Archive for the ‘E-commerce’ Category

Toner Man to Implement OpenERP

Posted on: January 26th, 2011 by James Cluff No Comments
Tonerman (Tonerman.com), located in Kaysville, Utah, is a toner re-manufacturing company.  They have been re-manufacturing toner cartridges for laser printers since 1988.  Tonerman ships anywhere.  They have next day shipping anywhere in Utah and will deliver in person and provide support for companies located in Salt Lake City, Ogden, Layton, Kaysville, Murray, North Salt Lake, Bountiful, and surrounding areas. There are many companies that provide cheap products, but after more than 20 years of experience in toner re-manufacturing, their product is high-quality and comes with a satisfaction guarantee. In order to improve their market penetration in Salt Lake City, Utah areas, and their ability to serve their clients who need printer support services, Toner Man is implementing an ERP system. ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning.  Many small to medium sized businesses don’t know what ERP is.  Typically a small business manages their business using Quickbooks, paper and a variety of other integrated or un-integrated disparate systems. Some Examples:

E-commerce example:

If a company had e-commerce and had online orders they might  download orders from the internet and import them into Quickbooks manually.  This is quite common, they might import the orders themselves, or just a monthly or weekly summary of orders so they can account for their online sales.  Information about their customers would then exist partly in Quickbooks and partly in their e-commerce system.

CRM – Sales Management Example:

If a company had sales staff they might manage their sales using paper, an in house CRM ( Customer Relationship Management System) like Act, or a hosted CRM solution like Salesforce.com, SugarCRM, and vtigercrm. The problem they encounter in any of these scenarios eventually is an integration problem. They have to import their customers into their accounting software if it is Peachtree or Quickbooks or whatever any time they get an order they have to copy the clients data into the accounting software.  Further, any time the sales person needs information about a customer – did they pay are things past due is there a hold on the account, did an address or phone number change, have we done business with this account etc. they have to ask the accountant.  Not having this information like an address change may be expensive for the guy who just made a call on that business. At the end of a year they may have different data for many accounts in each system.  Eventually if the company grows, the manual process breaks down and they have to figure out some way to integrate the systems.

OpenERP is an integrated Solution

By choosing OpenERP to for CRM – Customer Relationship Management, Tonerman is able to be way ahead of the game.  As their company grows and they migrate more of their business process to OpenERP their cost of doing business will decrease or stay the same rather than increasing because their processes will be more automated, they will be using less paper, and repeat entries will be eliminated.  Currently they are doing only CRM, but in the future they may also use the MRP – Manufacture Resource Planning to manage toner manufacturing module, HR-Human Resources Module to manage attendance, accounting to manage the books etc.  There is also e-commerce integration capability with Magento E-commerce.  If they use this with the accounting module for example they wouldn’t have multiple copies of product data – only one.

OpenERP CRM is being implemented with iBCScorp

Internet Business Consulting Services Corporation-iBCScorp.com headquartered in Saint George Utah is an OpenERP implementation and integration company.  They will be providing OpenERP Installation and maintenance.  They will also be training sales staff on OpenERP CRM, and completing the OpenERP Implementation using OpenERP 6.0.

Sales force productivity management

Tonerman looks forward to using OpenERP’s CRM capabilities to manage its sales force and continue to grow its client base, serving its clients across the Wasatch Front and nationwide.

