need recommendations for programming & e-commerce

[eunice]

OK.[nbsp][nbsp]Here's what I need.[nbsp][nbsp]I need someone to give me some solid recommendations as to how best to get a reservation system in place for a large travel company, including online payments.[nbsp][nbsp]

I do NOT want to do the programming myself.[nbsp][nbsp]I can design the forms and organize the system but it's the internal workings that I am going to need to contract out to someone smart and reliable.[nbsp][nbsp]I anticipate starting with a fairly simple e-mail return form but eventually anticipate construction of a fairly sizable database.

I also want to find a really good, not too expensive, company that can handle online payments - like the one futurequest uses or used.

There will be some sort of budget for this but before I know what it is I need to know what to ask for.

Please, any of you folks out there that either do this sort of contract work or have a recommendation for me, I'd love to hear it.

Thanks
------------------
--Laurie

[Rich]

eunice:

From the information you listed, I see two types of projects that may need to be tackled separately: (1) An online order process for purchasing specific travel packages/tickets, and (2) the online reservation application.

The first item can be reduced to a simple e-commerce solution using tools like a shopping cart, etc., as long as the packages and tickets are pre-determined (meaning the carrier, price, departure and arrival dates, etc., etc. have already been determined and do not need to be specified by the customer).

If all these details are not pre-packaged then you are right back to the reservation application as you will need to determine availability before conducting the credit card transaction (you cannot process a credit card transaction for a product you cannot promise delivery for.)

Online reservation systems (especially if for a "large" travel agency) are some of the most complex applications. If your client "rolls their own" solution to this, you should expect to invest in a few dedicated servers and a few hundred thousand dollars for development plus a full-time database administrator. The better approach for this would be to search out vendors of pre-written reservation system applications. Taking this route you should still expect the price tag for these applications to be in the $200k-$500k category (maybe more...plus maintenance, support, etc.).

Rich

[Stephen]

my guess is that by this stage laurie has passed out.

the reality of custom CGI programming is that it is both time-consuming and very challenging for all but the simplest applications. i don't know what the state of the art regarding reservation scripts is currently, but if you consider hiring someone to do contract work you can probably save yourself quite some money by entering into an arrangement with a programmer who retains copyright of the scripts developed. that way they can turn around and sell them to other companies to recoup their investment in your project. Instead of $200K you might get away with $50K, or, if they consider the project highly repackageable, even as low as $20K. plan on at least six-months development time if the programmer is starting from scratch.

if you're serious about finding someone, you should give a couple of specific examples of sites that use the kind of reservation system you're thinking about. only then can the size of the job be gauged...

Stephen

[eunice]

Passed out?[nbsp][nbsp]Try dropped dead!

But thanks...
------------------
--Laurie

[imchat]

The really big thing here is not the programming, but the access to the database. The programming can't be done without this.


------------------
Mark P
Perl/CGI Development

[Stephen]

The really big thing here is not the access to the database, but the programming. Accessing data is pointless unless your software is smart enough to know what to do with it.

:þ

[sumengen]

Try http://ants.com to find a programmer. I heard many success stories.

------------------
*****************
Baris Sumengen
*****************

[eunice]

Thanks![nbsp][nbsp]I'm sorting it all out.