[tdpdedman]

Hi,
I’m currently working as the IT support Specialist for Mercy Corps, an NGO with offices in lower Manhattan. This fall, Mercy Corps will be opening its Action Center to End World Hunger in Battery Parky City in Lower Manhattan. Billed as “A first-of-its-kind, interactive public space that educates and empowers visitors to fight global hunger and poverty” the Action Center will be a multimedia–rich environment that aims to make visitors into active participants. (see www.actioncenter.org for more info)



We are setting up a PoS station to attend to both purchased items (for a small inventory of items we plan to sell) and donations that visitors may wish to make.
The major issue we are looking to find a solution for involves how the PoS system exchanges information with Raiser's Edge - our constituent/customer relationship management software (CRM).

That is: how can we link both purchases and donations made by Action Center visitors to our existing software, so that we can have a full view of our constituents' activities and history? Also, how can we ensure that a second Action Center (set to open in Portland next year) can tie into this system?

If anyone out there has dealt with meshing a PoS system with Raiser’s Edge their input would be highly appreciated. we are looking for the most affordable solution.




The other question is this: We need to make sure that the hardware we spec to fit in the space works with the PoS system that we eventually select. The casework dimensions are as follows:
desktop area (monitor/keyboard/peripherals if the can fit): 2' x 1.5' x 2'4"
underneath/interior (shelves/cabinet): same depth/width as above, with an overall height of ~2'4", split into two top shelves of roughly 6-7" apiece, and lockable drawers with heights of ~1.5'.

[Kezza]

Hi

How did you go with this? We have sales as well and would be nice to integrate with RE if possible. Do you deal with e-commerce as well? Looking at various packages (open source) to provide us an online shop. This probably wont integrate with NC or RE although this would be the ideal.

Cheers

[tdpdedman]

Hi
We haven't come up with a workable model yet, actually. So....If anyone out in blackbusland has any helpful info, it would be greatly appreciated!
we are hoping to work on this and arrive at a solution within the next three weeks or so.

[Peter Gulka]

I am actually in this same scenario. Our PoS system will be sharing a
database with our custom-built community website. Right now there is no
integration with RE explicitly, but we are starting to build for that by
recording each other's ID fields for constituent records in each system.
That should lay the groundwork for at least an import/export system down the
road.