Web developer for a new project
Discussion
I'm struggling a bit with where to start with finding a website person for a new project I am working on.
It is B2B sales of goods via a website which will handle all stock levels / details / photos - orders all done via the site, payments offline. Customers will have to set up an account before hand.The bit I know not a lot about handling is the daily data stream of info from the european HQ of current stock. Roughly 6000 lines.
Any tips on who I should be looking for / at? Its going to be far more technical than pretty graphics driven and thats where I am a bit lost. I also need the person who helps to be contactable and reliable, I don't want to go the freelancer.com route and find someone who then vanishes.
Thanks in advance.
It is B2B sales of goods via a website which will handle all stock levels / details / photos - orders all done via the site, payments offline. Customers will have to set up an account before hand.The bit I know not a lot about handling is the daily data stream of info from the european HQ of current stock. Roughly 6000 lines.
Any tips on who I should be looking for / at? Its going to be far more technical than pretty graphics driven and thats where I am a bit lost. I also need the person who helps to be contactable and reliable, I don't want to go the freelancer.com route and find someone who then vanishes.
Thanks in advance.
All going to be based on how the data is supplied from HQ. Do they provide a file to you for importing or is there a live API/feed?
It doesn't need to be too complicated - you might be able to use something 'off the shelf' with just a little customisation to handle the import and update of stock.
It doesn't need to be too complicated - you might be able to use something 'off the shelf' with just a little customisation to handle the import and update of stock.
How is your existing technical knowledge? Where are you based? What is your budget for the project?
There are thousands of digital agencies who could help you with this but, which ones are suitable will depend on the budget to some extent. Small agencies of one or two people will be geared towards smaller projects for limited budgets where larger agencies will be used to working with large enterprise clients with big expectations and big budgets.
Is there a particular technology in play here or are you flexible? A solution using open-source technologies will likely cost you a bit less as the licensing / training / hosting costs, etc. are less for the agency but, there could be a trade off in terms of maintainability, scalability, future development potential, etc.
There are thousands of digital agencies who could help you with this but, which ones are suitable will depend on the budget to some extent. Small agencies of one or two people will be geared towards smaller projects for limited budgets where larger agencies will be used to working with large enterprise clients with big expectations and big budgets.
Is there a particular technology in play here or are you flexible? A solution using open-source technologies will likely cost you a bit less as the licensing / training / hosting costs, etc. are less for the agency but, there could be a trade off in terms of maintainability, scalability, future development potential, etc.
That sounds promising; I don't know enough about how these large types of websites work to be able to ask someone to help me, if that makes sense. Normally I can work out what i need (whatever that may be) and search it out specifically, but this is frustrating me.
I can see that on my suppliers site the content is all on amazon.aws when checking the site coding out but I think thats just a cloud storage system from Amazon?
The supplier (who is giving me UK + NI exclusivity) has told me that its an FTP site that is updated every morning, as well as "data feed". Thats all I know.
They have their own employed agents in other countries who travel around taking offline orders via laptops / iPads that then update at night. Range is so big that it never causes issues apparently.
I'm meeting them soon to get more info but would like to have someone look at the plan for my site before i see them.
edited as replies overlapped; I would prefer someone small, and I would expect it to be in the thousands range rather than tens of thousands. I "only" need the system, all design, content and photography etc is already in place. I need the reliable background bits to display and process the orders. I am in Glasgow.
I've tried approaching a couple of companies last week that have built sites for friends, basically saying the above and so far no responses.
I can see that on my suppliers site the content is all on amazon.aws when checking the site coding out but I think thats just a cloud storage system from Amazon?
The supplier (who is giving me UK + NI exclusivity) has told me that its an FTP site that is updated every morning, as well as "data feed". Thats all I know.
They have their own employed agents in other countries who travel around taking offline orders via laptops / iPads that then update at night. Range is so big that it never causes issues apparently.
I'm meeting them soon to get more info but would like to have someone look at the plan for my site before i see them.
edited as replies overlapped; I would prefer someone small, and I would expect it to be in the thousands range rather than tens of thousands. I "only" need the system, all design, content and photography etc is already in place. I need the reliable background bits to display and process the orders. I am in Glasgow.
I've tried approaching a couple of companies last week that have built sites for friends, basically saying the above and so far no responses.
Edited by jke11y on Tuesday 15th March 14:48
Something like Magento community along with a plugin like this should do the trick.
Would need a bit of setting up initially but shouldn't be much of a stretch to any company that can do a generic ecommerce site.
Would need a bit of setting up initially but shouldn't be much of a stretch to any company that can do a generic ecommerce site.
Do you know what any of the other vendors using the same supplier do for their websites? If you're not competing with them due to being in a different geographic region then they may give you some pointers, or perhaps you could cut a deal with them to reuse a clone if their working setup. Custom web development gets expensive quickly so us best avoided where possible.
Gassing Station | Business | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff