Case Study Epicor – Enterprise Magento Powered Online Store for Retailers
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Client Requirement Epicor Software Corporation a global leader in business software solutions for manufacturing, distribution, retail and services organizations introduced its new Epicor Retail Cross-Commerce offering a flexible, advanced e-commerce platform that enables retailers to personalize the shopping experience across channels to support increased revenue and customer loyalty. We have worked with the client as their Magento Ecommerce Consultant for Epicor’s cross-commerce product. While ecommerce has been utilized by retailers for many years, Epicor aims to offer a solution that bridges the gap between traditional ecommerce and other sales channels -- enabling customers to interact and transact with their favorite retail brands in a seamless fashion that is integrated across all channels. Powered by the Enterprise Magento E-Commerce Platform and integrated with Merchandising and Enterprise Selling, Cross-Commerce communicates with physical stores (Store POS), mobile devices, call center, kiosk and social media to improve engagement through personalized sales, targeted promotions, recommendation engines, contact centers etc.
Project Challenges Team faced the following challenges: •
Integrated Epicor CRM system with Magento. The team faced problem while importing millions of customers from CRM to Magento.
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Keeping syncs between the CRM and Cross-Commerce System.
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For every order placed in Epicor ecommerce system from Cross-Commerce, fetching of price from the system and also the updation of price in Cross-Commerce live application was a big challenge.
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Import products from Epicor system required configuration changes. We have used Magmi for import product feature.
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Once the order is placed in the Cross-Commerce is then passed to the Epicor ecommerce system in the backend as well as assigned to the particular POS.
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Technologies Used Operating System
Development Environment
Database
Linux Cent OS, Apache Web Server, Multi-Server Architecture with Staging & Production environment through Version controlling releases Load Balancer, Apache optimization, security and SSL implementation, scheduler for backups, alert monitoring system integration, server performance tuning at regular intervals, software firewall configuration and maintenance, email server configuration etc. PHP, Magento EE 1.13, Zend Framework, Jquery, Prototype.js, TFS, Ngnix, Solar Search Engine, Third Payment Gateway Integration , Integration with Microsoft based home grown ERP system for Taxing, Billing & Accounting, Integration With Pos System Or Customer Orders etc. MySQL, DB Clustering, DB Optimization, High Availability, Master – Slave Replication, Query optimization, Slow Query Optimization, scheduler for backups, Alert Monitoring System integration, Percona Server Integration etc.
Man Power Project Leader
1
Developers
3
Designers
1
Quality Assurance Testers
1
Planning Keeping in mind the enormous structure of the website and the challenges involved a 3-tier development approach was adopted consisting of: • The Data Access layer containing the libraries responsible for accessing data from the database. • The Business Logic layer consisting of all business logic procedures for modules like user profiles, groups and registration info etc. • The User Interface Layer which forms the Graphical User Interface of the website.
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Architecture We are using 3- tier architecture which consists of Presentation layer (PL), Business Access layer (BAL) and Data Access layer (DAL). BAL: Business Access layer contains business logics and validations related to the data. DAL: Data Access layer contains methods which help the business layer to connect the data and perform required action via returning data or manipulating data (insert, delete, update). PL: Presentation layer contains .phtml where data is presented to the user and inputs are taken from the users. Deployment Architecture For deployment we are using Linux Cent OS 6.0. We are also using MVC architecture. The benefits of MVC are given below: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Enables the full control over the rendered HTML Easy integration with JavaScript frameworks Follows the design of stateless nature of the web Restful URLs that enables SEO Provides RAD development
Development Highlights Cross-Commerce gives retailers the rich functionality along with complete flexibility and control to customize their online channels. Search engine optimization, catalog management and powerful marketing tools support the creation of websites providing a rich value added shopping experience for the customers and which can be tailored to meet the retailers’ unique business requirements. Integration with the Epicor Retail Suite enables retailers to drive more online traffic, transform store visitors into lucrative multi-channel shoppers and convert browsers into buyers across all the sales channels. Other exclusive features include a rich merchandising suite, dynamic rule-based product relations, persistent shopping, private sales, gift registry, gifting options, rewards points, merchandise credits and many more. The solution is highly scalable to accommodate high traffic volume and large product catalogs. Additionally, it is IDEAL to support retailers’ international expansion plans, supporting localization via support for native languages, multiple currencies and tax rates. Retailers can also benefit from the ability to launch mobile-optimized storefronts via a mobile HTML5 interface that supports iPhone, Android™ and Opera Mobile browsers.
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