vpn for multiple stores

[anwoke8204]

Hi I am wondering what the interest in having vpn setup for stores with multiple stores is. I have been playing around with vpn access under 2000 server, and am willing to write a detailed instruction manual if there is enough interest. I will also allow people to use a special account that only has access to the dhpos training server that will be for public use if there is enough interest.


Also if ya vote, please also include a message in this thread to let us know who you are, don't have to tell us what ya voted for(would be nice), but don't have to.

[IAN]

that sounds a top idea!

i didnt vote as i do not have multiple stores to utilise and vote here, but still a great idea

[lsunw]

I also been playing around by using hamachi (now i think hamachi had been acquired by LogMeIn...anyway that not the main point)...the point is i think performance is major concern...especially on speed...as i testing it and almost give up is the speed...since the core of DHPOS is not something client-server thingy...

I duno about ur method...hamachi seem work but not quite satify of the speed is wat I'm facing now...especially if u r in a develop country where which the DSL is still not yet come to over 100Mbps

[Dale Harris]

I am viewing this not so much as being used to run multiple stores over the same network but to use it to be able to validate gift cards for multiple stores.

If you run one stock table for multiple stores that would be a good idea to be able to easily see your sales and inventory for you entire chain of stores. But that is not what you want to know. What you want to know is how each store is doing. One store may be doing fantastic but another store may not even be breaking even. Which is which?

Same with inventory. If you have 500 pieces of something but they are in only 3 of your stores and the other 7 stores are out of stock, knowing that you have 500 will not get the empty stores back in stock. You have to know where the inventory is not just that you have it. Running one stock table for multiple stores will not tell you where the merchandise is located.

However with gift cards you do want one single database that is accessed by all stores. That way a gift card purchased in one store can be used in any of your stores.

[anwoke8204]

I have been using dhpos with hamachi, the only problem is that hamachi will only work on the nt platform(2000, xp, 2003) so have been working on this way as a solution for those who don't have nt based machines.


I never thought of that Dale, that is ingenous!

[RollerBall]

The only thing I would say is that if you have multiple stores, I'm not sure that DHPOS is really the software you should be running, with all due respect to Dale. It's great for a small business just starting or moving up from a basic till but if you have multiple stores you should really be looking for something that's scalable, integratable and with more reporting and management control features.

This is NOT to detract in any way from DHPOS which is absolutely ideal in my book for its intended market.

[Granita]

Given my situation I would agree 100% with Dale. The only real value is in being able to share and update gift certificate values from any site. I would not wish to comingle the other data.

Having tried to do this with another POS software package, I would offer one caution. You must do it in a way to be able to continue running the local register if the network stops working. Given the reliability of most high speed internet providers, while good, is not perfect. Right after installing the other system, I was stopped cold by this. I could never find an adequate work around to this other than having a back up set of files, and manually redirecting the program to them when the network was down. While this was fine for me, my employees had various degrees of computer literacy, so I abandoned doing it via VPN. Plus, we then had to combine the data again, which was always a difficult process. I have not used DHPOS in the networked register mode (I have 3 single registers in 3 different physical locations), but from what I know of it, it will have a similar issue.

So I guess the bottom line is the only way I could use it is if Dale adds gift certificates in a way that it's could be shared "globally", but all of the other data would be handled "locally".

As to RollerBall's input that DHPOS isn't really up to multiple stores, I would say that might be true of invetory intensive retail applications, but there are quite a few other types of business out there. As a matter of fact, if you look around you can still find many, many businesses that have multiple outlets that are still using cash registers. For them DHPOS would be a huge step up.