Aquatic Empires to sell Corals and Aquatics using e-commerce

Posted on: November 17th, 2010 by James Cluff 1 Comment
Aquatic Empires, Kings of Corals is launching a new store on 1750 South Rainbow Blvd Las Vegas Nevada. This store will be stocking all kinds of aquatic products, and has an excellent selection of Corals and Fish. Additionally IBCScorp (Internet Business Consulting Services Corporation) will be working with them to provide about 20,000 items online with a new online pet store. Items not stocked on the store can be ordered online and picked up at the store. The new online pet store will have an section for fish, corals and other live products as well as a “dry goods” section for normal non-living products that you might pick up at any pet store. E-commerce allows them to sell products to their clients that they otherwise would not be able to sell because it allows for special orders. The new online store will be provided using Spree E-commerce. It will have many features such as a CMS, Content Management System, Authorize.net Integration, and the ability to modify and edit products at will. The site will be done using the latest Spree e-commerce engine which includes an updated and streamlined shopping cart making it easier for customers to place orders by remembering and auto filing in shipping and billing information. New in this version of the e-commerce engine is the Content Management System(CMS). The CMS allows Aquatic Empires to manage and post their own content. Managing a specialty store, being able to post care and other information about their specialty coral products will help them build customer loyalty and educate their consumers how to care for their coral reefs. While providing a simple, easy to use shopping cart, and educating and building their customer base by using the Content Managment System tools, integration with Authorize.net as a payment gateway ensures security for them as a company and for their clients. The Payment Gateway helps secure the store by providing Address Verification Services (AVS) to verify that the customers are who they say they are and that orders are not fraudulent. It secures the client because as well as it makes it so that the store doesn’t have to store or manage credit card data. All processing of credit cards is done securely through Authorize.net. iBCScorp looks forward to serving its new client Aquatic Empires and helping them make their new business a success.

Zion Pet Implements e-commerce

Posted on: October 20th, 2010 by James Cluff 2 Comments
Zion Pet implements a new e-commerce website with Internet Business Consulting Services Corporation (iBCScorp.com). ZionPet.com has a new catalog of over 20,000 items available for sale. This project was done using Spree Shopping cart.  The back end system is really easy to use for ZionPet to fulfill orders.  Monthly, the catalog is updated from their vendors with new pricing. Old items are discontinued and new items are added.  With hundreds of manufacturers and thousands of products it is very convenient for Zion Pet that their whole catalog is automatically managed for them.

ibcscorp.com helps SuesPetCastle with a 20,000 item e-commerce store

Posted on: October 18th, 2010 by James Cluff No Comments
SuesPetCastle.com
SuesPetCastle.com is a pet store located in sunny St. George, Utah. Sues Pet Castle Retail Store has over 10,000 square foot of retail space with over 20,000 products in stock!
Internet Business Consulting Services Corporation (iBCScorp.com): Converted the data in spreadsheets that they were using in to a brand new web site with a shopping cart and integrated with a payment gateway. This was done using Ruby on Rails and MySQL.

FreedomTravel4You.com uses iBCScorp to build an agent management system

Posted on: October 14th, 2010 by James Cluff No Comments
FreedomTravel4You.com is in the business of selling travel through outside agents. One of the problems they have had in the past is that they have not had a back office to support those agents. iBCScorp.com developed for them a back office management system which manages those agents. At the time they where a multilevel marketing company. So custom PHP programming was done to record agent profiles into a MySQL database. The agents then where able to add their own recruits as well as see their down-line for everyone they had recruited into the company. Later the company changed to not be a multilevel company and some additional features where added. This was done using the popular Cake PHP framework. Some of the additional modules include:

Vendor Management

Administrators are able to add, edit and modify the vendors that their agents use to sell travel. This is beneficial for those agents, for the internal staff because they can put all the information the agents need into the vendor system rather than taking calls from those vendors. It also is beneficial for SEO purposes for people who are looking for an agency who deals with the particular products carried by those vendors. Additional functionality we would like to add which was not in the budget included better search features, browsing and even being able to purchase from those vendors directly online.

E-Commerce

Agents are able to sign up and sign up other agents directly including recurring billing.

Online selling of travel

Somewhat unique to this site as apposed to other non-travel sites is the ability for agents to directly purchase/or sell travel online through an online booking engine. When the travel is sold, the agent has the opportunity to include a markup on that travel for as much as they would like.

