Website and Database development?

laidbacklad

Hey all,

Posted in the wrong section last night so i try and post here.

Well the thing is I run a medium sized family business and we have a basic enough website with information about what we offer and the customers are able to download a number of brochures. We are looking to redevelop the site and add in an easy online payment system for our customers. We are still living in the stone-age when it comes to recording customers information and issuing receipts etc... We hand write it into books and when comes to searching for data is needless and time consuming. Want we want to do is to set up is an automatic system of recording all the information of the customer into a database, issuing of receipts etc... when they pay online. Any advice on what to do? where to go? and the cost? would be extremely grateful.

Thanks again

sheesh

What kind of business? retail? business to business? or services

there are customer relationship management (CRM) application out there (some are free)
I know very little about crms to be honest

some sort of accounting software might be in order for controlling invoices payments etc.

paying online? All depends on if you are a service or are selling actual things

if you have a small number of items you could just go with paypal account you create a button for each item and then stick the button on the website (paypal give you the code you paste it into the page) and you pay per transaction this is the most expensive way to process payments online but you don't have to pay any money upfront and people trust paypal.

another way is to pay is pay a flat fee per month and you can get a company that supplies the services for you to get payments companies like realex, amazon do a version and so do paypal.

you integrate the payement service with a shopping cart on your website
you add different items that you sell.

THere are three things to look up !

CRMs
Accounting software
Online payment services

laidbacklad

Thanks for the reply, well we offer services like educational course etc... We are still living in the stone age with these sort of things ha!! We just need reduce alot of the needless work like receipts and that. Do you think its possible to combine the website with the database? I'm going get straight on to all this now. Just need be pointed in right direction. We will just be looking for customers to pay online and than the receipts issued along with information recored all automatically without the writing in to books.

Thanks for advice it was much needed

Freddio

A service like Paypal (or Realex if you need laser) will automatically generate receipts and you can program them to populate a data base aswell but really the question is, do you just want to collect info or do you want a new ecommerce web site?

laidbacklad

The both really.... give them the option to pay online while when they fill in details being able to collect all the info... would save a lot of needless writing if you get me

amen

along with information recored all automatically without the writing in to books.

while you may eliminate the writing in books you will still have to generate reports from your system for reconcilliation and for your accountant to view.

Just wanted you to know that while you can get very close to a paperless office you may still have paper although it will be system generated.

If you are storing customer details especially payments you need to ensure that the details are secure (may need to comply with PCI) and you will also have to register with the Data Protection Commissioner.

Will still be taking phone orders ? If so you will need a way to add these to your online site.

was.deevey

First off, yes its totally possible to do both the payments, invoicing and collect customers though a database driven site.

One Possible (open source) solution: Vtiger CRM + Joomla/Virtuemart

Its really a combination of 2 separate databases linked with addons.

This would give you the ability to:

Allow payments though the website
Collect marketing information for customers from the site(Lead management)
Invoice Generation/Accounting
Product Management / Stock control
Renewal management (If things are subscription based).
Mailing List / Newsletter management.
Host & Sell your Training material (for download or View)
Content managed website.
Online Customer Support Area

Phone orders would not be an issue either, just a different payment method with a "pending" status until cheque / bank transfer is received.

Does a Whole heap more .. worth having a peek at the links

There is alot of other options out there too, I used this combo for the last company I worked for though.

You'll most likely need a SSL cert etc for payments and possibly data collection, not too sure what the laws are like on that these days.

laidbacklad

Lads you all been a great help... I spent the last week looking into all of these and have contacted a few professionals.... thanks again!!! ill be in touch and let you know how im getting... thanks again