Pole Displays A Thing of the Past

by Ezra Weinstein

As an avid reader of Engadget I always search for the latest and greatest gadgets to add to my personal growing arsenal. Late last year I read a post about a 7" monitor that connected to a computer via USB. The minute I read the article I realized what a perfect application it would have in the retail environment.

For months we have been planning to add support for pole displays to the Premier Retail product line, but as you can see from the picture to the left, pole displays are ancient looking, they are limited to only two lines of display and they are proprietary. Many pole displays connect only to the serial ports of the computer which these days many computers don't even ship with. I've been scratching my head for a while now thinking to myself what a waste of time it would be to build support for such an old technology. So of course alternatives started surfacing in my mind and the natural thought process was to support a second display. Back around the July 2008 time frame we introduced support for a second display which works really well. Instead of being limited to two lines of display the user has the ability to show the entire tape of information (all the items being rung up), and there is plenty of room to feature a flash object to use for advertising.

The problem with a second display is of two fold, space constraints and cost. Our friends at digicom international offer some excellent options that eliminate the space constraint issue and provide a user with a wonderful machine with two screens built in. This is a great machine but of course there is a larger cost involved which brings me back to the article in Engadget which you can read by clicking on the link. I was so excited to see a cost effective, elegant, non power hungry alternative surface and as soon as I could I placed an order the Gadgeteers and ordered one of these puppies! And let me tell you this it not only did not dissapoint it exceeded my expectations. The display I ordered was the UM710 they also offer a model UM740 which has touch screen capabilities. I would have ordered this one but they didn't have it in stock. The price for the screen was only $129 which really set me up to expect a poorly manufactured piece of garbage.

When I first received the screen I was immediately impressed. I quickly installed the drivers on my Dell XPS notebook and then attached it to my computer. Immediately I noticed how crisp and clear the display was. The quality of manufacturing looks phenomenal and running the point of sale with a secondary screen is just amazing.

Whether you are an end user of Premier Retail or one of our channel partners I would highly recommend purchasing one of these screen for each of your registers. If you are a channel partner I believe this little screen will more than pay for itself when you bring into a presentation with a customer. The customer can immediately benefit from providing a better service to their customers and also utilize the screen real estate for advertising purposes. When you are ready to setup your second display do the following:

1. Run the Premier Configuration Tool


2. Under the Premier Code Engine Category the first option reads: PCE - After Application Startup


3. Enter StartCustomerDisplay.VB in that option and click Update

You are all set to go. As a channel partner you have a revenue opportunity to setup these screens and customize the advertising for customers. Any customer is glad to invest in a solution that helps them increase their revenue and for a very cost effective price the customer now has an extremely powerful advertising tool and of course a display for their customers which functions a whole lot better than a two line old pole display!

I will be ordering a UM-740 as soon as it is in stock and will let all of you know how that works. I am anxious to try this out and create a customer facing macro for collecting demographic information or doing a survey. Imagine not having to ask a customer for their zip code instead they can just hit the touchscreen and enter that information...food for thought!