Understanding Hosting

With the hosted version of Prime, nearly everything is taken care of for you relating to running Prime. All you have to do is use it! A brief list of some of the features of hosting:

High service levels -- redundant power, connections, and equipment help guarantee your Prime system is up and running
Dedicated 24/7 staff -- call Venture at any time, day or night, weekday or weekend, and get a support technician
System maintenance and upgrades -- don't worry about having to replace hardware or software; all that is done for you
Backups -- daily backups ensure data will not be lost in the event of deletion by a user
Security -- both physical and electronic security are taken very seriously; the data center is guarded and has internal safeguards; electronic access by users requires multiple stages of identification, including username and password verification, and staff number and password verification
Virus protection -- monitored and updated regularly
Secure access -- data is encrypted before it travels over the Internet

Keep in mind that Venture is providing the servers, operating systems, and software necessary to run Prime. Generally, that means that your local systems are doing very little, other than displaying what is happening on those remote servers. The Venture systems run Prime and send the visual information back to your local computer for display there. Your local computer then sends mouse and keyboard input to Venture. The Venture systems take that information and interact with the programs, displaying the new information to you.

Necessary System Requirements

The system requirements to use the hosted version of Prime are minimal, both in terms of the software and hardware required.

Access-based Version

For the Access-based version, you need Microsoft's Remote Desktop Client. This program comes in all current versions of Windows Operating Systems. It is also available for several other operating systems including MacOS, iOS, and Android. Just about any device running one of these operating systems can access the hosted, Access-based version.

Web-based Version

The web-based version is only available within the hosted environment. Because it is purely web-based, just about any standard web browser on any operating system will suffice.

Access-based Operation

Web Portal

The web portal (https://portal.kempscaseworks.com) is the standard interface for logging in to the Venture system, as well as running the various programs available to users. Only those programs that have been approved for a user are displayed. [For users of non-Microsoft operating systems, your portal may appear in the Microsoft Remote Desktop application.] That portal, and the programs that may be available, looks like this:

Kemp's Prime Admin

The primary (main) copy of the front end (user interface) is typically called the 'Admin' (administrative) copy. The admin copy can only be opened by an administrative users within Venture. An administrative user has special rights above regular users. An administrative user, in addition to being able to run the admin copy, can also modify the admin copy, including adding new forms, reports, queries, or code. The admin user can also modify any existing parts of the system.

Push Admin Changes

The admin copy holds additions or modifications and can be used to test those changes. Once an administrator is assured the changes are good, they can "Push Out" the admin copy for users. This function takes a snapshot of the current admin copy and makes it available for users. Some new items (such as forms and reports) may not be available to users until they start using the latest version of the admin copy.

Active Users

When the admin copy is pushed out, users already operating in Prime (active users) will not immediately see a change. Rather, they must close Prime and restart it. Make sure users are actually exiting the system: they must use the menu and select Exit. Clicking the "X" in the top-right corner may only put Prime in disconnect status, and not actually close it. When users restart Prime, the new admin copy is used and they will see the changes.

Inactive Users

If a user is not active (not logged on to Venture and not running Prime), the new admin copy is used the next time they start Prime, and they will see the changes then.