You might be able to save a few bucks on a cheap machine and it will work but will it last?  Especially with a POS station.  If your computer goes down while you have customers waiting in line you damage your reputation and lose your ability to collect money.  If in general, you buy a computer that comes standard with a 3-year warranty (not something extra you buy - it comes standard) that's a very strong indication you're buying a machine that will last a long time.  Someone like Dell doesn't put a 3-year warranty stamp on something unless they are basically positive they won't have to mess with it.  We typically sell Dell's Optiplex PC's, they come with that magic warranty.

Additionally, if we're deploying on existing equipment the short answer is if anything is over 5 years of age it is a waste of energy to use it.  While we hate throwing what appears to be working equipment out, we hate seeing customers throw good money after bad far more.

Whether you buy it from us or not, get new stuff.  If we are responsible for deploying your software and the computers or peripherals are more than 5 years old we will give a "best-effort" to making it work but if we're unable to complete a given task within 30 minutes you will need to replace the device, even if the issue is a software issue (aka a hard to remove virus, etc). 

Currently, we do not support ARM-based processors like the Surface Pro X, though other versions of the Surface Pro with i3, i5, or i7 processors work just fine.

POS COMPUTERS - TYPICAL 

If you are buying a new computer we'd recommend this specification as the minimum.

This means that you have: 

If you have more than 75,000 customer records AND will be using loyalty 32GB of RAM and an SSD hard drive is desirable.

We're less picky about back-office computers as it boils down to needing a Google Chrome web browser on the machine if you do not plan on using the POS app or printing labels.  The back office program is accessible from a phone, or a tablet (i.e. Surface Pro with i3, i5, or i7 processor, iPad with Google Chrome browser).  

If you're buying a new back office computer for use with the back office and other things here's what we'd recommend:

• Windows 10/11 Pro/Enterprise
• 16GB of RAM
• Processor Passmark score of 4400+

We suggest 8GB of RAM because typically back-office computers are using a variety of programs that end up using a lot of RAM - NOT because Cloud Retailer specifically needs it.  Any existing machine to be used must be virus/malware and virus-free and in good working order or additional charges will apply.

If you are a "buyer" and use elements of the system that display many many rows of data (Supplier Purchase Planning for example), we'd suggest considering upping this specification for an optimal experience.

-When you plug it in, it's basically ready.  No more taking an hour or so to go through the initial setup process and download updates, etc.   Cloud Retailer and all of our needed utilities are preinstalled and tested.  The machine is run on our bench for 48 hours to let burn-in and avoid sending the rare but occasional dud out to a customer.

-It comes with the "Cloud Retailer Pure POS" - this is a mode for Windows 10 we designed that will keep cashier users out of everything other than the POS and select specific internet browsing.  No access to games, general internet browsing, the ability to copy files from a USB thumb drive, or access to the computer's control panel (plus more).   This keeps your cashiers out of trouble, helps keep you from getting hacked, and your computer running virus free.  An extremely valuable tool that only comes with machines purchased from  RITE.

Proposals never include ANY networking services in proposals unless explicitly stated.  The expectation is that you will have a cat5 or cat6 network cable ready to be utilized for the POS station and for the payment terminal ready (one for each) and that those cables reach where you want the devices to be situated.  If we're performing onsite installation any time we have to spend routing cables would be billable time outside of the scope of your proposal.

• Standard Card Defender payment terminals (PX5, S300) require a hard-wired cat5 cable wherever they will be located.
• Stationary POS stations require a hard-wired cat5 cable.  If they are wireless-enabled that can also work however if possible a hard line is preferred.
• Tablet-based POS stations require a secure/encrypted wireless LAN network connection.  If you're using a D210 wireless payment processing unit this also requires an encrypted wireless network.  The SSID of the wireless network should not change.
• LAN connections should have a 1ms ping response time with less than 0.1% packet loss on average.
• Wireless networks should have a 10ms or less ping response time with less than 0.5% packet loss on average.
• Internet connections for synchronization and card processing should have a ping response time to Google of less than 50ms and less than 0.5% packet loss on average.
• If you are providing a "segmented" network to separate the POS terminals from the payment devices you MUST 
  • Be able to ping the payment terminal from the POS device
  • Be able to ping the IP of the credit card processing company from the payment terminal
  • These need to be tested and operational before we will start our work
  • If you don't know what a segmented" network is, then this likely does not apply to you :)
• If you are enabling outbound network restrictions (firewall) then ensure your rules comply with the information outlined in our Firewall requirements for Cloud Retailer page.

These are our preferred network environments, though Cloud Retailer is quite flexible.  If you have a different situation it's likely we can accommodate.  Please discuss it with your Cloud Retailer technical contact.

If we're reusing existing peripherals these are our requirements