Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

v11 reviewed in PcPro feb2012

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    v11 reviewed in PcPro feb2012

    don't ask me why the PcPro magazine is already dated Feb2012 when we have only just got into Dec2012 however . . . knowing that not everyone is going to be reading the magazine, I thought I would replicate the sentiments here.

    The magazine has just been sent to subscribers a few days ahead of the release in the shops.

    Page 106 offers a review on the latest v11 version of actinic, with a headline of Some worthwile improvements that could transform your existing site, but the architecture is holding it back.

    basically, its a mature product that's been going for years, and hard to ignore. new features are

    Shopper accounts and although a valuable asset, its let down by the account not becoming active until you download the orders, until that happens, the returning customer won't be able to see their details.

    they've fixed the single use discount coupons, the previous system allowed multiple use of the same coupon.

    reCAPTCHA has been added to 'contact us' pages helping with spam protection.

    a couple of payment methods have been removed to comply with new PCI DSS baninking regs.

    More emphasis on the ability to create single product pages helping with making the sites look modern and making them more search engine friendly.

    Its now easy to make a 'Great looking Webshop' as many of the old ugly designs have been dropped.

    OVERALL
    Overall, Actinic V11 builds on the strenghts of previous versions and remains a fully featured and competant product But its aging achitecture, highlighted by the delay in creating customer accounts, feels like pushing the old girl too far

    ease of use 5/6
    features and designs 4/6
    value for money 4/6

    overall 4/6

    #2
    Online review from PC Pro here: PC Pro - Actinic Business 11 review
    Darren Guppy
    Golf Tee Warehouse
    Golf Tees and Golf Accessories.

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by completerookie View Post

      OVERALL
      Overall, Actinic V11 builds on the strenghts of previous versions and remains a fully featured and competant product But its aging achitecture, highlighted by the delay in creating customer accounts, feels like pushing the old girl too far
      Ouch! (although no surprise really)
      Tracey

      Comment


        #4
        Interestingly PC Pro also reviewed Actinic Online.

        I think it's a matter of business priorities whether you think that the architecture of Actinic Desktop is holding it back. The default position of journalists tends to be what is trendy at the time, which is currently having everything in the cloud. There's very little mention of any of the downsides, but at the end of the day they mostly aren't business people.

        It's worth remembering that there is quite a big market of people developing desktop applications to manage ecommerce web sites. Obviously that means there is demand for desktop applications, even when your site is server based. This ability comes standard out of the box with Actinic.

        There's few other ecommerce solutions around that mean you are truly independent of every other company to run your business. Server trashed by a virus? No problem with Actinic Desktop, point your DNS to some other space, press publish and you're back up and running.

        Then again, some people only feel happy with their data entirely under their own control.

        It's horses for courses, which is why we have Actinic Online alongside Actinic Desktop.

        Chris

        Comment


          #5
          totally agree,
          I still use v8, currently no need to go to v11, but that hasn't stopped me looking around at the competition.
          I just haven't found any other solution that I "must move to". so I'm still here with actinic.

          personally, I would never move any of my business to the clouds. Who is in control, certainly not me.

          I buy my domain from one supplier, and host with another. If I fall out with one, then I simply move, no-one holds me to ransom.

          I won't use gmail (or any of the other on-line suppliers), again, what happens when I fall out (though no fault of my own). I won't use the online office progs, again, who's in control. - you only have to read of the people that lose everything when g**gle suddenly decide you are persona-non-gratis.

          the move to online accounts (sage et al), not a chance in hell.

          I know there's long-long term issues with actinic, but for me, its fine. It sits on MY computer, I am in control, and no-one holds me to ransom.

          having said all that, I would love to see Actinic have hooks so that I can use boiler-plate text's that reside on the web and simply reads some of that to build the pages.

          for me, I'm staying with actinic

          kev

          Comment

          Working...
          X