# 00 — Vision & Positioning

## The one-line vision

**The fastest counter in India, with a back office that runs itself.**

Every design decision gets tested against two questions:
1. Does this make billing at the counter faster or slower?
2. Does this reduce the daily data-entry burden on the shop, or add to it?

## Where we are today (SiMS Classic)

- Oracle Forms & Reports, fully offline, client-server on the shop's own machine.
- Proven domain coverage: inventory, billing, accounting, GST — customers pay for it today.
- Problems: aging tech nobody can hire for, accumulated bugs, no multi-store story,
  no remote visibility for owners, every support issue needs someone at the machine,
  purchase entry is manual and slow, and the market is shifting to connected software.

## What carries over (non-negotiable)

These are the things existing customers would riot over if lost:

1. **Counter speed.** Oracle Forms was keyboard-driven and instant. The new POS must be
   keyboard-first and *feel* faster than Classic, not just look prettier.
2. **Works with no internet.** Billing can never stop because the connection dropped.
3. **Full GST compliance** — invoices, returns data, e-Invoice, e-Way bill.
4. **Depth of the domain model** — batches, expiry, MRP, multi-unit packs, schemes,
   party ledgers, credit (khata) — everything Classic already handles.
5. **Their data.** Every existing customer migrates with full history via a Classic importer.

## What changes (the upgrade)

| Classic | Next |
|---------|------|
| Offline only, data trapped in the shop | Offline-first with cloud sync — bill offline, see everything online |
| Manual purchase entry, item by item | **Purchase Inbox**: supplier bills arrive by email/WhatsApp/upload, AI parses them, staff just confirms |
| Single store, single machine mindset | Multi-store, multi-counter, head-office console |
| Owner must be in the shop to know anything | Owner mobile app: live sales, stock alerts, approvals from anywhere |
| Support = remote desktop into the shop | Central telemetry, remote diagnostics, silent auto-updates |
| Piracy/licensing enforced awkwardly | Subscription tied to cloud account, editions unlocked by plan |
| Paper receipts only | WhatsApp e-bills, UPI dynamic QR at counter, loyalty |

## Segments & editions — one codebase, four plans

Do **not** build separate products per store size. Build one codebase with feature flags;
the plan unlocks features. This keeps mini stores cheap to serve and gives them a natural
upgrade path as they grow — which is exactly the "serve them better as they get bigger" goal.

| Edition | Target | Shape |
|---------|--------|-------|
| **Lite** | Mini/small shops, single counter | POS + inventory + GST invoices + khata + WhatsApp bills. Dead simple. |
| **Standard** | Medium stores | + multi-counter, multi-user roles, schemes/offers, barcode label printing, full purchase cycle |
| **Pro** | Large stores & supermarkets | + weighing scale integration, batch/expiry at scale, loyalty, accounting module, e-Invoice/e-Way, Purchase Inbox |
| **Enterprise** | Supermarket chains, multi-outlet | + head-office console, central pricing, inter-store transfers, consolidated GST & reporting, API access |

## Business model

- **Subscription, priced per store + per additional counter**, billed annually
  (Indian retail strongly prefers yearly; offer monthly only on Lite).
- **In-app upgrades**: hitting a locked feature shows what it does and upgrades in place —
  the paywall is a demo, not a wall.
- **Dealer/partner channel**: Indian retail software sells through local dealers who install,
  train, and support (the Tally/Marg model). Plan dealer margins, a dealer portal, and
  white-label invoicing for partners from the start — this is a distribution decision,
  not an afterthought.
- **Migration offer**: existing Classic customers get assisted migration + a loyalty price.
  They are the beachhead — reference customers for everyone else.

## Differentiators to lead with

1. **Purchase Inbox (AI)** — forward the supplier's bill, confirm, done. Nobody in the
   Indian SMB segment does this well yet. This is the demo moment.
2. **Counter speed** — publish the numbers: scan-to-line < 150 ms, bill closed in one key.
3. **True offline-first** — competitors are either offline-only (like Classic) or
   cloud-first-with-excuses. Being genuinely both is the moat.
4. **Owner app** — live business in the owner's pocket, in their language.
5. **WhatsApp-native** — e-bills, payment reminders for khata credit, offer broadcasts.

## Success metrics

- Time per billed item at counter (target: ≤ Classic, measured, not vibes)
- % of purchase lines entered via Purchase Inbox vs manually (target: 70%+ by Phase 3)
- Classic → Next migration rate (target: 80% of active base in year 1)
- Sync health: % of stores fully synced within 5 min of connectivity (target: 99%)
- Support tickets per store per month (target: half of Classic's rate)