CMS Features

Wordpress was used to provide the content management system. This is an extremely nice benefit for an agency trying to promote itself in the online world. It allows them to add and manage content at will including posting new travel deals, hot travel sites, travel tips, or whatever other creative ideas they can think of.

iBCScorp.com works with Personnel Concepts to improve business

Posted on: October 12th, 2010 by James Cluff No Comments
Personnel Concepts personnelconcepts.com has been working with iBCSCorp over the last several months to help improve their online and offline business. Some of the things that have been accomplished include:
  • A/B testing work which improved conversion rates
  • Internal tools integrating Mysql and PHP with proprietary microsoft SQL databases.
  • Providing MSDS documents via the internet to their customers making it easier for them to comply with state and federal regulations.
Working with Brandon Chatham of PersonnelConcepts.com, ibcscorp was able to successfully implement a/b testing to improve pay per click (PPC) conversion rates improving ROI. This was a difficult project in the way a/b testing goes because a separate site was created, rather than just a splash page and the results of the entire site where tracked and evaluated. The results where very successful. iBCScorp was also able to implement an internal application so that a large sales floor could more easily enter phone orders. An open source based MYSQL PHP application pulls data from an SQL (Microsoft SQL) database at a separate location to simplify data entry and reduce errors. This is a really cool project because it integrates open source products with propriety microsoft products. One system uses Microsoft SQL on windows, the other, mysql on linux. Personnel Concepts is in the business of helping their customers comply with local and national employment related regulations.  One regulation is that an MSDS for any compounds used in an office or factory should be available. To help their clients comply with this regulation they worked with Internet Business Consulting Services Corporation (iBCScorp.com) to create an online tool for their clients to retrieve MSDS documents very quickly and easily. This tool was created using php, mysql, and soap. It will reduce the cost and remove a big headache for compliance officers around the country. Personnel Concepts is involved in online business and iBCScorp is working hard to continue to help them improve their products and services, expand their customer base and improve their profitability. Personnel Concepts shows a commitment to its clients by continuing to invest in making it easier for their clients to comply with state and federal regulations.  You can learn more about PersonnelConcepts.com by visiting their website at: personnelconcepts.com

Dawg chooses iBCScorp.com to improve it’s Magento e-commerce site

Posted on: October 12th, 2010 by James Cluff No Comments
Some months prior Dawg, dawginc.com moved from a proprietary system to the open source Magento e-commerce platform. Because Dawg specializes in products to help businesses manage their facilities, not Magento, they chose iBCScorp to help them continue to improve and make their online business better meet the needs of their clients. For over 25 years Dawg has provided innovative products for industrial safety, small spill control, compliance, personal protection and building maintenance. Every facility maintenance person, HR person, purchasing person for a business with these needs could benefit from a bookmark to dawginc.com. iBCScorp will work with Dawg to help them improve branded and non branded traffic to their site and to improve their customer experience by doing things like:
  • implementing A/B testing.
  • Improving CSS and site style.
  • helping with keywords and page content when appropriate.
  • providing additional programming and code as directed by Dawg Inc to help improve customer experience.
  • implementing appropriate Magento Plugins.
Investment in improving their website shows a strong commitment to their existing customers.
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iBCScorp hires a new PHP developer who is a Drupal, OS Commerce and Joomla/Vituemart expert.

Posted on: September 7th, 2010 by James Cluff 4 Comments

iBCScorp hires a new PHP developer

iBCScorp’s new Offshore PHP developer is a widely experienced and technically qualified professional PHP web developer.  He is an enthusiastic, highly motivated and capable individual.

Key skills and qualifications

  • Experience in designing and implementing complex commercial web applications
  • Strong PHP and MySQL coding experience
  • Strong knowledge in OSCOMMERCE, Joomla/Virtuemart and other Shopping cart products
  • Xhtml and CSS to W3C standards
  • Working knowledge in framework and familiar with MVC architecture
  • Solid experience in SEO
  • Deep knowledge of OOP Concepts and UML Diagrams
  • Good understanding of technical documentation, code reviews, industry/coding standards, architecture and system design
  • Proven ability to write detailed functional specifications
  • Good knowledge of Adobe Photoshop

Front End Development

  • XHTML to W3C Standards
  • CSS to W3C Standards
  • Knowledge of cross-browser problems and how to resolve them semantically
  • Advanced knowledge and implementation of the jQuery JavaScript library
  • Usage of other JavaScript libraries including Prototype,  MooTools, and Dojo
  • Full understanding of legitimate SEO practices and content optimization
  • A wide knowledge of the various Accessibility guidelines (including WCAG 2.0, Section 508, and WAI)

