NCR SelfServ Checkout Integration White Paper

An important factor in NCR’s successful deployment of self-checkout is seamless integration of self-checkout with a retailer’s existing front-end, eliminating the need to develop and maintain a separate infrastructure for the self-checkout operation within stores. The NCR SelfServ Checkout solution accomplishes this by actually running the retailer’s binary point-of-sale (POS) client on each lane. Self-service transactions are controlled through the NCR SelfServ Checkout Consumer Experience Application (CEA) designed for use by a consumer, while the POS supplies the business logic and communication with the back office.

At the core of the NCR SelfServ Checkout architecture is the patented NCR SelfServ Checkout Transaction Broker (TB) technology. The TB enables the CEA to control the retailer’s native POS so that the back office sees the self-checkout lane as just another POS lane.

NCR is currently on the fifth iteration of its TB architecture; the latest version is known as TB 5. This white paper will describe the general benefits of NCR’s TB architecture, and provide details about the components of TB 5 and how they benefit the retailer.

NCR’s TB technology is flexible, and there are two general strategies retailers can select from for deploying NCR SelfServ Checkout—Device Emulation and Automation Interface. This white paper discusses these options and provides information on how to select the appropriate strategy.

Also discussed will be considerations for customers who have already deployed NCR SelfServ Checkout with the previous generation TB.