[RetailEdge Moderator]

The real reason someone should go with RECON would be if they want to sell out of two locations and manage inventory in both locations. As you are probably aware you can add locations to RetailEdge and manage the inventory in both locations with transfers. However you can't sell out of both locations without RECON. The other reason to have RECON is if the connections between the locations is not constant or consistent. RECON allows the two locations to be disconnected for a period of time and then when the connection comes back it will synchronize the records that have changed at either location while the locations were disconnected.

If you want to have multiple locations the best thing to do with the connections between the locations is establish a VPN. This will provide a secure tunnel between the locations for data traveling between the locations. Even though RECON uses SSL additional layers of protection are a good thing. RECON can be run without a VPN but you should have static IPs at each location. RECON is setup in two parts, a RECON Server at the main location and RECON Cient(s) at the remote location(s). RECON Client obviously needs to have an IP that it can constantly hit to talk to the Server. If this changes then it does not know what IP to talk to. So the Server location needs a fixed IP. For security purposes, RECON Server is usually setup to allow requests from certain IPs (the client locations). Although this is not required it is good practice to do so. RECON Client can use a Dynamic DNS to talk to the Server. The Server can't use a Dynamic DNS to specify IP addresses of the clients. That being said with the price of routers that support VPNs being so inexpensive and usually less than you would pay for a static IP from your ISP and the fact that VPN routers can support dynamic IP addresses we usually tell our customers to go this route.

The other advantage of setting up a VPN is that you typically don't have to get into setting up Port Forwarding rules in your modem. What this means is that you need to setup the router/modem/firewall to allow requests from the Client Location to not be blocked and in the case of multiple computers in a location to be "forwarded" to the proper computer within the location. This can be complicated and each modem calls this function something different (gaming rules, etc.). Sometimes the modem you have is provided by the ISP and they don't allow you to change these settings and they pass everything through to one computer you select in your location. In this case you usually have a router behind the modem/firewall to redirect requests coming in to the proper machines. In this case, you might as well just put a router that supports the VPN and do it this way.

Some customers have chosen not to use RECON because they don't really care about selling out of a secondary location. If they have a "warehouse" or "main location" where they want to run reports they can do one of a couple of things:

1. Setup a workstation license at the "main location" and tell this workstation the location of the RetailEdgeData, just like you would if you were on a LAN. With a VPN this is easier to do, with a Static IP or DynDNS, you need to do the port forwarding described above. A VPN is going to slow your connection down and we typically only recommend you do this if you are going to have a very FAST connection. We see too often where a connection will break due to the internet not being as reliable as people think. For instance if you are running a large report it can take minutes to run, even though the process is running on the server, if your connection breaks then the process will continue to run on the server but your client at the remote location will not be able to "reconnect" with the process.

2. The recommended solution. Setup a computer in the back that you have access to remotely and setup a client license on this machine. Then you can log in remotely using on of the remote control software products and then simply run this machine remotely. This will be easier to troubleshoot if there is a problem and the remote control software will do all the port forwarding you need, handle disconnects more gracefully and can do this in a very secure manner. One product we like is LogMeIn pro. This program does was is called two factor authentication. What this means is that you can setup LogMeIn with specific e-mail addresses and when you log in with a username/password, the program will generate a code on the fly and e-mail it to the addresses you have setup. You will need this code to ultimately log into the machine. So if someone steals a username and password they will not be able to access this machine. This is critical in the point of sale software industry in order to protect sensitive credit card and customer data.

We still need to setup RECON when it gets installed, but we have remote access tools that make this process very simple to do. Setting up multiple locations can be hard to do and unless you are doing it everyday it is not something that we would recommend. A typical setup includes:

1. Setting up the new store locations in the database. This includes payment methods, register IDs, locations, etc.
2. Copying the data to the new location machines.
3. Setting up the control files to control which locations are the primary and the timing of each synchronization cycle, etc.
4. In the case of new stores being added to existing stores, making sure that all the data has synched to a location before the files are copied around.
5. Making sure that the computers can talk to each other. Although we can't be responsible for all the router setup, we can help you troubleshoot where the problem is occurring.
6. Providing 90 days of free technical support.

Each RECON setup typically takes a couple of hours to do. And we do it all the time.