AFGRI Goes Off the Grid

History repeated itself on 29 November 2008 when QBCon installed QBCon Enterprise at the new Pierre van Ryneveld Farmcity the night before the retail branch had to open.

In 2007 AFGRI found themselves in a predicament when their communication network was not installed in time for the opening of a new Farmcity. AFGRI foresaw a possible repetition of the situation and took the necessary precautions by installing a satellite connection. An added procedure, to prevent disaster if everything else failed, was to install QBCon’s stand-alone Point of Sale (POS) systems.

AFGRI had a POS system and tills installed at the new Pierre van Ryneveld Farmcity. The POS system is connected to a central branch server at AFGRI Centurion. All transaction data is sent directly to the server as it occurs. If a power failure occurs at AFGRI’s building, the POS cannot operate as stand-alone system. Without a communication network data cannot be retrieved or be sent between the POS and branch server.

The tills work differently. They are stand-alone POS systems that have their own databases built in. If a power failure occurs, they do not require a communication network to function. Transactions can proceed as normal and will be stored in the till’s own database. Once the connection has been re-established, all transactions stored in the database will be sent to AFGRI.

The night before the branch’s big opening, AFGRI had to install a satellite connection. As with the previous year’s situation, Telkom could not install the network in time. QBCon and AFGRI’s foresight permitted the Farmcity branch to open their doors to the public without any hesitation.

Click here to read the full 2007 article “AFGRI goes live without Telkom lines”.