Stone Edge And M.o.m Input

[venusrising]

:D Hello-
looking into one of these products to buy does anyone have any input? I would like to also be able to run my MIVA store , take phone and catalog orders (maybe integrate our Ebay store too) plus generate POS etc to our vendors and keep track of our customers buying patterns etc. From what I have read due to the open source nature of SE one could have custom mods created in the future. We are looking for something that can grow with us. If there is any other products to consider we would love to hear about them. The one downside of SE is not available trial they said but MOM does have one for $25.00 hard to drop that kind of cash with no trial available.

Thanks as always

Shannon
VRL

[erichar11]

Re: Stoneedge, its kind of a leep of faith thing. We purchased SE a couple of months ago and couldn't be happpier. We have a miva store as well as an interface to Amazon to grab our orders via SE. It's very customizable with a little knowledge of Access and how SE works. The folks at SE are very helpful as well. We've called them on numerous occasions to tweak things just the way we want.

The one thing I wish they had was some sort of web interface or an on demand service where we would run SE from any location. Right now we use gotomypc to access the computer where SE resides. Works well, but I really wouldn't mind a web interface.

[Barney Stone]

Shannon -

We do not have a trial version of the Stone Edge Order Manager (it is not practical to try to create a limited or crippled version of an open source code program), but remember that we do have a 30-day return policy, so you can return it within 30 days for a full refund if it does not work out for you.

[Joseph Fantozzi]

Hello Shannon,
My name is Joe Fantozzi a Sr. Account Rep at Dydacomp. If you would like to test drive some of the following M.O.M. features please give me a call and I will gladly send you our trial kit for free.

M.O.M. Working Trial Kit

Test-drive the most popular Mail Order Manager features and options with this complete working trial edition. Installs as many times as you need so you and your entire team can conduct separate M.O.M. evaluations. Includes actual User Reference Guide for M.O.M. software and a User Learning Guide that walks you through helpful exercises for some of M.O.M's most powerful processes, including:

- Customer Management
- Order Entry
- Order Processing and Fulfillment
- Web Commerce
-Inventory Management
-Purchasing and Receiving
-Accounting
-Point of Sale
-List Management and Mailing
-Special Modules
-and Much, Much More...

Also, you may like to see the press release which discusses the totally automated bi-directional direct feed between Mail Order Manager and your Miva web store.

http://www.internetretailer.com/pres...l.asp?id=19811

Joe

[Barney Stone]

Hey, Joe, welcome to the Miva Forum. Have you recovered from San Diego yet?

One objection to the press release you are linking to: it says that your company introduced "the first and only bi-directional interface with e-commerce application MIVA Merchant." We've been shipping the Stone Edge Order Manager for Miva Merchant for over 4 years now, including sending real-time inventory updates and tracking and order status data back to Miva, and there are a couple of other companies that have been offering competing products for the last two or three years, so you are neither the first nor the only one to offer those features. You should tell whoever writes your press releases that they should do a little research before making claims like that.

[Joseph Fantozzi]

Yes, I'm back and feeling good. Just to clear up the last press release, this is "MOM's" first bidirectional interface with MIVA. (At least that's the way it reads to me, but I'm just an account rep :) As you are aware from attending the Dydacomp seminar, M.O.M. used to simply import MIVA orders up until now.

Now, M.O.M. manages all product details, images, descriptions, categories and much more for MIVA merchants right within Mail Order Manager. MOM also imports orders and uploads customer service details without any third party interfaces or expenses.

It's all built-in and completely automated for MIVA users. All of the above mentioned processes are scheduled. There's no manual intervention required to upload or download. It’s always running and doesn’t require any 3rd party applications.

Hope this helps you and others in the MIVA community. See you next time at the craps table.

Joe

[smallfri]

Hi, I was just crusing post and stumbled upon this one. Can someone tell me what would be the difference between Stone Edge, and this new version of MOM?

