Wide-area networks (WANs) allow users at remote sites
to run CounterPoint from a single server, connecting
to a single database. The WAN/Workgroup Option
provides features to support the unique requirements
of a WAN or Unix environment.
Let's say your WAN server is in Miami and your West
store is in Los Angeles. You can configure
CounterPoint so that your Los Angeles users only
see West inventory, have their own series of West order
numbers and P.O. numbers, and operate on Pacific
time. This is accomplished using workgroups.
A workgroup is a way to define users who have similar
requirements. For example, all Miami users are associated
with the South store/location, and all Los Angeles
users are associated with the West store/location.
Each workgroup has its own set of control files with its
own location, store, profit center, order numbers, P.O.
numbers, etc.
A workgroup may have a local time offset so that
your Los Angeles users will see screens and reports in
Pacific time instead of Eastern time.
When your communication lines go down, your WAN
will not function. For Windows systems, the Offline
Ticket Entry Option lets you continue critical Ticket
Entry functions when the WAN server is inaccessible or
not operational.
To continue operations locally (like in Los Angeles),
the Offline Ticket Entry Option uses local copies of
the critical data files, such as items, customers, etc.
You can send periodic net changes for the Item, Inventory,
Serial, and Customer files to keep the Los Angeles
workgroup up to date. This approach to transmitting
net changes (only the information that changed since
the last transmission) for specific locations is similar to
that used in polled Multi-Site environments.
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