This report is directed towards the management of DSS Ltd, who requested a documentation of setting up an e-Commerce system.
The company sells office supplies and furniture to businesses in the Dorset area. It is owned and run by a husband and wife, including a team of 9 staff members working in an office located in Bournemouth. All the office staffs are provided with their own networked PC installed with Microsoft Windows 98 and MS Word. The e-Commerce system will start off offering just a part of its products, which is around 300 items.
Access to images for the items with their details is provided in electronic form. The report includes two fully estimated cost options, stating the issues and requirements that need to be considered. This includes, the choice of off-the-shelf package software, hosting, Payment Service Providers, merchant account, dial-up connection, updating, security, backups, technical support and possible training. An e-Commerce system demonstration including the payment system, terms and conditions and any appropriate legal statement is provided with this report on a Floppy disk.
There is very few off-the-shelf package software in this price range, which cover all the bases such as store design, product catalog, transaction processing, store management and reporting as well as Actinic Catalog 4 software does. It is specifically designed to enable small and medium-sized companies to set up an Internet sales channel. Easy to use design themes provide a choice of styles, or a web designer can create a custom design. Store updates are made easily from the PC through a Windows interface. Orders are downloaded securely to be processed and invoiced.
Reports for stock monitoring, back order management and shipping can be generated as well. For a medium sized company, such as DSS Ltd, Actinic Catalog 4 provides the following key benefits: Ease-of-use: The software is installed on the PC and staff with a minimal level of expertise can operate it. No specialist web skills are required. The Windows user-interfaces provide a familiar environment to designers and resellers. Low-cost: By keeping set-up costs to a minimum, Actinic software reduces business risk and releases valuable funds for the hosting, design and marketing services required to make an e-Commerce site successful.There are no monthly rental charges for the software.
Security: Actinic Catalog allows orders to be placed and sent over the Internet by providing its own Java Applet built-in security. It also supports Secure Socket Layer (SSL). An alternative is where all secure payment information is collected by an "Online Credit Card Provider" such as NetBanx, WorldPay or Datacash. In this case, the security is provided by them.
Complete: Covering all the elements of e-Commerce in one package saves time, money and costly errors.Actinic Catalog spans business processes from web site generation, printing of invoices and guaranteed electronic order delivery. A full list of features about Actinic Catalog software can be found in Appendix 1 at the end of this report. Actinic Catalog 4 installs on the PC in minutes. The software provides a step-by-step instruction through the process of entering or importing the products and services.
It enables to specify the terms and conditions of sale, tax requirements and how shipping charges are calculated. A range of options enabling to match the design of the catalogue with the rest of the site is also available.
