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Tipo
6th February 2009, 10:01
Hi all

I really hope that I can get as much feedback as possible. All comments are welcomed.

I run an ecommerce business with about 1000 products expanding to 2000 over the next year and have an average of 50 orders per day but expect this to grow to 250 per day over the next 3 years. We are looking to upgrade our current website and back office system to something more robust. Ideally we would like one database that drives the whole company, CRM, ERP, ecommerce, CMS. i.e. purchase orders affects stock on the site in real time when it arrives, and automatically updates the accounts to show we have an account payable. We are looking at a number of options and would like as much feedback as possible.

The options we are considering;

1) Netsuite (SaaS) or Interprise – one database systems. Netsuite is one of the highest on our list.
2) A completely bespoke (using PHP and MySQL?) in house/outsourced custom designed shopping cart and CMS, with custom back end CRM and ERP similar to Netsuite, i.e. one database that serves the entire company and all of its processes.
What sort of task would this be? How long would it take? Is it feasible? Cost? Maintenance? Are we dreaming?
3) Using an off the self package such as Actinic/Volution with a custom designed skin and connected to separate aps such as Sage or Quickbooks, SAP? Etc.
4) Prewritten shopping cart such as Zen, Roman Cart with custom designed skin, either in-house /outsourced development of custom features and connected to a CMS like Joomla and separate ERP and CRM.

Also if you run an ecommerce business or develop websites etc. how do you run your business? What platform, do you use? Do you develop in house or Outsource? What shopping cart do you use? What are its positives/negatives? Does it work well for you? How many orders do you process per day? What would be your ideal?

Your thoughts, ideas and comments are very much appreciated.
Thanks for your time:)

James

NuBlue
6th February 2009, 10:47
Hi,

Welcome to the forums. It is very nice to hear a growth story for a change amidst all the doom and gloom that the media is feeding at the moment.

Do you have a link to your current webstore? I have not used any of the applications that you mentioned but if your product is a simple one then there may not be a massive need for anything bespoke as most 'common' ecommerce features (stock management, cms pages, bookkeeping integration etc..) are well catered for with off the shelf systems.

Do you have a budget for this project? as I think the solution you go for will largely depend on the budget you have. sub 10k i'd go off the shelf greater than 10k and it may be worth considering bespoke. Anyone that tells you they can make a bespoke cart for less is not going to be up to much IMHO

philwalker_triarch
5th August 2009, 12:09
Hi Tipo,

Only recently joined and not sure if you have made your decision - if so would be intereted in what it was?
I have been working with Netsuite as a consultative partner for 4 years working on their project implementations as an outsourced partner.
I can give you a crtiqiue (and independant evaluation of Netsuite if you want to contact me direct
if you have made your choice - hope it is going well and you are pleased

Cheers
Phil

englishbob
5th August 2009, 18:23
Tipo,
Take a look at http://www.acceptum.co.uk for your backoffice needs.
And take a look at the case study of SAWinesOnline.

Acceptum provides the ERP system to a front end web site.

Acceptum can interface with websites on the same server or remote websites. The latter being the norm.

Depending on your configuration and requirements the interface can be via:
XML File
XML Email
XML file via FTP
DCOM/COM
Excel
CSV
etc.

The period between updates (in either direction) is again dependent upon your requirements.

Browse the web site and gives us a call to discuss your thoughts.

If nothing else it will increase your knowledge of your requirements.

markrobinson
28th September 2009, 10:31
I think netsuite is the best because net suite is a vendor of on-demand, integrated business management software suites for mid-market enterprises and divisions of large companies.