ePages review
ePages is a very good e-commerce solution for small and mid-sized businesses, B2C, B2B to buy or sell products. This software is supported by many partners: hosting/ASP, plugins (“cartridges”), consultancy, etc. It integrates notably with eBay, Ogone (payment provider), Google Account, etc.
Its architecture is extensible, multi-platform and with a very good n-tier design, but is getting old and could be more open. It has some limitations for high businesses: performances is the main one; others are lack of support for segmentation, selling of services and business rules, integration with CRM, etc. For most small and mid-sized businesses, it is one of the top choice.
In this review, we summarize main functionalities, architecture, possibilities and limitations of this software.
ePages functionalities
ePages is a software that comes with everything ready to build rapidly your e-commerce website, including:
- Management of catalogue of products, clients, shopping baskets, etc.
- Support of B2C and B2B models, to sell but also to buy products
- Integration with payment providers, including PayPal, Google Account and Ogone (in Benelux)
- Integration with platforms as eBay, to attract customers
- Integration with SAP Business One (ERP tool for SME)
This solution is available at low price in complete hosting solution via partners. Otherwise, depending on business size Starter (2k€), Pro (5k€) and Enterprise (10k€). A “Corporate” solution (50k€) is also available for companies managing several stores.
We have found some limitations for big companies. For example to manage customers’ segmentation, selling of services with business rules. Yes, it can be managed with ePages, but requires specific extra-development, compatible with ePages only. And specific extensions of a standard software must be always analysed with caution: what about next versions? What if your company decides to use another software?
The ePages company itself offers training, support, etc. in this in many countries. ePages also operates with partners (1).
ePages Architecture
It is rare to see a commercial software showing state of the art n-tier architecture. ePages is one of them. Only the database architecture, mandatorily with Sybase ASE, shows limitations (see below).
ePages runs on Windows Servers, Sun Solaris and Linux Redhat. It supports multiple languages, UNICODE and ISO characters, and many foreign currencies. Languages packs are available for backend administration, notably in English, German, French and Spanish.
A basic configuration is illustrated below (2): everything can be installed on the same server.
What about scalability? ePages database can be installed on a separate server. Different webservers can be put behind a load balancer. And database can be put in “cluster”. All those modifications in the configuration can be done separately or together. The illustration below (3) shows a full “cluster” configuration.
Good at first view, details shows limits of ePages: not only Sybase ASE 12 is a forced choice, but the “cluster” mode is in fact a “master/slave” mode. It works like this: consistency between databases is always ensured between two severs, but only one is actually used (the “master”). If the master database server fails, the other database (slave) replaces the master database. This functionality is available in a “High Availability” extension.
We’ve seen companies having difficulties to ensure good performances: database architecture is a cause (NB: Hosting Edition configuration can be slightly different). Use of Perl is another explanation (see below).
ePages extensibility
ePages built-in functionalities can be extended thanks to “cartridges”. This concept is closed to the concept of service in SOA (Service Oriented Architecture). Modularity of ePages is good; however, it uses its own model, with object architecture implemented in the database. The language here is Object Oriented Perl. Yes, no .NET or Java. No ebXML or whatever in standard. The architecture is good but is getting old, having limitations in performances but also in new or emerging standards and openness.
Figure above illustrates cartridge concept in the architecture model (4). Other extensions are also possible with OCI link (Oracle), XML data exchange and in version 5 Webservices (SOAP/XML).
ePages Summary
ePages is one of the top choice e-commerce solution for SME’s. This product has a strong background of about 10 years, and is supported by many providers and third-party vendors. However, it has some limitations notably the performance, scalability, functionalities and choice of standards (Perl, Sybase) that might redirect mainly high-sized companies to other solutions.
(1) ePages Software – www.epages.eu
(2)(3) http://www.epages.eu/_data/downloads/en_ePages5_TechWhitepaper.pdf
(4) http://www.redtechnology.com/Downloads/epages4_hosting_merchant.pdf
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