Point of sale register health monitoring
Aspects of the present disclosure describe systems and methods for continuously monitoring the health of a point-of-sale (POS) device, at a central location, and executing self-healing software from the malfunctioning POS device. The self-healing software may be stored locally on the POS device itself, occupying a small footprint and therefore easily be stored in and execute on both older and newer POS devices. Embodiments further describe a central server as coordinating both identification of the particular self-healing process to execute on each POS device as well as the timing of execution associated therewith.
1. A method for evaluating health of a point-of-sale (POS) device associated with a store and providing self-healing instructions, the method comprising:
receiving, at a computing system, health information associated with a POS device;
determining, at the computing system, whether the health information indicates an unhealthy POS device;
based on a determination that the health information indicates an unhealthy POS device:
identifying, at the computing system, one or more self-healing processes to repair the unhealthy POS device, wherein repairing the unhealthy POS device improves the ability of the POS device to conduct transactions;
determining, at the computing system, a time to execute the identified one or more self-healing processes, wherein the determination of the time is based on one or more considerations including minimizing disruptions to the store and includes:
analyzing health information associated with one or more POS devices associated with the POS device; and
based on a determination that at least one of the one or more other POS devices is unhealthy, staggering the determined time to execute the identified self-healing process so as to not overlap another time to execute another self-healing process for the one or more other POS devices; and
sending, from the computing system and to the POS device, self-healing instructions, wherein the self-healing instructions include the one or more self-healing processes and the time to execute the identified one or more self-healing processes and cause the POS device to execute the one or more self-healing processes at the determined time.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the health information comprises a health status for each of one or more predetermined health markers.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein determining, at the computing system, whether the health information indicates an unhealthy POS device further comprises applying one or more thresholds to each health status.
4. The method of claim 2 , wherein determining, at the computing system, whether the health information indicates an unhealthy POS device further comprises applying one or more rules to each health status.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the time to execute the identified self-healing process further comprises:
evaluating a level associated with the health information;
based on a determination that the level is critical, immediately scheduling the time to execute the identified self-healing process.
6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, at the computing system, a message indicating a success or a failure of an execution of the identified one or more self-healing processes.
7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
analyzing a trend associated with one or more unhealthy POS devices.
8. A system for evaluating health of a point-of-sale (POS) device associated with a store and providing self-healing instructions, the system comprising:
a computing device including a processor, a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, and a content output device, the memory storing instructions executable by the processor to:
receive, at a computing system, health information associated with a POS device;
determine, at the computing system, whether the health information indicates an unhealthy POS device;
based on a determination that the health information indicates an unhealthy POS device:
identify, at the computing system, one or more self-healing processes to repair the unhealthy POS device, wherein repairing the unhealthy POS device improves the ability of the POS device to conduct transactions;
determine, at the computing system, a time to execute the identified one or more self-healing processes, wherein the determination of the time is based on one or more considerations including minimizing disruptions to the store and the determination of the time includes:
analyze of health information associated with one or more other POS devices associated with the POS device; and
based on a determination that at least one of the one or more other POS devices is unhealthy, stagger the determined time to execute the identified self-healing process so as to not overlap another time to execute another self-healing process for the one or more other POS devices; and
send, from the computing system and to the POS device, self-healing instructions, wherein the self-healing instructions include the one or more self-healing processes and the time to execute the identified one or more self-healing processes; and
cause the POS device to execute the one or more self-healing processes at the determined time.
9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the health information comprises a health status for each of one or more predetermined health markers.
10. The system of claim 9 , wherein determine, at the computing system, whether the health information indicates an unhealthy POS device further comprises apply one or more thresholds to each health status.
11. The system of claim 9 , wherein determine, at the computing system, whether the health information indicates an unhealthy POS device further comprises apply one or more rules to each health status.
12. The system of claim 8 , wherein determine the time to execute the identified self-healing process further comprises:
evaluate a level associated with the health information;
based on a determination that the level is critical, immediately schedule the time to execute the identified self-healing process.
13. The system of claim 8 , further comprising:
receive, at the computing system, a message indicating a success or a failure of an execution of the identified one or more self-healing processes.
14. The system of claim 8 , further comprising:
analyze a trend associated with one or more unhealthy POS devices.
15. A method for evaluating health of a point-of-sale (POS) device associated with a store and providing self-healing instructions, the method comprising:
receiving, from a POS device, health status information comprising one or more health statuses for each of one or more predetermined health markers of the POS device;
generating a self-healing instruction based on the health status information, wherein the self-healing instruction includes an identification of a self-healing process to improve the ability of the POS device to conduct transactions and a time to execute the identified self-healing process, wherein the identification of the time is based on one or more considerations including minimizing disruptions to the store and includes:
analyzing health information associated with one or more POS devices associated with the POS device; and
based on a determination that at least one of the one or more other POS devices is unhealthy, staggering the time to execute the identified self-healing process so as to not overlap another time to execute another self-healing process for the one or more other POS devices;
transmitting, to the POS device, the self-healing instruction for execution and causing the POS device to execute the self-healing instructions.
16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
determining whether the health status information indicates an unhealthy POS device, wherein the determining includes applying one or more thresholds to each of the one or more health statuses.
17. The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
determining the time to execute the identified self-healing process, wherein the determining includes:
evaluating a level associated with the health status information; and
based on a determination that the level is critical, immediately scheduling the time to execute the identified self-healing process.