Equipment Hire Web Software Suggestions
May 19, 2010 5:28 AM Subscribe
Is there a good web-based equipment hire system available, and if not, how would I go about making one?
A friend of mine runs a company that supplies and maintains a large amount of a small variety of objects for a number of repeat customers. They spend a lot of time fielding calls from a small amount of customers who request items for hire between specific dates. They've asked me to look into a web-based system that could free up their time and allow them to generate an invoice.
Intellectually, this seems like a very simple proposition to me. The customer logs in, chooses from an array of objects, chooses the delivery and pick-up date (subject to available stock) and adds it to a shopping cart. Upon checkout, it emails my friend a delivery request. They take payment seperately, not online. The customer will also have an option to log in and extend their booking.
I've looked around the available self-hosted options. The most promising I've found is from itwebexperts.com, but it seems overly complicated, and I can't make the demo do exactly what I want. I would like to avoid an externally hosted solution unless it's extraordinarily cheap.
I've also contemplated creating a custom solution. I've sketched up ways that the data would go into a database, and where it'd need to be verified. The problem is that I'm not a programmer, bar some Wordpress fumbling. I am confident with the front-end development, but I can't get my head around the various web app frameworks that I've tried (mostly Rails and Codeigniter.) Is there a route you'd recommend? Are there any particular freelance hire places that are recommended? His budget is very low, but I'd really like to help him out on this.
A friend of mine runs a company that supplies and maintains a large amount of a small variety of objects for a number of repeat customers. They spend a lot of time fielding calls from a small amount of customers who request items for hire between specific dates. They've asked me to look into a web-based system that could free up their time and allow them to generate an invoice.
Intellectually, this seems like a very simple proposition to me. The customer logs in, chooses from an array of objects, chooses the delivery and pick-up date (subject to available stock) and adds it to a shopping cart. Upon checkout, it emails my friend a delivery request. They take payment seperately, not online. The customer will also have an option to log in and extend their booking.
I've looked around the available self-hosted options. The most promising I've found is from itwebexperts.com, but it seems overly complicated, and I can't make the demo do exactly what I want. I would like to avoid an externally hosted solution unless it's extraordinarily cheap.
I've also contemplated creating a custom solution. I've sketched up ways that the data would go into a database, and where it'd need to be verified. The problem is that I'm not a programmer, bar some Wordpress fumbling. I am confident with the front-end development, but I can't get my head around the various web app frameworks that I've tried (mostly Rails and Codeigniter.) Is there a route you'd recommend? Are there any particular freelance hire places that are recommended? His budget is very low, but I'd really like to help him out on this.
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posted by DarlingBri at 1:58 PM on June 19, 2010