Re: Manual for Edwards System3 ??

["Robert L Bass" <Sales@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Frank Olson" wrote:
>
> The only "difference" involves a few screen shot
> captures and some creative writing.

If you don't know how to do a proper help system, that would seem correct.

> Many years ago I purchased a product called WordPerfect, but decided to
> switch to MS Office
> because it seemed to be "the standard".

I've had both.  Owning either one won't make you an author just as owning
Photshop won't make you an artist and owning RoboHelp won't make you a help
system author.  Anyone can pick up a crayon and draw stick figures.  Drawing a
creative pastel portrait takes skill, understanding and work.

I've seen the stuff Leuck worked on.  He's no help system designer.

> Drupal also includes several templates but what
> makes it "better" is the ability to do your own
> coding and bounce ideas off a community involved
> in customizing the software for your own use.

The same is true of X-Cart, which I've chosen to use for our new sites.  It's
open source.  You get some templates with it.  The company will develop custom
templates and even modify the software for you if you like.  They're doing
both of those things to accomodate our needs.  But you can also write your own
templates and we will be doing lots of that.

I have a few special layouts I use with Searchfit.  One displays a main
product -- such as a FACP -- and several groups of related products with
paragraphs above each group to explain what they do, how they differ and which
are compatible with each other.  These templates make it easy for a client to
order a complete commervial fire alarm system by checking a few boxes,
selecting quantities and hitting "Buy Now" once for the entire project.  This
allows a client to quickly compare the cost of similar systems from several
manufacturers.

Another template I designed using SF displays long lists of similar
products -- such as cable -- in tabular format.  The client can scroll down to
aa Guage, then bb conductors, cc feet putup, dd color and ee (carton, reel,
whatever).  This makes it simple to select from some 900 different cable
selections.  I use the same system to select DVRs and several other types of
products.

I originally planned to develop my own templates for thes under X-Cart, but
chemo side effects make it hard to keep to a reasonable schedule.  After I
stop the chemo (hopefully for good this time) I'll be able to work on a number
of other things I need to do.

None of this is all that creative.  Many sites have similar features.  The fun
part is learning to use the features of the system to massage the pages into
what I want them to look like.  Unlike programming and help development, most
of this is drone work, but it's still fun to learn new things.  I also have to
learn PHP so I'll be off to the bookstore once I get over the next infusion
[ this week :( ].

> "Open source" is definitely the way to go.

I couldn't agree more.  That's another reason we're moving away from SF.
Their system is terrific -- ver powerful and unbelievably feature-rich.  The
problem is you can't get the source code and the monthly fees are very high.
Until recently my monthly charges were well into five-figures.  The basic fees
for SF are very reasonable.  With over 300,000 pages using a group of
dedicated machines to run searches plus another dedicated machine running the
sites, deep linking service to help with search returns, etc., the cost gets
way up there.

> I imagine you do.  The orginal site was a "kludge" (no offence).

It never was what I wanted.  Since switching to SF I was ablt to devote my
efforts to making the page layouts effective and getting the content right.  I
didn't have to spend numerous hours every week just trying to keep the
machines running.  If you've ever worked with a Windows server you know what a
PITA that is.

> Since you started using "searchfit", it's cleaned up nicely.
> It's definitely no alarmsystemstore...

Thank goodness not.

> but I think your "market" is geared more toward the HA
> guys (and most of them know how to run wire, etc.).

My market is pretty diverse.  Clients include a fair number of HA guys.  I
also do business with every branch of the military, the State Department and
numerous state and federal agencies.  I sell cameras to LANL and Oak Ridge.
Industrial clients include all of the major aircraft builders, most of whom
buy fire alarms from us though some also order CCTV gear.

One of the strangest customers is a foreign (Eastern European) government
that's on friendly terms with our own.  About once every two or three years
they order 10 or 20 FBII panels, as many keypads and a bunch of magnetic
contacts to protect their consulates in various countries.  They won't
consider any of the more modern panels from other manufacturers.  They know
FBII and that's all they want.  OK.  :^)

That said, residential customers are still our bread and butter.  The majority
of them are doing their very first installation when they call.  They all ask
the same questions -- what system do you recommend and what do I need to put
it all together?  I've been working on pages to make selecting the associated
components easy but with so many options from which to choose (our sites have
over 300 manufacturers), they almost always want halp making the choice.
That's good for me because I can spend 20 minutes with a person and gain his
patronage just by helping him compare prices and explaining what works with
what.  I always offer help programming the alarm which I believe clinches the
sale much of the time.

--

Regards,
Robert L Bass

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