Online Catalogues

Most businesses now have web pages. Bigger firms usually offer online ordering, but medium sized and smaller firms have been daunted by the complexity and cost of setting up and operating an online ordering service. This is despite the clear advantages of direct selling to the public: increased margins, control of the supply chain, etc.

We offer a tool enabling medium and small businesses to set-up and manage an online catalogue of their products. The tool is designed to be used by someone with minimal experience of writing in html - the language of the web. The tool is designed to be low-cost.

Our management tool is based on the MySQL database; an industry standard database engine which will be operated by us or your Internet Service Provider. Users update and access the information held in the database through webpages produced using scripts developed in PHP; a commonly used programming language which outputs html to the users browser. The scripts produce the website seen by customers, and the administrative website used by company employees. The scripts are responsible for the consistent formatting of each page, and for common elements such as navigational controls and titling. The scripts also validate and process customer orders.

While the scripts take care of the nitty-gritty work of producing good functional webpages, the administrator is free to implement the site hierarchy of product categories and write the content of the site. The administrator's work consists of three tasks:

• Defining a product category and relating it to other categories
• Writing text which will appear on the page for a category
• Defining products within a category

Initially some of this work may be done by us, or with our help, but the administrative tools are designed to allow you to manage your own web site and product catalogue.

Our administration product also enables rapid deployment of simpler websites, not concerned with online ordering. Examples include the current web site. Site owners and administrators can be sure that their sites can expand in the future if need be, without abandoning their work.

Select an example from the menu on the left.