Thank you in advance.

Russell

[jason - jmh web services]

Yes, I'm back and feeling good. Just to clear up the last press release, this is "MOM's" first bidirectional interface with MIVA. (At least that's the way it reads to me, but I'm just an account rep :) As you are aware from attending the Dydacomp seminar, M.O.M. used to simply import MIVA orders up until now.

Joe

Hi Joe,

For what its worth, I see the same thing as Barney. The press release clearly makes claims that make me say "huh? that isn't true!".

[e-Tail Coach]

I purchased Stone Edge last year and I know that it receives and sends information to my Miva site. Inventory information is in real time so when I receive product in (purchase order) it updates my Miva store inventory. It also receives and sends information to my Blackthorne (eBay listing) software; however, it does not send inventory information back to Blackthorne.

I looked at both Stone Edge and M.O.M. when I was making my order management software decision. What it came down to me was price and emphasis of features. M.O.M has a huge eMail campaign component and I did not what to send my customers unsolicited eMail so that was not a feature that I would use. Stone Edge was about 1/3 of the cost -- but it is not as fancy and might take a little more time to set-up. It works great for me!

I suggest my clients make a list of what they want and need their Order Management software to do. Then call both of these companies and ask them how their software will handle these tasks. Then ask the price -- sometimes saving a few dollars is not wise thing to do. For me Stone Edge was the best fit for my site. By the way, I estimate that Stone Edge saves me one full time employee!


List Suggestions:

Print invoices
Print packing lists
Integrate inventory between different selling channels
QuickBooks integration
Reports -- accounting, selling, inventory, special custom reports
Shipping integration with USPS, UPS, FedEx, etc
Point of Sale (for retail sites)
Manual Phone orders
Security features
Customer Records
Package Tracking
Handle multiple stores
Email campaigns


Candy Blakeslee, eCommerce Coach
www.BestFriendsGeneralStore.com
www.eTailCoach.com

[Joseph Fantozzi]

Hello Russell,

Lots of differnces between MOM and the many other apps available for MIVA. Be happy to to schedule an online demonstration for you when you have a chance.

JF

[Joseph Fantozzi]

Hey Jason,

Be happy to schedule some online time with you when you have a chance to learn more about the new MOM features. I can walk you through the differences between Mail Order Manager and any others you may already be familiar with.

Joe

[tbogus]

When we were searching for CRM software, we looked into MOM and Stone Edge. In the end, we've been very happy with choosing Stone Edge. We've had good communication the staff at Stone Edge to work on things that we needed that aren't in the 'out of the box' version of OM. We've been pleased with the vast detail that Stone Edge provides and allows us to manage our orders and manual (phone) sales effectively.

Tim.

[LeeAmon]

Hi -

I recently installed Stone Edge - Here's My experience with it:

Background - We have a fairly small store - 300-400 items. We get bursts of up to 20 orders a day, but usual average is more like 5. Right now, it's me, my wife, and one part time worker.

Even at that level, we were finding the manual record keeping cumbersome, especially when we had a rush. So we purchased Stone Edge.

On September 14th, I unpacked a new computer, downloaded the software and installed it. Initially, we had a small glitch dowloading orders from Miva, which Stone Edge tech support quickly fixed. (Anyone wants the technical details, send me a PM) On Tuesday, we went live. Downloaded orders, printed invoices, and captured credit card charges, all out of Stone Edge.

Since then, we have added reports, and made small customizations to the invoices.

We have had some small glitches, mostly caused by stuff I did, and Stone Edge tech support has been nothing short of spectacular (and I do tend to piush the envelope on tech support, just ask Luray or Vic)

We have since added downloads from our Altura (shop.com) store.

We are not yet fully exploiting the power of Stone Edge. We haven't turned on inventory yet. (We need to load up all the data first, and we may not get there till January) BUT - I can unequivocally say that the Stone Edge installation has been a major success, and even at this level was worth it.