[thelist] Kits, shopping cart, configurator

Luther, Ron Ron.Luther at hp.com
Thu Mar 6 12:30:00 CST 2003


Gustavo Arizpe asked:

>>I'm looking for a shopping system which, besides the usual
>>characteristics, has a "package configurator" similar to Dell's order
>>system, where you pick up items already in the DB: CPU, RAM, HD, etc,
>>and where you must follow some path through the shopping process.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Hi Gustavo,

I'm not sure how large and well-funded the company wanting you to look
at this is.  There are some high end 'configurator' products available.
They work as bolt-ons to specific enterprise scale sales order entry
systems and are pretty darn expensive to buy, install, and maintain.
[Try a google search for 'sales order configurator software' to see a
few.]

If it's a smaller company I think you may need to look at rolling your own.

For the example you gave a freebie generic shopping system is unlikely to
differentiate between a radio modem for a customer in the UK and a radio
modem for a customer in Belgium even though they would need to involve
different part numbers (due to license/labeling laws).

The _real_ trick though is getting ATP, (Available To Promise), to function
well so you can quote good estimated delivery dates to the configured goods
customer.


HTH a little bit,

RonL.




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