Technical Overview

Sage 50 Accounts is the industry leading accounting software for managing the finances of small and medium sized businesses. It is used by 40% of UK small and medium sized businesses across all industry sectors.

The Sage 50 Accounts, Accounts Plus and Accounts Professional editions all include the Sage Data Objects (SDO) that allow 3rd party developers to develop solutions that link client applications like a BV Commerce Web store to the Sage 50 Accounts system.

We have developed a Web Service called SageIntegrator. The benefit of using this architecture is that data can be exchanged readily between two computers at different physical locations (and running on different operating systems), which is often the case where an Internet based solution has to connect to a back‐end business system.

The Web Services are stored on the computer hosting the Sage 50 accounts system. This computer must be connected to the Internet via a broadband link with a static IP address. It may and almost certainly should be located behind a firewall.

The eCommerce Web store is hosted on a web server often at a separate physical location. It is usually connected to the Internet and open to public access although, of course, it may be located on an Intranet designed for access by a specific organisation.