Standalone LAN
Standalone LAN by Windward Software is an innovative product that provides business owners peace of mind in the event of a catastrophic system failure. If your business server computer goes down, our fail safe technology will allow you to conduct business, take payments from customers and update your inventory counts.
- Conduct business even when server computer fails
- Eliminate downtime when servicing network servers
- Ideal for remote sales events
- Synchronize datasets to update information
- Standalone LAN reset after synchronizing
Back up Your Business with Standalone LAN
Standalone LAN by Windward Software is an innovative product that provides business owners peace of mind in the event of a catastrophic system failure. If your business server computer goes down, our fail safe technology will allow you to conduct business, take payments from customers and update your inventory counts.
A Worry-free Way to Operate
Before using Standalone LAN by Windward Software, business owners had legitimate concerns that they would lose money by not being able to sell to their customers if they suffered a major computer server crash. They were fearful that they would have to waste untold data entry time after resorting to hand-written invoices. And they were scared that their inventory would be lost or messed up by data entry errors while rekeying these invoices.
Standalone LAN Capabilities
In terms of using Standalone, a workstation operating in Standalone LAN mode can:
- Create invoices
- Update customer information
- Take payments
Any other transactions performed on a Standalone LAN dataset are not synchronized back to the main dataset. After synchronizing changes to the main dataset, the Standalone LAN dataset is reset and all payments and invoices are cleared. Thus, to keep the Standalone LAN dataset up-to-date, it is periodically automatically synchronized with the main dataset based on the Standalone LAN manager's settings.
Setting up Standalone LAN Manager
The Standalone LAN manager mode is an extra option that you can purchase. Your license must include Standalone LAN mode support before you can use this feature with your ERP software. Once licensed, you simply download a set of files that includes the application, after which you can enable the feature in the Setup Wizard and view related reports.
Using Standalone LAN in Everyday Business
Not only is Standalone a great solution for emergency situations, it can also be used in your every day business. Use our ERP software to manage business duties at:
- Tradeshow and exhibitions
- Mobile locations from service/delivery trucks
Salespeople can make sales and modify limited information on workstations in Standalone LAN mode, when the main dataset is not available. It can be even be used by outside salespeople with laptop computers to enter orders on the go using our ERP software. This would be done using the Standalone LAN manager application to synchronize the company's main dataset with a partial Standalone LAN dataset on the workstation before they leave and after they return.
Synchronizing Datasets
You can also use the Standalone application to synchronize the company's main dataset with a partial Standalone LAN dataset on a workstation’s local hard drive. This allows you to continue creating invoices on a workstation in the event that the main dataset becomes unavailable, or when you need to leave the office but may need to place orders or record customer information.
When the main dataset becomes available again, or when you return to the office, you use the Standalone LAN manager application to synchronize with the main dataset again so invoices and changes made to the customer information in the Standalone LAN dataset can be recorded in the main dataset.
Windward Emergency Area Replication (W.E.A.R.)
Standalone WAN, or W.E.A.R. (Windward Emergency Area Replication), is a failsafe solution for businesses that use a remote computing applications like Microsoft Terminal Services, over the Internet. It provides access to their Windward Software to users at different physical locations. This benefits all system users by providing access to company-wide data in real-time.
- Access company-wide data in real-time
- Conduct business wirelessly in emergency situations
- Provide remote locations a safety net
- Keep selling when Internet is down
- Simplifies view of stock records and invoices
Access System Five from Different Locations
Windward's Standalone WAN, or W.E.A.R. (Windward Emergency Area Replication), is a failsafe solution for businesses that use a remote computing applications like Microsoft Terminal Services, over the Internet. It provides access to their Windward Software to users at different physical locations. This benefits all system users by providing access to company-wide data in real-time.
A Safety Net for Remote Locations
Until now, the major problem with remote computing using business management software has been the reliability of your Internet connection. When the Internet goes down at a remote location, it was difficult to make sales. Worse yet, if the Internet goes down at head office, all remotes find themselves unable to make sales.
This is why Windward developed Standalone WAN as an optional backup for our business management software. W.E.A.R. provides remote locations a safety net in the event that they can't connect to head office. It acts as a hybrid between our full-blown replication solution (polling) and our Standalone LAN workstation feature.
Using Emergency Datasets
Emergency datasets synchronize with the main dataset using the polling application, the same as normal replication. The difference is that the active server (the collection of settings that define a replication site) has a flag that indicates it as an emergency dataset.
A Standalone-WAN dataset is intended for emergency use only. As such, it has the same restrictions that Standalone-LAN mode has with regard to the information that it can send back to the main dataset. Specifically, it can send the following information:
- Customer
- Invoice
- Payment (payments must be made as R-type invoices)
Like Standalone LAN mode, when Standalone WAN exports data to the main dataset, it resets itself. This means that if you create an invoice in the W.E.A.R. dataset, that invoice will be available only until the next time that polling exports to the main dataset. Once the export is complete, the invoice is removed from the emergency system.
Exporting Emergency Datasets
Unlike full-blown replication, polling for an emergency dataset cannot perform an export while users are logged into the dataset. This is because the dataset must be reset after doing the export and this is not possible when users are connected.
Like Standalone LAN mode, the view of your real database in Standalone WAN is simplified. Because stock records and customer invoices are not stored in the emergency dataset, a W.E.A.R. installation creates temporary placeholders.
For example, if your POS and accounting software indicates a customer owes a total of $500 for three unpaid A/R invoices, in the emergency dataset, there will be a single invoice for $500 that is used to preserve that customer's balance. This invoice is not viewable or editable.
Handling Stock Records
Stock records are treated similarly to invoices. Windward’s business management software uses stock records to store information such as:
- Quantity
- Cost
- Serial numbers
In an emergency dataset, a placeholder stock record that amalgamates all of the individual stock records for that part is used. This means your Windward business management software solution can't determine profitability because it can't determine the true cost of an item sold since the cost on the placeholder stock record is the average. Also, you won’t be able to sell serialized items because the stock record that stores the serial number does not exist.
Like normal replication and standalone mode, you can't create special orders in an emergency dataset.