Overview
Agvance Mobile Sales is an iPad app allowing sales people to retrieve customer data, view inventories, create orders, and close deals quickly and easily from anywhere. The Agvance Mobile Sales app communicates with the Agvance web service, which accesses the home office Agvance database and returns the data to the Mobile Sales app.
Because the Agvance web service needs to access live data, some setup is required:
- The home office must have a public static IP address
- The SQL Server must be configured with a static (non-changing) IP address and port
- A firewall rule must be configured to forward connections from the SSI web service to the SQL server
Note: If Agvance Mobile Energy or any other Agvance web service connecting to home office data is being used, most of this setup has already been completed. In this case, add the Agvance Mobile Sales server to the list of servers available to access the data.
Note: In most cases, the SQL Server and Firewall configuration will require the assistance of an IT provider.
Setup
SQL Server to Use a Static Port
Start the SQL Server Configuration Manager on the data server. In the left pane, expand SQL Server Network Configuration, and select the proper instance of SQL.
Right-click on TCP/IP in the right-hand pane and navigate to the Properties / IP Addresses tab. In the IP All section, remove any existing port number from the TCP Dynamic Ports field, and place a static port number in the TCP Port field.
Removing the existing port number from the TCP Dynamic Port field tells SQL Server to use a static, as opposed to dynamic, port number. The port number chosen should not conflict with any other ports in use on the machine. If unsure about which static port number to use, contact the network administrator.
Setting up the SQL Server Machine to Use a Static IP Address
Change the network adapter on the machine to use a static IP address. For more information about how to do this or what static IP address to use, contact the network administrator.
After making the change above, restart SQL by selecting SQL Server Services in the Configuration Manager. Right click on the name of the SQL instance, and then select Restart.
After setting up the SQL Server with a static IP address, use SQL Server Management Studio or Telnet to confirm SQL is running on the appropriate port.
To use Management Studio, in the Server name field, enter the IP address of the SQL Server, a comma, and then the port number. Replace the 10.100.100.109 with the static IP number and 55555 with the port number.
To use Telnet, type the following command in a command prompt:
Telnet 10.100.100.109 55555
Replace 10.100.100.109 with the static IP number and 55555 with the port number.
If a Could not open connect message displays, SQL is not listening on that IP and port. If the screen turns black, the connection was made.
Firewall Setup
Set up the firewall to allow the SSI server to connect to a public IP address and port available on the firewall’s external interface. The firewall will then need to use NAT (Network Address Translation) to forward the connection from the SSI server to the SQL Server’s IP address inside the network. Be sure to set the firewall rule with a filter, which only allows connections from the SSI server using the public IP address 54.209.30.54. This is the IP Address of the Agvance Mobile Sales web server.
Note: If already using Agvance Mobile Energy or any other Agvance Web API based service, most of this setup has already been completed. In this case, edit the existing firewall rule and add 54.209.30.54 to the list of Allowed From addresses.
If these steps are unclear, please forward this document to an IT/Hardware provider. The IS Customer Advocate team at SSI will be glad to assist with the setup.
Setting up the Mobile Sales Connection
When the SQL Server and firewall setup is complete, please contact SSI support at 800-752-7912 and an IS Customer Advocate will use the following information to complete the setup.
Static public IP address: ____________________________________
SQL Server static port: _____________________________________
Emailing from the Mobile Sales App
To email from the Mobile Sales App, email information will need to be configured in Agvance.
The emailing process will look at the Mail Host Email Address and Password at Hub / Setup / Company Preferences to determine the email address and password. Entering an email address and password in this area and having an API Database ID populated in the Web API Database Connection Information section will send an email with a link for the following customer-facing documents:
- Sales Invoices (optionally send as a PDF attachment)
- Combo Statements
- Budget Billing Statements
- Regular AR Statements
Please contact SSI Support with any questions.
Downloading the Mobile Sales App
Visit the iPad App Store, and type Agvance in the Search bar. Select the Mobile Sales app and, when the preview screen appears, tap INSTALL.
After the installation is finished, tap OPEN. When the app opens, complete the Login information, including the User ID, Password, and Company Serial Number.
Contact SSI with any additional questions.
