REDMOND, Wash. — Microsoft Corp. announced that it is working with IBM to deliver a Windows Embedded-based "plug-and-play" solution to help make it faster and easier for retailers and hospitality organizations to deliver information and services to time-conscious, empowered consumers.

According to the two companies, Microsoft’s Windows Embedded for Point of Service (WEPOS) operating system will come preloaded on IBM point-of-sale, self-checkout and self-service kiosks. The combined solution provides retailers and hospitality operators a simple, easy-to-manage point-of-service platform for empowering workers and connecting consumers to products and information.

Microsoft WEPOS is a point-of-service OS based on Microsoft Windows technologies optimized for the retail industry. It is the first point-of-service OS to provide "plug-and-play" functionality for retail device peripherals, with IBM being a leading retail vendor to offer WEPOS as a pre-installed option to its client.

WEPOS comes on IBM's AnyPlace Kiosk, Self-Checkout, and SurePOS 700, 500 and 300 point-of-sale systems.

The pre-loaded IBM systems will have increased language support for 33 dialects, and support a number of industry standards such as biometrics, electronic journal, bill acceptor, smartcard and clear input.

The retail-oriented offering will be pre-configured to support and easily connect to a broad range of retail applications and devices. Its standards-based framework and built-in networking capabilities enable fast development and delivery of new POS solutions.