Anyone have multiple locations?

[nattivillin]

We have outgrown our pos system. We need something that works in multiple locations (we have 3 stores)

Right now we use the same system, with 3 different databases.

What do the other muil-location retail / repair shops use?

[nattivillin]

Guess im the only one with this "problem" ha!

[smelvin]

Hi nattivillin

Yeah sorry, not retail. Strictly B2B. Have you looked the open source ERP solutions. I remember one having a POS solution.

Cheers

Scott

[natrat]

Not me, not yet anyway.

One of my clients who runs retail clothing stores in 4 locations has spent the past 3 years working with several different POS companies in an attempt to easily manage all stores from a central database of stock etc. He has tried live systems that do transactions direct to the backend but the speed was not usable. He is currently using a Microsoft Dynamics CRM setup to manage it and it seems to be ok (store data is uploaded several times a day to the head office) but his development needs seem to have outpaced the supplier/developer they are using. This solution isn't cheap and requires a truckload of config. However once he nails it he will be able to easily roll it out in unlimited stores, which is the goal. A few years and tens of thousands of dollars will pay off once its nailed.

nathan

[nattivillin]

Not looking to spend tens of thousands. I was hoping for tens of hundreds.....ha

Looks like that is what it might cost thought, i've tried so many solutions its been a big waste of time. These trial usages are so short, we cant really evaluate them. I'll keep looking.

[bwhatley87]

We are looking at buying a second computer store and I would like to use the same CommitCRM database in both locations. I am not really sure how we could go about this. We'd need some way to identify which location a customer was setup in so that taxes would be correct. Any insight on this?

[Support Team]

What you should do is this:

RangerMSP should be installed in one main location, probably your current office.

You second location store should use the same copy of RangerMSP using remote sessions, probably the best option Terminal Services with SQL.
This way you'll share the same database.

Now, Each Account has its own Tax settings. The Account tax settings can be found in RangerMSP under the Account Details tab.

To each Account set their relevant tax settings based on the location. This way any tax based report you'll print from RangerMSP will display the correct tax amounts for each customer.

Besides, you can also use one of the predefined custom fields for Accounts to identify to which location the customer "belongs". For example, edit the drop down of the Field3 field to "Location A" and "Location B" and assign the right value to each Account, this will let you filter the Accounts list by location, if you'll even need that.

HTH,
Doron

[bwhatley87]

OK, another question, I just noticed where in options>>User Preferences>>default tax codes, does that mean, any account that particular user creates will be default have those tax codes?

[Support Team]

This is a global setting that affects Accounts created by any user in the system.

Thanks,
Doron

[I-Netcs]

Or VPN the locations together and you can run the same CommitCRM installation at all locations.

[natrat]

Have you tried it over a VPN? It's rubbish over an internal WIFI connection, a VPN across a WAN I'd imagine would be dire.

[Support Team]

natrat,

RangerMSP should work perfectly well over an internal WIFI. The only thing with WIFI is that you need to have a stable network that doesn't disconnect and reconnect all the time. When using the SQL version its even handles most WIFI disconnects well.

Currently over VPN it would be best to use Terminal Services.

Dina

[bwhatley87]

The tax settings on each account don't seem to have any effect on the charges, it seems as it takes the tax settings from the item.

[Support Team]

Taxes are applied when two conditions match:
1. The tax is configured to the Account.
2. The same tax is also configure to the Item used for the Charge.

Click here for a detailed explanation about this.

HTH,
Dina

[bwhatley87]

Then that completely throws off setting up different tax codes for different locations. You'd have to have separate items as well.

[Support Team]

Well, it depends... in many cases a single Item can be used for both locations.

Let me explain:

Each Item can hold up to 3 Tax codes.

If you charge customers in location A with Tax A, and in location B with Tax B, then the Item record should hold A & B, Accounts records related to customers in A should hold Tax A, and customers in location B holds Tax B.

The same Item can then be used and only Tax A will apply on customers from location A, and only Tax B will be applied on customers from location B.
This is because only matching Tax/es (that exists both on the Item AND the Account) is/are applied.

