Posted by rasumo on January 14, 2013 at 2:01am
So I am still in shock after reading this Gleaner article: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20130113/business/business2.html - key line being "We have spent US$2 million in acquiring the infrastructure and rolling out the technology."
It's these things that make me wonder if I have no clue about the whole business thing because my conscience wouldn't allow me to screw these people over so badly.
Anyway, it's their money - anyone up for a meet-up this month?
Comments
Just took a look at the site.
Just took a look at the site. I am really interested in seeing what this site does on the backend because its not apparent in the front why it would cost so much.
What could it possible do to
What could it possible do to make it worth US$2mil? The hardest part I can foresee is integration with their inventory management system (or whatever business system) - unless they have some ancient/undocumented back-end systems I don't see that taking more than a few weeks.
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Did some digging, based on
Did some digging, based on the source it seems as if they used this http://www.loadedcommerce.com/index.php to build out the site.
Am I seeing clearly? Does
Am I seeing clearly? Does that say $155 for an annual subscription? If that's the case then they're basically saying the 2mil was spent on design and customization. This is getting even more ridiculous.
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Hmm, I don't cry over those
Hmm,
I don't cry over those things anymore, he probably paid his cousin's friend's business to do it. Big business stays in the "circle". Right now let's just focus on getting closer to that circle.
How does the 23rd sound for a meetup? Anybody have anything they want to present or is this a general meetup?
Maybe they chose to buy
Maybe they chose to buy hardware instead of using a cloud provider? But either way it is still a mystery. Btw I would be interested in a meetup this month.
I recently did a presentation
I did a presentation at work last week on node.js I know drupal has a module for integration http://drupal.org/project/nodejs. So if anyone is interested I could give you guys an intro.
Mobile is hot now so I can do
Mobile is hot now so I can do a presentation on the Services module if people are interested. I'll also demo my new GoSMS module that integrates with smsframework to make adding SMS to Drupal dead simple.
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GREAT!!
Wow I love options :-)
I see advantages for both presentations. Sigismo if you can do your node.js tutorial and show how you can use the drupal module to integrate it that would be my option for the presentation. That way we can advertise to non-drupal devs who have an interest in node.js, but if you cant directly show the integration for the 23rd, I would say to brush it up and have it ready for February.
Then I would love to hear from sumo about the services module, again I would want to advertise it in a way that will attract non-Drupal user eg: setup a REST/XMLRPC server in an hour serving complex queries of data or something to that sound.
So who thinks they'll be more ready for the 23rd? Rock paper scissors?
Ill try to work on a location and projector, etc.
Lets sort this out early so we can start advertising the event ASAP.
Woot woot...the group has a
Woot woot...the group has a pulse. K, if there's a meetup I'll be there. The 23rd sounds good.
sigismo let us know if you
sigismo let us know if you can get the presentation together asap or if you'd like to push yours back to Feb. I think the setup a REST server in 1 hour idea is doable by the 23rd.
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Small Business, Big Ambition!
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I can whip up a rest server
I can whip up a rest server by then. Using mongodb or w/e as persistence.
0.o I thought you were doing
0.o I thought you were doing node.js Do both of you guys want to collaborate and do a REST server presentation?
You can use node.js to create
You can use node.js to create REST servers
oh OK, great! Send me some
oh OK, great! Send me some more details on what you plan to do so I can start an event and start advertising this among my subscribed tech circles.
Hey guys, just in response to
Hey guys,
just in response to the ATL thing.....I actually did a proposal for this very project some 4 years ago....and while it seems totally ridiculous the cost.....it is not inconceivable given what they wanted to do at that time.
On statement rang true....hosted servers was not an option....everything had to be done in house. Chaching Chaching......
They also have major inventory in both the apppliances and part\service departments which is something the wanted to integrate into the site....Now I am not seeing anything that leads me to believe that the services inventory was integrated...only the applicance store stuff seems to be there.....but that by itself is alot of stuff.....
even in light of that though when I quoted on that It still never came up to US$1-million. was more like half that...and most of that had to do with time required to bring in inventory from disparate systems.....you would not believe how their systems are down there....wonder how they still function.
Perhaps we all need to have real discussions on how to price our work...LOL.
A simple RESTful using a
A simple RESTful API using a module called express.js. Maybe Sumo could consume it using Services? I should have an old micro instance on ec2 that I could host it on.
@trevor - In all my years of
@trevor - In all my years of building websites this is the biggest waste of money I've seen to date. I expected that inventory management integration would be difficult but unless their system has not way to export data I don't see why it would take more that a couple weeks. RE in-house hosting - are they living in the stone ages? I could understand if they wanted co-location at Flow but how could they really believe hosting their own site was a viable option?
@sigismo - It's probably best you demo it yourself with Poster (Firefox plugin) as you'll already be hooked up to the projector.
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Small Business, Big Ambition!
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Agreed...that they are or
Agreed...that they are or maybe living in the stone-age...however....If i told you the reason why they wanted to keep things in house you would laugh....wont put it out in this forum. Remind me to tell you when we next talk.
@Sigismo services module is
@Sigismo services module is primarily about publishing and not consuming, I would really like for you to tie node.js in with Drupal in some way since this is a Drupal meetup, especially since it will be the first in quite a while. Do some research and let me know if it is possible for you to come up with something in time for next week.
Any suggestions for a PoC?
Any suggestions for a PoC?
The new online service, which
They probably signed a large service agreement that included shipping.
There are lots of things a service provider can assist with beyond building the website for an ecommerce business.
They could handle all customer service, returns, warehousing, payment processing, etc. There could be dozens of employees' salaries in these figures.
Beat me to saying this. They
Beat me to saying this. They also could have factored in wages for full-time employees that helped manage the deployment, or flat out lied since it's a non-reporting company and in Jamaica they may not have any requirements to report real numbers since investors may/may not have to be accredited.
I am shocked however that someone can say they deployed a website for an obscene amount of money and boast about it...whatever happened to lean profitability?
ATL is a well established
ATL is a well established retail company that already has warehouses etc so I doubt the provider could offer better fulfilment and return services than they could do internally. The fact that they article says
also indicates that fulfilment will be managed by ATL.
Payment processing is only available from two providers in Jamaica so that is definitely not a service the stated development company provided (integration yes). The fact the Keycard is supported means it's definitely one of the two.
There are undoubtedly many things that could be added to the cost to bring it to that figure but given the features I see on the site and knowing the current possibilities in Jamaica I'm pretty certain they were either ripped off or they're lying.
--
Small Business, Big Ambition!
Web Design by Sumo Systems
1-876-622-3600