RE: FN-FORUM: Small Job required for website

date posted 31st January 2006 15:12

We've found that most of our e-commerce clients don't want an out of the =
box solution as there's always something that they want to handle =
differently - strange shipping rules, BOGOF, product properties that =
work differently to how things are coded. So we wrote our own that works =
differently to the out of the box solutions - it's template based (but =
only so far as xslt templates defining how different sections of a page =
are laid out), it uses CSS to style how the pages look and because of =
this each solution can look completely different if the client wants to =
differentiate themseleves from a "normal" e-commerce site. And because =
of how we developed it, we have an intimate understanding of how it =
works so customisation and bespoke functionality is straightforward.

It's not a =A340/120 solution, but you get what you pay for, some people =
just want a "buy it now via paypal" button which is fine, but others =
need to run their webstore as if it's a proper store with stock, =
fulfilment, order processing and so on.

Cheers
Andy

Andy Macnaughton-Jones
Senior Partner IWD2 LLP
Cedar House
Endican Lane
Thornton-le-Moor
North Yorkshire
DL7 9FB

(t) 0870-765-8926
(f) 0870-765-8927
(m) 07956-863517
(e) [EMAIL REMOVED]

IWD2 : Corporate I.T. for the SME


-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL REMOVED] [EMAIL REMOVED] On Behalf Of DF =
Office Mail
Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2006 3:33 PM
To: Andy Macnaughton-Jones
Subject: RE: FN-FORUM: Small Job required for website



---
I must say tho, oscommerce is a fantastic out of the box app for people =
with no experience but it's a swine to develop for, the code is uber =
messy, its crying out for templates and class based coding..

ash
---
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Thing is, theres always someone who will under cut you and do a naffy =
job of it too, but clients will almost always go for the cheaper price =
if they are not experienced in these matters.

ash
--

Totally agree twice. We've got our own code libraries that we've =
developed over the years, but it's no-longer worth offering custom =
solutions for carts as it's hard to compete on features with any of the =
open source stuff. =20

I'd say as far as back office freelancers:

"The problem with freelance BACK OFFICE is there are too many =
freelancers, and too many COWBOYS"... Making it difficult for those of =
us with 10+ years experience to quote a decent fee for a decent, fully =
waranted, secure and maintainable solution.



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