Hey all,

We are looking for an online payment system where people can select a variety of options (we need there to be a logic system - if option a, then subsequent options are...). It has to be connected to an inventory database so the system knows when the inventory is entirely exhausted for a specific day (or time period).

We sat down with our IT company, and they said to build this it would cost between 5-10k and take several months.

Are there ready made systems we can buy? Is there a specific company we should be looking for?

Thanks all!

Hey all,

We are looking for an online payment system where people can select a variety of options (we need there to be a logic system - if option a, then subsequent options are...). It has to be connected to an inventory database so the system knows when the inventory is entirely exhausted for a specific day (or time period).

We sat down with our IT company, and they said to build this it would cost between 5-10k and take several months.

Are there ready made systems we can buy? Is there a specific company we should be looking for?

Thanks all!
It all depends on your requirements. Typically systems that use some form of logic approach need to be customized solutions. It's difficult putting that into a generic solution.

Your potential transaction volume comes into play as well.

It all depends on your requirements. Typically systems that use some form of logic approach need to be customized solutions. It's difficult putting that into a generic solution.

Your potential transaction volume comes into play as well.

We bring about 25,000 people through our doors yearly. Let's play easy and say they come in couples, so 12.5k transactions per year.

The logic is not too intense.

If trip #1, then trip #1 has the following start times...

I also need it to work with an inventory system, so that if all the resources are booked for*a day/time period, the system rejects them.

It would be very similar to a hotel reservation system, but that could have an administrator update the inventory on a weekly basis.

Steve,

If this is something that you/your organisation is capable of, let's move this conversation to email.

I'd concur with Steve. There's not going to be much in the way of off the shelf stuff for this, at least not in the price range you're discussing with your IT company. Custom would be the way to go for it and the time frame they quoted you seems about right. Make sure it's well tested and that they will stand behind their project. That's a very common problem with these types of things ... that they deliver something that sort of works but doesn't do everything it was supposed to, and then bail on you and you're stuck with something that needs some serious re-working or re-coding to do what you actually need to do with it.

Another common thing a lot of these guys do is outsource or offshore the project somewhere else and just act as a middleman. Buyer beware when it comes to this sort of thing, make sure you're going to have someone in-house working on the code and that can support it after the fact.

A lot of my coding gigs are cleanup/rewrite after this exact sort of thing, so I'm speaking from experience. Sadly a lot of the time the first go around tends to be a write off for these people as the actual code that was delivered is so bad it's just not worth trying to fix up or move forward with and needs to be replaced.

... A lot of my coding gigs are cleanup/rewrite after this exact sort of thing, so I'm speaking from experience. Sadly a lot of the time the first go around tends to be a write off for these people as the actual code that was delivered is so bad it's just not worth trying to fix up or move forward with and needs to be replaced.

No offense to the OP, but the description of requirements given in the original post is a recipe for disaster. The OP's company needs to clearly specify their business process and rules. If they give vague specs, they can't complain that it doesn't do what they *meant*. A good IT resource will probe and help clarify the requirements.

Sort of related, I worked with a company that supplied products to retail stores--with an enormous seasonal bulge. There were 'list' prices but a bewildering number of discounts--certain products were deeply discounted, supplemental discounts if you ordered before such-and-such date, extra discounts if you ordered more than $XXX, additional discounts if you ordered Y% more than last year, on and on! There were 3 or 4 staff dedicated to order-taking and eventually we determined that, in many cases, EACH ONE could come up with a different order total by applying the rules the way they thought they were supposed to!! No system in the world could do it the "right way" because there were ambiguous and contradictory business rules.

Craig

Yep project management and getting all the specs right is a big part of the procedure and sadly doesn't happen often enough. For something like this to work the requirements and rules must be set in stone. Too many changing rules and exceptions result in what the poster above me is talking about.

The OP's description seem like they are a bit vague on purpose (so as not to give away the true nature of the business?). It seems like what the OP is looking for is a lot more intricate than an online sales and payment system though, sounds like it will have to have a lot of resource management and calendaring type stuff as well. It honestly sounds like something that will be fairly complex (read: expensive and requiring meticulous attention to detail)

Steve,

If this is something that you/your organisation is capable of, let's move this conversation to email.
PM Sent

I've been doing some serious research and I discovered a ready made solution for our business.

We are moving forward with Shopify and a Shopify add-on called BookThat (http://static.olark.com/jsclient/follow.html?_ok=7855-664-10-3086&wcsid=XW61LEJ150FBVM6PCM348IK978556641&hblid=JNJZ9111VD78FTA3Y08TAHP378556641&url=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5ib29rdGhhdGFwcC5jb20v&host=www.shopify.com).

Hopefully this will be a successful endeavour, does anyone have any horror stories with Shopify?