Proprietary system for website

*Proprietary system for website CMS, CRM, Estimating (tendering), order tracking / job ticketing and accounts (Purchase orders, sales & purchase invoicing).  Is there a system that does this?  I have recently been evaluating our companies procedures and looking at ways to improve and streamline our processes. There are lots of solutions (not necessarily FileMaker) that provide some of the above but I have seen anything that ties it all in together. In a perfect world the system I imagine would provide:

• CMS website - integrated with google analytics

• CRM - tied in with the analytics as above with the ability to extract customers details for email & direct mail campaigns.

eMail campaigns for fundraising, event registration etc.

• Estimating - We are print management Co so tender each project to a select few suppliers. This would ideally have the ability to run reports such as a conversion rate for a particular client / supplier.

• Job ticketing - book in successful estimates.

• Purchase orders - raise purchase orders that tie in with job ticket to send to suppliers.

• Other accounts requirements - It would be nice if the system had full accountability or tied in with an accounts package.
See: http://my.advisor.com/doc/RYLEG04

• All the above would need to be available online using FileMaker or a browser.

Are there any existing Filemaker (or other) solutions that provide this (or close).

If not what would a realistic budget be for a bespoke solution?
Francis Grogan grgprint Management Ltd Tel: 0113 383 3888  Email: francis@grgprint.com

*Francis Grogan Director at grgprint management:  In case it's not obvious it would also need to integrate a client and supplier database and have individual log ins for different users (users being employees).

Daniel Shanahan Database and Web Developer at New Leaf Data:

Can you say more about the CMS website portion? There are many available - Joomla!, Drupal, WordPress, etc. What is it you want to do with a web Content Management System?

Likewise, I'm curious what you have in mind for a CRM - what exactly do you want from it? Estimating and Invoicing (along with client management) can be done in FileMaker.

Job ticketing as well, though it depends what you want.

There are several web-based project management systems that allow clients to view the progress of jobs and submit tickets. I can send you a sample FMP database that I built for client management (invoices, payments, projects, etc.).

Contact me if you would like to see it.

Stephen Dolenski Certified FileMaker Developer: Another option is Expression Engine.

Mark Lemm Owner, Lemm Tech Enterprises and Computer Software Consultant:

I have built most of this sort of this (except for the web piece. Not sure why you need that exactly) for a client using fileMaker 9. It's feeds data directly into QuickBooks Pro Enterprise on the back end for accounting purposes.

You can definitely build something like this in FileMaker but you are in the 30 to 50k range USD for this sort of project. FileMaker is one of the few platforms that can tie everything together with a single technology versus using multiple web based technologies and a separate back end database to do the same thing. How many users are we talking here? -Mark

Jonn Howell President at DataExperience, Inc. and Owner, DataExperience, Inc.: Call this man. He is such a system professionally developed for FileMaker 11.  

Allen Imbarrato President, Ki Systems, Inc. 

800-946-2854 

http://www.kibizsystems.com

Skype: allenimb

Francis Grogan Director at grgprint management: Thanks to all for the responses so far. 

I'll try and address some of the queries...  First a bit more background to the company: We used to be print manufacturers, but are now a broker which means we are more service orientated. We deliver savings to buyers of print by using our network os print providers, each of which have their strengths and weaknesses and all of which offer us trade discounts for the volume of work we send to them. We in turn can apply a small markup and 'earn our crust' so to speak. The company is only a three man operation at this time so we are not a big concern.  On each estimate request from a client we compile the specification and enter this in our estimating system, choose 2-4 suppliers (from the suppliers list) who are the most suitable for the job and send them our price requests. All the prices are entered into our system, the best option chosen "for use" and a percentage markup applied before this quote is sent to the client.

The client then gives the instruction to proceed at which point we will mark the estimate as "won" and create a job ticket from the estimate details. From the job ticket we will raise a PO and send this to the supplier. 

The job will be produced and delivered and we will send a sales invoice. The CMS & CRM function is to help bring the company inline with modern technological sales and marketing techniques. 

We'd like to be able to update our website content, add special offers, capture the details of visitors, track their behavior on the site and utilise those contact details to follow up leads with emails, sms and direct mail marketing techniques. 

These campaigns and contact attempts would be tracked within the CRM and those details tied in against the customers account within the management side of the software. 

We would also like the ability to extend the website to using a shopping cart function. If the best way to run the accounts side is to plug it in to a existing package such as quick books or sage that wouldn't be a problem so long as it worked well. As for hardware I have two Linux servers here both running Red Hat that could be used or we could look at a hosting solution. 

Downside:  From some of the indicative costs I have received it would appear my idea's were a bit pie in the sky. I have no idea in what would be involved in starting this from scratch but had hoped that someone might have written something similar that they might adapt to our needs. 

As a small company our budget would no where near stretch to the £30k plus figure mentioned. £5k would be at the top end of our budget if we could get a solution to fit all our needs.

*Mark Lemm Owner, Lemm Tech Enterprises and Computer Software Consultant: 

Thank you for providing more details about your situation. Yes in my opinion you are dreaming but you may be able to find a prebuilt solution for a low price and then customize it yourself. At $100/hr for programming (just using that as a guide) $5K is just over a week of work and I don't think someone could adapt an prebuilt solution much less built one from scratch for you in just over a week. 

You could start slowly and over time built up your system with all the features you want to spread out the cost. I still think FileMaker is a good platform to go with because it can to pretty much everything you want but it sounds like you want a top of the line system (which is fine) but my not be realistic for a firm your size.

*Daniel Shanahan  Database and Web Developer at New Leaf Data: I agree with Mark. It may be beneficial to think of your "system" in phases. What do you need first? What can you live without for now? Also, it may be helpful to consider the value a particular phase might have. For example, say that the first phase needs to organize the data of print providers and print buyers with some CRM functionality (e.g. a dashboard showing who to call this week, tasks to do, etc.). What is the value of such a phase? When it is implemented, how efficient will your three person team be? Will this efficiency increase your revenue? This may help put the £30k in perspective.