“This case study outlines the direct selling web site that
we built for Zenith, one of the UK’s largest plumbing supplies
retailer. The site was built using our own e-commerce framework,
running on Linux and supported by a mySQL database.”
“The key design goals were established: customers would need an
existing trade account and number with Zenith; armed with a
password, they would be able to log-in to the site and browse or
search the policy stock items, filling a shopping trolley as they
went. That in itself was not complicated, but the decision that
customers should be able to see their own discounted price, rather
than the standard list price for items, did prove a particularly
difficult nut to crack.”
“The web server itself is running Red Hat 6.0 and is located in
the demilitarised zone (DMZ) of the corporate firewall. As usual
with Linux systems, it was simply a case of `install and forget’ –
once set up and running, it takes next to no administrative
resources. A few automatic monitoring scripts have been added to
it, so that it emails the operations team if any unexpected events
occur. Routine checks are also made on it from time to time to
monitor normal operations.”