All-In-One Solution for Online AND B&M retailer - Quickbooks / NetSuite?
I'm currently managing the IT side of life for the company I work for, and we're about to make a huge transition from strictly online sales to a brick-and-mortar operation, with the possibility of multiple stores down the road. Currently we use NetSuite to handle our accounting, but with no integration to our online sales. Here's what I plan to make possible...
- A single database structure (we currently have a SQL databse in place with customer, product, and transaction/sales/reporting info). I'd like to keep or have all of this information including inventory and product management in one place, preferable where our SQL server is now (open to suggestions).
- A single integration of accounting, inventory, tracking, customer, etc. (basically our entire database as described above) integrated into our website, to create a primary structure for all things related, such as the following...
- Multiple POS systems tailored for retail spaces (we sell furniture, clothing, housewares, books, cds, etc.). These POS systems will need to be tied into our central database and work as one, so each store location and each POS station will be updated automatically or regularly as they're used. We'd like for any employee to be able to access the same updated information at any time and be able to create, modify or append to it as well. Account administration or user priveleges might come into play here.
- Also, online integration into the primary structure such that our admin features of our website will be tied into the inventory, accounting, product and customer mgmt system (which everyone will have access to - people using the POS, and the people using our online administration tools). Currently I do most coding for our site in Coldfusion and Javascript, although that may not matter when creating a relationship to the POS software.
- And finally, have everything tie in to the accounting aspect, so we can make daily reports as needed on sales, product, and customer tracking/analysis.
Two major factors that will ultimately make or break our decision - cost and flexibility. All things considered, the majority of our budget will most likely be put into building the store and stocking the inventory, so I'm not looking to break the bank just to have a system that works correctly. Speaking of which, having everything work correctly is going to be key. In other words, it won't make much sense to spend timeless hours doing research and development just to customize a solution that may already exist. We're absolutley okay with switching from NetSuite, especially after all the headaches. Not to mention it's important for us to always have a live running system, without worrying about the internet going down, and not selling in-store because there's connection problems or other related issues with 3rd party software/hardware.
Here's my big question - what on earth is going to achieve this, and how easy will it be to implement? I have to consider all parties involved (eg. sales reps, customer support, web users, product suppliers, admin people, and of course myself). I also need something easy to setup with a relatively quick learning curve. My goal is to have something user intuitive, that can grow painlessly with future expansion. From what I've gathered online, and from my own experience, it seems as though a solution like Quickbooks, with their online and POS store functionality might serve us best, since all aspects can be covered under one vendor, with integration part of their offerings. NetSuite, on the other hand, seems to be way too expensive, has a very steep learning curve, and must be customized or tailored to death to make all this happen. Anyone feel free to correct me on this. My understanding of NetSuite is slow performance, network downtime, and very little integration with brick-and-mortar operations. My projected timeframe is to hopefully have this squared away by the end of May, so I'll have a month to work out any kinks.
Any help or advice would be sincerely appreciated. Even better if you are experienced with similar projects. Please, I'm not interested in reading any more about what Joe's small firm from Idaho might offer me. I need an extremely professional, stable, and carefully considered solution, so I only have to make the right choice once. Thanks for reading this, I hope to hear from you soon! =)
