People who prefer filling in questionnaires to grappling with HTML may find happiness with OrderPoint 3.0, a software package for creating web-based order-processing systems from Canadian vendor Speedware Corp. The product provides a means to get a web commerce application up and running with a minimum of technical knowledge. By checking boxes and filling in forms in the OrderPoint system’s browser-hosted administration tool, a web site can be created which will allow customers to browse stock and submit orders. Security facilities include password-only entry, and support for SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) and SHTTP (Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol). The product is also designed to accommodate credit card payment. Lori Ellsworth, Speedware’s Director of Marketing and Business Development for Internet Applications, comments that the product is specifically tailored to meet the needs of suppliers and distributors in the high- technology and computing sector, and is intended primarily for business-to-business transactions, rather than business-to- consumer sales. Ellsworth admits that earlier versions of OrderPoint had suffered from having too broad a scope. With version 3.0 we’ve tightened our focus and stopped trying to be all things to all people, Ellsworth says. The product runs under Windows NT, AIX, HP-UX and Solaris, and applications can be drafted under Windows 95. Prices range between $20,000 and $30,000. Facilities are included for importing customer and stock records from databases including those from Oracle, Sybase and Informix, while incoming orders can be exported in flat-file format. The company adds that the OrderPoint software was built using its own Autobahn internet development tool, and that customers can use that tool to customize the basic OrderPoint product if necessary.
