Upgrade to Business

[Sigma]

Hi,

Can anyone give me an idea of the amount of time it takes to implement the login side of Actinic Business. I have developed a site using Catalog and now the client wishes to implement logins for user discounts etc. He has asked me for a time scale - does it involve big changes or, as usual, does actinic cope with it all for you?

Thanks for any help.

Sigma

[chris ashdown]

You could download the trial business software and try it out.

I think you have to use a non actinic loaded computer to do the trial software and you can import your site snapshots into it

[TraceyG]

Hi,

Can anyone give me an idea of the amount of time it takes to implement the login side of Actinic Business.

Once you have bought your Business License Key, all you need to do is go to the 'Housekeeping' menu and select 'Upgrade'. Input the key and click 'OK'.

Then go to 'View | Business Settings | Ordering' and ensure that you 'allow orders from Customer Accounts' selected. Set up the customer accounts and bingo, you are ready to go.

[george]

I'd like customer accounts but an upgrade to business is expensive if thats all that I want it for. I assume its the only way to get customer accounts, not in a future catalog release?

[Sigma]

Thanks for these messages.

I agree with George - the upgrade is expensive , I assumed it would be the difference between catalog and business but it is not. It's annoying when your client has changed his mind from the original discussions and now requires logins for trade discounts etc. He is put off by the cost of the upgrade just to allow logins.

Thanks.

Sigma

[TraceyG]

Hi,

I assume its the only way to get customer accounts, not in a future catalog release?

That is correct, you must buy Business if you want customer accounts. There are no plans to implement customer accounts into Catalog in the future.

the upgrade is expensive , I assumed it would be the difference between catalog and business but it is not.

When you upgrade you are basically trading in your Catalog for Business, so you are getting half the cost back from your Catalog software, which comes off the price of the Business software. As well as the customer accounts which allows you to set up customer-specific store content and discounts, the Business software also come with the ability for:

- Quantity Dependent Pricing
- Dynamic linking to external databases and spreadsheets
- Searching on custom properties
- Integration with Sage Line 50 or Quickbooks via Actinic Link

[fleetwood]

I'm in the same position as George and Sigma.

I think Catalog is a great value package, but can't justify the upgrade price to Business.

I can see the advantage of the additional features offered within Business, but why such a big price difference between the two?

Its the same when it comes to the price of annual support. Whilst the cost has come down recently, its still not far off the cost of buying the software anew each year.

Be intetesting to see how many of us in this forum would upgrade if the price differentials and annual support fees were lower.

[Sigma]

Thanks for the comments. It looks as if several people are in the same boat.

When you consider how much Actinc Catalog does and it costs £379, why does actinic Business cost so much more when there are only a small number of extra features. Also normally when you upgrade from a product to the better version, you pay the difference in the prices. It shouldn't be the equivalent of trading-in Catalog to buy Business.

I wonder if Actinic will listen to these comments - they would sell so many more versions of Business if they were to take heed.

Sigma

[cbarling]

Thanks Sigma, we do listen carefully to comments on the forum and they are an important input into our decision making process. At the same time, we can't automatically implement everything that's asked for, as we are a commercial company that has to make a profit to still be around next year, which I'm sure everybody wants. If we only sold Catalog, we wouldn't be profitable, so the other products are vital.

Our overall strategy is to try to continuously add value to our product range, and I'm aware that some people feel that the step from Catalog to Business is too much for what you get. We do have some plans to address this by making Business a more compelling proposition. Watch this space.

On the pricing of Actinic Cover, you get both phone support and major upgrades. What it ensures is that when someone upgrades, they automatically have phone support available. As you probably know, it's hard to provide phone based support options at this sort of price point.

Chris
Actinic

[george]

I'm sure that I speak for many others here when I say that existing users tend to highly recommend Actinic to others so it all helps to promote Catalog in a positive manner.

I have cover, although I don't thinks theres that many topics not covered by this blossoming and irreplacable forum. Actinic staff and other 'net professionals provide an excellent service on here.(Well Done Folks!) This forum probably saves Actinic hundred's of phone calls.

Maybe a `part upgrade` could be a way forward, just adding the bits that you need, just as Jan does at Mole-End. At the moment the customer accounts bit is all I need from Business, if would be better to get that sold to me rather than a non sale of Business if you know what I mean.

Do I win the free upgrade?

[Phil Rothwell]

Hi there,

I would also add to Chris' points that we do try to be reasonable.

If you purchased the software for your customer recently and are stuck between a "rock and a hard place", then we may be able to help.

I recommend you call Actinic sales on 0845-1294800.

[djferros]

i bought actinic business for the following reasons:

a) V6 - qty dependent pricing - which i then realised i had to create hundreds and hundereds of hidden products for it to actually work properly. too time consuming.

b) V7 - then I upgraded to take advantage of the card surcharges, (which are essential for businesses due to the high volume purchases) to find that that this doesn't work properly either.

Business is too expensive for what it is, but your versions are also quite competitive hence the big gap in prices.
________
SUZUKI GZ SERIES SPECIFICATIONS

[freakmode]

We too would love to upgrade from v6 Catalog to V7 Business purely for the voucher system but the price is just a little too big..

If the gap in price was smaller we would have no issues.

[rubbadubbadoo]

Templates

ON the topic of Business V7, are there any more templates for you to play around with? For me the standard templates in Catalog V6 are a bit boring and without some CSS knowledge it's hard to get the look you want. Personally I have designed our homepage seperate from the shop with links to the shop as I didn't like the templates. I dont know if this is a swear word herebut I think that 's layout is the best around from standard. Are there any free templates which look like this?

Cheers
Alex

[cdicken]

Actinic v7 does come with a few more smart looking themes. Why not download a demonstration copy and take a look.