microsoft SQL Server for database storage. The SQL Server can be run on the same machine as Store Operations or on a dedicated database server for higher performance.

The vast majority of retailers are small to medium-size and do not have the budget or technical expertise to set up and maintain database servers. For this reason, the Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000 Desktop Engine (MSDE 2000) is provided with RMS Store Operations so retailers can start with a robust database engine even on desktop PCs. The following are some quick facts on MSDE:

MSDE database is 100% compatible with Microsoft SQL Server

MSDE 2000 supports only one CPU.

There is a 2GB data limit per database—more than adequate for most chains

It contains built-in scaling factors that limit the performance of the MSDE 2000 based on connections and data loads.

The Desktop Engine supports Microsoft® Windows® 98se, Microsoft® Windows® Millennium Edition (Windows ME), Microsoft® Windows NT® 4.0 Workstation/Server, Microsoft® Windows® 2000 (all versions) and Microsoft® Windows® XP (all versions). We do not recommend running RMS on anything less than a XP Pro server.

Client Requirements

RMS Store Operations can run on a stand-alone PC or in a networked environment. Any of the following operating systems can be used:

Windows 98se – not recommended

Windows ME – not recommended

Windows NT 4.0 Workstation Edition (or later) Service Pack 5 – not recommended

Windows 2000 Server – not recommended

Windows 2000 Professional Edition – not recommended

Windows XP (all versions) – XP Pro is recommended for all workstations on a peer-to-peer server