Back End Development

  • PHP Development(both Object Orientated and Procedural)
  • MySQL and how to optimize it
  • Usage of various MVC Frameworks including CakePHP, CodeIgniter, and Zend
  • Usage of various CMS packages such as Drupal, Joomla, and WordPress
  • Various e-commerce integrations including Protx / SagePay, WorldPay,  PayPal, and Google Checkout
  • Wide use of social APIs (e.g. Facebook Connect, Flickr, YouTube)
Experience For the past three years this new team member (PHP Developer ) has worked for one of the biggest IT companies in the world. While there he participated in development of enterprise level Internet Systems based on a wide range of technologies. He has worked on financial calculation and statistical applications, content management and official company websites. Prior to that he worked for one of the leading media networks in Sri Lanka where he developed and maintained media streaming servers. Some of the projects this person has worked on include: http://www.digital-additions.co.uk http://www.ior-institute.org http://www.theinternet.co.uk http://www.hatched.co.uk http://www.efm.lk http://www.automart.lk http://hotellanka.lk

Education and Training

BSc.(Hons) in Computing and Information Systems London Metropolitan University. 2ndUpper Class.
  • Advance Database Management Systems
  • Software Engineering
  • Practical Project
  • Object-Oriented Analysis and Designing
  • Communication Systems Management
  • Management Support Systems
Qualifications Sun Certified Programmer for Java 2 Platform 1.4 Sun Microsystems, USA. Ready to take Zend PHP 5 Certification. Planning Zend Framework Certification.

Together Forever changes their web development company to iBCSCorp

Posted on: June 13th, 2010 by James Cluff No Comments
Together forever changes their web development company to Internet Business Consulting Services Corporation (iBCScorp.com.) Their site is a Ruby on Rails based application and iBCScorp will continue to make changes to their site to improve performance, traffic and to help Together Forever’s online business improve. Together forever, togetherforeverint.com, is truly a product of an international family. When Antonia was leaving Russia many beautiful and charming ladies who had been her clients in Kursk were fearful of what would become of them without her. They thought they may never have a chance to be happily married. Antonia promised to help them out. Having been through the experiences she has been through, she knows how to help her clients successfully select the right person and go through the same process she has gone through. However in addition to industry knowledge, in order to be successful in an online business she recognized that she needed experts in internet business to help her.  iBCScorp.com provides that expertise.

New Mastercard and Discovery Card Processing Requirements

Posted on: May 21st, 2010 by James Cluff 19 Comments
Most e-commerce websites don’t realize that they are not yet compliant with some recent Master Card and Discovery Card processing requirements. The basic requirements are that:
  1. “Balance response transactions — For prepaid and gift cards, once the card has been used, the remaining account balance will be transmitted along with the authorization response. The remaining balance must be printed on the customer receipt, displayed on the Web page or point-of-sale terminal, or both.”-Authorize.net
  2. Partial authorization transactions — When a customer’s transaction amount exceeds the balance available on their debit, prepaid or gift card, instead of declining the transaction, a partial authorization for the amount available to the customer will be returned. This will allow the customer to pay for the remaining amount with another form of payment. This is called a split-tender transaction.” – Autorize.net
  3. Authorization reversals — An authorization reversal is a real-time transaction initiated when the customer decides that they do not want to proceed with the transaction, or if the merchant cannot complete the transaction for any reason. Authorization reversals free up the customer’s available balance on their debit, prepaid or gift card.” -Authorize.net
Internet Business Consulting Services Corporation (IBCScorp.com) is an authorize.net merchant. We are working on making all Authorize.net sites compliant with these regulations by modifying code to interact with Authorize.net’s API in such a way as to meet the necessary requirements. Authorize.net will be modifying their system to meet these requirements. Our goal is to be able to support these requirements by the time Authorize.net makes the api to meet these requirements available. If your site is not compliant or if your not sure if it is compliant, feel free to contact us to help you meet the Mastercard Processing Requirements. If you are using Authorize.net or some other Payment gateway at some point compliance with these regulations will be mandatory.