The
SKAN_Talk32
Dealer Work Station is designed to greatly simplify program
development, eliminate the need for separate keyboard template generation,
organize program archiving, and speed up methods of downloading programs many
times faster than current methods. Plus, it's a bargain because this single
application works with All current Sharp models! Good software pays for itself - and the dealers that have this cutting
edge technology will have powerful advantages and cost savings over dealers
that continue to do things the old fashioned way.
If you
suspect that you aren’t realizing the profit you should because the time
required to prepare a customer’s program exceeds what you can reasonably
charge for, then you are about find a valuable solution to a difficult
problem. If you would like to
decrease the workload on your highly paid programmer, maximize their potential
output, or safely shift some of the load to less experienced workers, you
should read on. With SKAN_Talk32
Dealer Work Station, you’ll be amazed to discover that a great
programmer can get their work done in a fraction of the time it presently
takes, or you can marvel how you can begin delegating programming work that
could never be trusted to the inexperienced before.
Watch how easy it is for a beginner to start performing sophisticated
programming tasks within minutes. Learn
how SKAN_Talk32
automatically generates perfectly matching color keyboard templates with no
extra work and how it can completely eliminate the possibility of misplacing a
customer’s program or its keyboard template ever again.
Can you imagine taking a customer's program specifications and developing a complete custom program and color keyboard template for an A750 in less than two hours time, and then uploading it to the register in one minute? Sound impossible? It’s not.
Here are the powerful new tools that are now available for you to
utilize in your own dealership.
VIRTUAL
KEYBOARD:
You
gotta see it to believe it!
Graphical programming that is as intuitive as it gets!
This is the amazing innovation that makes SKAN_Talk32 easy enough for beginners
to use. It sounds so logical
you’ll wonder why nobody ever thought of it before.
SKAN_Talk32
draws the model specific cash register keyboard onto your PC monitor so that
you can visually build or edit a program right on the Virtual
Keyboard.
DEVELOPING
NEW PROGRAMS
Presenting
the program in a graphical manner can actually simplify the programming tasks
enough that even beginners can use Virtual
Keyboard to develop new programs.
Right-click on any key position on the Virtual Keyboard to pop open a small
programming screen just for that key. Just
fill in the blanks for pricing, descriptors, department links, kitchen printer
or monitor routing, function keys or other relevant programming.
Once the programming fields are filled in and OK’d, the screen closes
and the descriptor appears and remains on the appropriate Virtual Keytop so that you can
instantly see the results of your work as the program is being built.
Hovering the mouse over any item on the Virtual Keyboard instantly shows
pertinent information about that item in a ScreenTip without the need to
re-open the programming screens. It
simultaneously displays more detailed information about the item on the Instant
Info Screen located at the bottom of the Virtual Keyboard.
It’s simple to build a program one keyboard position at a time when
you can actually see what you are doing.
CLONING
EXISTING ITEMS
Cloning
an item is even easier. Clone a
similar item already programmed and assign it to a new keyboard position to
eliminate the need to manually fill out all of the same fields over and over
again. Since many items within
the same department are linked and/or routed similarly, just change the name
and price to fit the new item and see how much work you’ve saved.
With seventy-four possible fields in the UP3300's PLU file, the time you save on each item can really add up!
QUICK
PICK LISTS
Experienced
programmers will appreciate how Virtual
Keyboard can cut their development to a fraction of their current
development time.
Most experienced programmers will prefer to enter items directly
into their appropriate files all at one time rather than programming one
keyboard position at a time. Even better, they may be comfortable pasting in files
directly from a spreadsheet or database.
As new items are entered or pasted into the files, they automatically
appear in pop-up Quick
Pick Lists next to the Virtual
Keyboard. There are
lists for PLU’s, PLU Menus, Departments, Combo Items, Condiments, and
Function Keys. You can easily
page through the various lists with a click of a mouse.
Best of all, you can quickly assign items from the lists as fast as you
can drag and drop them onto the Virtual
Keyboard. It only
takes a few minutes to assign an entire keyboard.
Naturally, all of the screen levels, menu levels, and price levels are
accessible for programming through the Virtual
Keyboard.
EDITING
EXISTING PROGRAMS
Modifying
an existing program has never been easier because Virtual Keyboard is not just for building new programs; it
can be used with existing programs as well! SKAN_Talk32
reads the files and tables of an existing program and not only draws the Virtual
Keyboard onto the PC monitor - it maps each item or function from
the existing program to the correct Virtual
Keyboard position, and displays each item’s descriptor on the
appropriate keytop. You’ll be amazed the first time you watch a programmed cash
register’s keyboard duplicate itself onto a PC monitor.
Right-click on any item or function on the keyboard to open the
appropriate programming screens to view or modify the existing program.
