I have owned a brick and mortar business since 1998 and have gone through a couple of POS software upgradethrough the years. The last one only occured about 18 months ago. We are VERY happy with our current POS software and have GREAT local support whenever we need it.

HOWEVER...We have an inventory nightmare! We are basically trying to run 2 different businesses, each with their own revenues and expenses, yet they SHARE the same inventory. Even worse, they don't know they share the same inventory! So if I go through the trouble to tell my store my current inventory levels, and 2 seconds later, someone walks in my store and buys 12 widgets, my store has NO idea. So, what have we done - NOTHING! We haven't bothered to put inventory counts in either my Brick & Mortor POS system or my store because there is NO point. The problem is that our online store is really beginning to take off (processing between 15-25 orders per day) and I have an inventory control problem. We get calls every day from customers telling us that they just wanted to see if an item was in stock before they ordered it. Well, that leads me to believe that there are MANY more that don't call - and DON"T ORDER because we do not display item availabilies on our website. I know we are losing sales, and are "chasing our tails" trying to find inventory all day long. Something has to be done...

My search for answers has led me here; questioning Stone Hedge's product. Here are my questions:

1) Based on the above info, do I sound like the right candidate for this program?

2) Do I understand correclty by thinking that I would have to run my POS/cash registers with OM, actually "ring people up" in my store using this new software? We currently have 2 registers, each with a scanner for bar code reading and each with a PC mounted credit card swiper for charging credit cards. Should this harware work with OM? Would I just have to totally abandon the POS software that we are currently using?

3) I also have 2 "backoffice" PC's used for managing all aspects of our store, and business in general. Ao, I have 4 PC's Total - they would all have to be connected to the internet in order to make sales orders etc?, right?

4) How hard is it to import all of our product info? We have about 7,000 products -but only about 1,000 are being sold through our store. I wouldn't want all the products stored in my current POS system to, in any way, be added to my MC store. Would importing everything (from both my current MC Store and from my current POS inventory) into OM automatically add everything into MC?

5) What is pricing structure? Is is a one-time purchase? Recurring billing? What about upgrades?

These questions might be a little technical, and maybe I just need to pick up the phone and call somebody at Stone Hedge, but I thought I would get any feedback available here first.

Also, in general, if you are using this product, how do you like it????


Thanks SO much!

Ann

Ann -

I will try to answer your questions.

1. Yes, it sounds like the Stone Edge Order Manager should solve a lot of the problems you described.

2. Yes, to keep your inventory levels automatically synchronized between your brick-and-mortar store and your Web store, you would have to use the Point of Sale (POS) system that is included with the Order Manager. Your existing barcode scanners, credit card swipers, etc. will probably work with the Order Manager. All quantity on hand changes made in the Order Manager (POS or phone sales, returns & exchanges, new stock received, etc.) are sent to Commerce automatically and usually in just a few seconds.

3. The Order Manager comes with a license for use on up to 5 workstations (at one physical location), so your 4 computers are no problem. In general, a workstation must have Internet access for importing orders from Commerce, credit card processing and things like order tracking. You might be able to get away with some not having Internet access, but I would not recommend it.

4. Product data can be imported from Commerce or from a text file, spreadsheet, database, etc. Products do not get automatically added to Commerce, so your non-Web products will not be a problem. (Although I am curious about why you limit your Web sales. I think most merchants offer more items on the Web than they do in their physical stores. Reconsidering that might get you a lot more Web business!)

5. The base price of the program is $995. That is good for up to 5 workstations Additional workstations are $200 each, one-time fee. Support is $350 per year for up to 3 hours of phone support time, plus a year of program updates. There is a package price of $1,250 for the program with the first year of support & updates. There are other options (Order Status System, Express Setup Service, etc.) that you can find on our Website or we can discuss if you give us a call. Note that the Order Manager requires a copy of Microsoft Access on each workstation. You can mix Access 97, 2000, 2002/XP and 2003.

Please let me know if you have any other questions. Also feel free to give us a call at the number below.