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4.9 KiB
4.9 KiB
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:
- Does this make billing at the counter faster or slower?
- 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:
- 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.
- Works with no internet. Billing can never stop because the connection dropped.
- Full GST compliance — invoices, returns data, e-Invoice, e-Way bill.
- Depth of the domain model — batches, expiry, MRP, multi-unit packs, schemes, party ledgers, credit (khata) — everything Classic already handles.
- 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
- 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.
- Counter speed — publish the numbers: scan-to-line < 150 ms, bill closed in one key.
- True offline-first — competitors are either offline-only (like Classic) or cloud-first-with-excuses. Being genuinely both is the moat.
- Owner app — live business in the owner's pocket, in their language.
- 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)