Supporting Remote Offices and Users

There are several options for remote offices and remote users who need to have data centralized. Separate databases can be set up and groups can exchange transactions via email. For groups who prefer one central database, a VPN connection is sufficient. Other options include Terminal Services, Citrix, and others. This document lists the various ways that offices may exchange data.

Emailing Transactions

Users can email transactions between two installations of OASIS. Using this method, the remote site installs OASIS and a local database. Periodically, transactions may be extracted from either the local or the remote database and then emailed to the other system.  

Considerations of this method:

• least expensive implementation
• requires manual extraction and importing of data
• reliable, but some transactions may be missed

Terminal Services

Citrix and Microsoft offer remote terminal applications for Windows servers. Using this method, OASIS is installed at the central office and a "terminal application" is installed at the remote office. Using broadband technology, users at the remote office log into the server at the central office. For more information on Microsoft terminal applications, click here. Note: Ingen Software does not recommend using Citrix on older Windows NT servers.

Considerations of this method:

• requires broadband (DSL or other broadband high speed connections)
• requires Windows "Advanced Server."
• should consider using a VPN technology (optional)
• Best option for consistent data (only one database involved)