Ron, all, For sure, every contribution added to this discussion will help Eric to make a thought through decision based on various viewpoints.
Luckily, we can agree that hardware cost aren't that much of an issue any more these days. Unfortunately, metrics (of various kinds) and/or (other) statistics supporting various business scenarios are not available indicating what path to follow with OFBiz. The statement that some organisations don't want to mix front-end (eCommerce) with back-end (accounting, inventory mgt, etc) on one system supports the advice not to combine OFBiz with a solution like JForum on one system. But OFBiz is also suitable for organisations who do want to separate front-end from back-end. Multi-spoke setup is possible and addresses the scale up aspect. Whether JForum is the way to go is for each individual organisation to investigate. I, for one, just hope that when anyone participant in this community opt for an integration option (whatever it may be), he or she will share experiences here so others can benefit from it. Regards, Pierre Smits *ORRTIZ.COM <http://www.orrtiz.com>* Services & Solutions for Cloud- Based Manufacturing, Professional Services and Retail & Trade http://www.orrtiz.com On Sat, Jul 5, 2014 at 10:10 PM, Ron Wheeler <[email protected] > wrote: > On 05/07/2014 7:15 AM, Pierre Smits wrote: > >> HI Eric, >> >> First of all, OFBiz has a unique set of functionalities that caters first >> to the handling of business transactions. Adding some component >> functionality that isn't inline with that is putting the handling of those >> business transactions at risk. In the case of forum functionality related >> to eCommerce, it could be so that the number of forum postings grows to >> such proportions that it might jeopardise the transaction handling. >> > OTOH, if the forum increases sales to existing customer by 10%, adds 5% to > the sales to new customers, reduces product returns by 30% and reduces > customer support costs by 20% it might be worth the extra costs of scaling > up the OfBiz configuration. > > The reduction in transaction related to returns and customer support might > not offset the extra transactions caused by additional sales but that is > unlikely to bring complaints from management. > > If the forum activities do not generate addition revenue or customer > satisfaction or reduce costs, you can always turn it off. > > It is difficult to make business decisions or propose IT trade-offs for > organizations that you don't know or for general populations of potential > installations of OfBiz. > > > >> So, from a business continuity angle having both in/on one system is not >> advisable. >> > Not sure that this conclusion is true in every case or that there are not > available solutions for scaling problems. > You can make the same argument for many features in an ERP. For example, > many companies do not mix eCommerce with accounting in the same system. > >> Apart from that, leveraging JForum with OFBiz data and vice-versa is >> doable. But there are intricacies. You have to take the following into >> consideration: >> >> >> 1. You're JForum participants can also register without ever using >> OFBiz >> >> eCommerce. So you need means to get the user's profile data into OFBiz >> 2. When using LDAP as the means to do authentication and authorization >> >> in both JForum and OFBiz you need to set both up to use that. >> 3. For OFBiz, currently there is no integrated functionality available >> >> that updates the LDAP data when user details (userid, first name, last >> name, password, etc) are modified in OFBiz. I expect that to be the >> same >> for JForum. >> > I am not sure that JForum is the only way to go and that is a worthy > discussion. > I would also add the suggestion that social networking tools that support > groups and discussion might be a more modern solution that adds meets the > same business need as forums but add ideas such as "following", "liking", > "rich profiling", etc. > > Another way to provide this functionality would be to interface with > LinkedIn and use private and public groups. Facebook might also be a > solution if your business is B2C rather than B2B. > > >> If you want to implement implement functionality in either OFBiz or JForum >> to update the LDAP data I suggest you have al look at the Apache >> Directory >> Server project (http://directory.apache.org). Not only does the community >> have a (clusterable) Directory server and a good LDAP management solution, >> but also api's that you can use for integration. >> >> Regards, >> >> >> Pierre Smits >> >> *ORRTIZ.COM <http://www.orrtiz.com>* >> >> Services & Solutions for Cloud- >> Based Manufacturing, Professional >> Services and Retail & Trade >> http://www.orrtiz.com >> >> > > -- > Ron Wheeler > President > Artifact Software Inc > email: [email protected] > skype: ronaldmwheeler > phone: 866-970-2435, ext 102 > >