If you want to rearrange the keyboard, you can easily move items around
by dragging and dropping them into new key positions.
SKAN_Talk32
will save the changes and upon download automatically re-maps the item’s
new keyboard position to match the Virtual
Keyboard. SKAN_Talk32
does all the hard work while the programmer engages in tasks that require
computer skills less difficult than many children’s games.
TEMPLATE
MAKER
Perfect
color keyboards every time - generated automatically with no extra work!!!
Whether you build the program through Virtual Keyboard or simply connect to
a register that was previously programmed, Template
Maker extracts the item’s descriptor from the program and maps it
to the correct position to generate a perfectly sized keyboard template.
Drag and drop from the Color Pallet onto the Virtual Keyboard’s individual keytops
to customize the colors to your liking.
You can even preview it before printing if you desire.
Then print, cut out, and install directly on the register.
If the customer wants last minute keyboard changes, just drag and drop
items to the new keyboard locations to rearrange, then re-print.
There’s no need to go back and update the program to match – that
happens automatically because the program and its matching template are both
created simultaneously.
Spending countless hours to create perfect keyboards is finally a thing
of the past!
FILE
MINDER
File
Minder’s
smart programming assistance is there to guide those with a lack of
experience, or to assist the seasoned programmer who proves that they are only
human on occasion. Some examples:
File Minder
won’t allow you create more PLU’s than you have allocated in the register,
let you enter more descriptor characters than is allocated, or access price
levels that were not specified in the setup.
It’s on guard all the time!
PROGRAM
ARCHIVING
Whether
you are building an original program or want to back-up an existing program,
it can be saved right in the SKAN_Talk32
Dealer Work Station. You’ll
never have to look around to locate an old discarded diskette again.
The programs will always be in the most logical place – in the same
application used to generate the programs.
Since the program can automatically generate the keyboard template whether
or not it was originally created in SKAN_Talk32, you won’t
ever have to load separate software to look for a matching keyboard.
Now you can start building a library of common programs that can be
easily modified for new customers
PC/POS COMMUNICATIONS THROUGH RS232, SRN, or TCP/IP
For
the first time you have an option. You
can communicate through a traditional RS232 (serial) port, or you can
communicate from a PC to Sharp POS through an SRN port, or TCP/IP.
SRN is Sharp’s own proprietary Inter Register Communications protocol
and is much faster than serial communications.
The special SRN board is designed and manufactured by Sharp Electronics
Corporation specifically to be installed in a PC. The SRN communications capability is available for
Sharp ER-A750’s, ER-A770’s, and UP-3300’s
(Sharp’s part # is: ER-01INPC board.)
TCP/IP is high-speed Industry standard Ethernet LAN communications
available on the UP-600 and UP-700. SKAN_Talk32
can automatically detect which communications mode you have selected and
will communicate accordingly. Now
you can upload or download an entire register program at a fraction of the
time of RS232. An average A750 that takes an hour to load over a serial port
takes only about one minute through SRN.
How convenient might it be to be able to change a demo room program in
just a minute? TCP/IP is even
faster. Even more important, if a
customer calls with a question about their program, your dealership can now
load the customer’s entire program into a register in the time it takes to
get a cup of coffee. No more
trying to second-guess what the customer is experiencing. Then use RS232 to communicate with the customer’s register
over a modem if necessary. Eliminate
unnecessary warranty calls, and provide instant help to your customer no
matter how far away they are.
CVM
PROGRAMMER
Too
cool to be believed. If your
customer is using the CVM system with their Sharp POS, this tool will make the
programming a breeze. CVM Programmer is a graphical module
that draws the correct quantity of monitors in the system, and labels them
with user-defined names. (i.e.
Grill Monitor, Front Monitor) so that items can be routed as easily as
selecting each desired monitor with point and click simplicity.
Want an item routed to five different monitors?
Five clicks and a couple of seconds later – it’s done.
Colors of modifiers can be programmed just as easily by clicking on the
desired colored button. The CVM
Programmer calculates and programs the CVM attribute automatically.
Now, anybody that can click a mouse can easily route items to the
kitchen.
Now
you can see how easy the whole process can be.
Clever people will think of even more ways to utilize this powerful
tool. Our programmers have
already figured out that they can speed things up even more and greatly reduce
the possibility of any entry errors by providing our own customers with an
electronic worksheet to fill in with their programming specifications.
They paste the files directly into SKAN_Talk32,
and quickly assign the keyboard by dragging and dropping.
They print out the keyboard for approval, and upload the program to the
register. Voila!
The whole thing can be done in less time than it used to take just to
make the keyboard.
To
learn more about how your dealership can simplify, organize, and speed up your
Sharp POS programming call Kay at (909) 884-0475.
