Case Study: notabroker.com
Site Description
notabroker.com is operated by an excess electronics inventory clearinghouse firm. On the site, they allow brokers and manufacturers to list excess electronics components, the quantity available, and the price they want for the parts.
The public half of the site serves both the listing and buying customers, and an even more extensive private area allows the company's in-house brokerage and sales staff to track all inventory, sales, and quotes.
The Client's
Needs
The client asked for a system that would automate as much of the buying, listing, quoting, and selling process as possible. Existing systems incorporating this type of functionality are available for tens of thousands of dollars, but they don't interface with the public portion of the client's Web site, nor do they allow the direct upload of Requests for Quotes from other clearing houses.
The Solution
Devlab worked with the company from its inception to develop a full-featured system based on a Microsoft SQL Server database.
The system will:
- Accept raw uploads of parts in spreasheet-format Requests for Quotes.
- Automatically compare entered part numbers with inventory to see if a potential match exists.
- Accept uploads of inventory parts information in spreadsheets, and match them with customers
- Allow the sales staff to quickly look up parts for matching inventory items, previous quotes for the part, and to send new quotes at the click of the mouse.
- Download available inventory into a spreadsheet and email it to a customer or a list of customers.
- Allow the client to send out its own Requests for Proposals to thousands of potential suppliers at a time.
- And much more!
Special Technology Used
- ColdFusion MX programming for most of the functionality. This is an easy but very powerful server technology that allowed the initial system to be developed and tested in less than three months.
- Microsoft SQL Server for all database storage. Due to the amount of data involved, this highly reliable and scalable database was a natural choice.
- JavaScript for smaller functions, such as checking to make sure data entry is done properly.
Cost Factors
As a startup, the client was interested in saving money where possible, but still needed the system to perform quickly and reliably. To meet these needs, the system is hosted on a shared server for less than $40/month, including the SQL Server license, email, and all hosting needs!
Special Notes
Since its initial launch, many new functions and expanded abilities have been added to the system, and the client is planning even more automation to make it's staff more productive.
