At 02:45 +0800 30/11/2001, Antony N. Lord wrote:
An associate of mine is starting a new business
* It will have a shop front
* It will also sell via the Internet
What we need is
* A point of sale (register) system
combined with
* Database / stock inventory / ordering
which in turn can be linked with
* On-line web catalog with "as real time as possible" stock levels
All the people suggesting database products, or Unix-based things, no
doubt could come up with something for you that works... at quite a
high development cost and time, I would guess.
To be _perfectly_ honest, you might want to _start_ by looking at a
PC (gasp) running MYOB Retail Manager, to get your shop front going.
It has all the features you are asking about, it is a mature product,
and is well-supported nationally. I wish it ran on the Mac, it just
doesn't.
One of our clients already uses MYOB Retail Manager quite happily,
and no doubt there are other products of its ilk.
With regards to the online store, you could then start considering
using a web company that already has online store facilities and can
set up a virtual store for you at little cost.
Then you could consider doing periodic exports of data from MYOB
Retail Manager to the web store to keep things up to date.
There is a multitude of other products out there that you might want
to look at and I fully realise that the suggestion I have offered
here does not provide you with a fully automated system to keep the
shop front and online store in sync, however it gives you some
practical places to start from.
PS - I will respond only to _constructive_ suggestions in reply to this :-)
--
Andrew Nielsen <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Starfish Technologies Pty Ltd <http://www.starfish.net.au/>
ACN 076 426 714 / ABN 49 426 849 601 Tel: 0500 555 677
Consultants in Unix, Mac OS, Windows & networking technologies
