24hr PC for ecommerce site

richieoflynn

Hi there,

We're in the process of finishing off an ecommerce website. It's been done with CRE Loaded / Joomla, Sage 50 Pro for accounts and Zynk (Internetware) for connecting them together. We plan to have live stock numbers on the site at all times, be able to do drop shipping and have the system as automated as possible. We're going to have a PC dedicated for this in the office running 24/7.

What I'm unsure of is whether or not I have to have a pc connecting to the site 24/7 or should I do it a couple of times per day ?

Maybe there are other options, has anyone set something like this up before that could give me a few pointers please ?

Thanks,

Richie.

Stuck Cone

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005LRCASM/ref=nosim/?tag=hotukdeals-21

richieoflynn

Stuck Cone wrote: »

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005LRCASM/ref=nosim/?tag=hotukdeals-21

Would you care to elaborate :-)

Seth Brundle

How frequently will stock numbers change?

richieoflynn

kbannon wrote: »

How frequently will stock numbers change?

We're not sure as of yet. To be honest, we might get a handful of sales per week or (hopefully) a lot more. We're aiming high and want to future proof it as much as possible so that if sales and traffic increase, then we've got the infrastructure in place to handle it. We could just run the pc during the day, sync it a number of times during the day and then switch off at night but I'd rather set it up the other way and have it left on as much as possible.

Seth Brundle

It doesn't sound like it currently requires the use of another PC on 24/7 (also bearing in mind the cost of keeping it going). A twice daily CSV file should be fine for the moment. It should be easy enough to have a live link in the future when sales improve.

richieoflynn

kbannon wrote: »

It doesn't sound like it currently requires the use of another PC on 24/7 (also bearing in mind the cost of keeping it going). A twice daily CSV file should be fine for the moment. It should be easy enough to have a live link in the future when sales improve.

Thanks for that. I think we might look at doing something like that alright. Fun times ahead

Giblet

Some of the biggest retailers in Ireland do an hourly at most!

stevenmu

Would it be possible to just use the web system? Instead of having to sync from a local PC up, you would just input and manage everything through the web site, and so only have one source of "truth" to worry about.

You could possibly do regular syncs down to a local system in case the site went down or you lost connectivity.

richieoflynn

To be honest Steven, I don't know. From what I understand, my accounts package (Sage 50) is my point of reference and the most important piece. Still scratching the ol' head trying to figure out my best option. Thanks for all the help so far

TheWaterboy

Are you running an offline store too - because otherwise your ecommerce software should be able to handle all stock.

That said if you have an offline store, daily or even hourly stock updates to your e-commerce would suffice.

richieoflynn

We'll be selling off line too. I think that having Sage 50 as the primary for stock etc. then updating the site with Zynk every few hours should probably do the trick.