Circuit City Chooses Linux for Cash Registers in 600 Stores

Computerworld - Circuit City Stores Inc. last week bucked the trend of retailers opting for Windows-based point-of-sale systems when it announced plans to migrate to IBM SurePOS 300 cash registers running Linux at its 600 stores.

Less than 5% of the installed base of North American cash registers run Linux, according to Franklin, Tenn.-based IHL Consulting Group. But the open-source operating system, which has been struggling to gain traction on corporate desktops, is seeing a slow uptick in usage among retailers upgrading their POS systems.

Another major retailer that recently announced a move to Linux-based IBM cash registers is The Pep Boys. The Philadelphia-based automotive retail and service chain in June disclosed plans to partner with IBM and Austin-based 360Commerce Inc. on Linux-based POS systems at its 595 stores.

Michael Jones, CIO at Richmond, Va.-based Circuit City, said his company's decision to migrate to IBM hardware and 360Commerce POS software running on Linux was based on total cost of ownership and a desire to move to a less-customized POS system from a single vendor.

Jones said IBM recommended Novell Inc.'s SUSE Linux for its POS hardware, which can also run Windows and IBM's 4690 operating system. He said IBM will handle any dealings with Novell, as well as the collaboration with 360Commerce and Yantra Corp., which is providing the integration engine. IBM Business Consulting Services will help Circuit City plan the migration.

Since 1999, Circuit City had been transitioning from the homegrown proprietary POS systems it had built in the mid-1980s to Hewlett-Packard Co. hardware running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows XP Embedded and a heavily customized version of 360Commerce's POS software.

But five years into the project, the retailer had migrated to the Windows-based HP hardware at only 100 stores, or roughly 2,000 of its 12,000 registers. Circuit City IT executives said the impetus to switch to IBM hardware had nothing to do with dissatisfaction with HP or Microsoft, both of which the company continues to work with on other projects.

"The previous solution would work and did work, but in five years, a lot of advancements had occurred, and we didn't need the customized POS environment," said Bill McCorey, vice president of business applications at Circuit City. "Five years ago, Linux was a test environment. Now, it's truly production-ready."
"It's a TCO evaluation," said Jones. He estimated that support and postdeployment costs will be cut by at least 30% with the new system. "Our TCO has been significantly reduced, and we owe the organization and the shareholders that," he said.

Maintaining Focus

Jones said Circuit City wants to move to a more "vanilla" version of the latest edition of 360Commerce's POS software so it can focus on its retail business rather than on software development. Instead of customizing the 360Commerce software, Circuit City plans to sit on the vendor's retail standards advisory committee to try to influence the future direction of the commercial product.