In case you charge customers with two taxes in each location, only in this case you'll need to separate Items for each location.

Hope this helps.
Regards,
Dina

[bwhatley87]

Unfortunately we do charge two taxes in each location. Making this task very difficult. Right now, what we're having to do is not put any taxes on the charge report and we're having to run a cash register to take in transactions rather than sending them over to quickbooks. Not very smooth.

[nattivillin]

We tried CommitCRM via VPN with each location having 1.5MB Down and 785KB up. It was horrible. It was somewhat ok after the initial connection, but it crashed quite often.

I guess it would work ok if you had some serious bandwidth. Maybe 1.5MB Up and down dedicated. Where is 1.5 all the time and not just burst.

Someone sign up and let me know how it works.....lol

[I-Netcs]

If you were running CommitCRM with SQL over a VPN techincally should run better even with limited bandwidth.

[nattivillin]

I thought about it, more than once. Maybe if they let me try it first......

Our 30 day trial was up years ago!

They don't support it over a vpn, so the last thing i want is a data corruption database issue that they cant / wont help with.

[Support Team]

nattivillin,

We can provide you with a special trial for RangerMSP SQL Database, though you may want to wait with it (see the below).

I-Netcs is right, VPN access works much better with SQL especially after the system is loaded. That being said it is not yet optimized for it yet and the initial load time is long.

We are actively working to improve this and the combination of the SQL version (which is great regardless of using VPN) together with the changes we're working on should improve performance (faster load time and overall system responsiveness over VPN). However, as the data is on the server by definition it'll always be slower than opening a Terminal Service session over the VPN connection (in this case you'll get immediate response times).

Will provide some additional information on this once we have it.

Regards,
Dina

[nattivillin]

That sounds good. Maybe ill see if my ISP can up the speed for a month while we try it out. The initial load time isnt too important, treat it just alike a slow computer!

Turn it on and wait. It if takes too long to go from screen to screen after it loaded, nobody will be happy.

[bkendall]

I am a little late to the conversation but we host our CommitCRM server on an Infinitely Virtual server. It costs about $12.00 / month and lets us access CommitCRM from anywhere.

Brad Kendall
www.bradkendall.ca
bkendall@ccrtech.ca

[nattivillin]

Accessing it using the client or web connector?

[bkendall]

We access it using terminal services. With something like the 2x application server http://www.2x.com/applicationserver/, it is just like CommitCRM is installed locally.


Brad Kendall
www.bradkendall.ca
bkendall@ccrtech.ca

[sudogreg]

we are actually a 2x authorized reseller if anyone is interested in 2x let me know. we can get specials deals for people using commit, we also use the 2x app server and it works great with commit, and easy to setup and manage

[nattivillin]

Send me some info about 2x if you can to service@icustom-pc.com, thanks!

[nattivillin]

In case anyone wants an update, I contacted CommitCRM support about a trial for the sql database to test it with a semi high speed vpn ( 1.2Mbps) and they pretty much told me no.

I also sent a link to this thread so they would know what we were talking about.

The cost to properly license a terminal server is not cheat by any means. CommitCRM only working via RDC adds to the overall cost of purchasing CommitCRM for use in a multi location setup.

[natrat]

Aren't you an MS partner with an action pack subscription? Depending on your size all the MS software and licensing would be free (apart from the yearly SO subscription cost which isn't much)

[natrat]

ASO = AP
damn auto-complete on phone

[nattivillin]

We use our partner licenses on another server of ours. They wont give us additional licenses for 2 servers.

I guess we could build a more robust server that can handle everything, then we could consolidate.

We don't like all the eggs in one basket.

Maybe in the future.....

[bkendall]

I don't want to sound like a broken record, but you can "rent" terminal server license and hosting for very little per month.

Brad Kendall
www.bradkendall.ca
brad@bradkendall.ca

[nattivillin]

i asked you to send me some info on "renting" via 2x