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Unique Appeal Site Features
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- Comprehensive search
- E-procurement add-ons
- Ability to let clients configure their own mini catalogues
- Ability to let clients configure their own regular order pads
- Ability to let clients schedule regular call off deliveries from one order
- Quotation request feature
- Integrated messaging system for key business account customers and their account managers
- Back ordering and stock notifications
- Maximum accessibility including total functionality for all 800x600 browser users
- RSS news feeds
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Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
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- All Pages were designed to be search engine friendly, avoiding techniques that cause search engine crawl problems and adopting best practice
- With the number of products offered by Rapid all pages have been coded to automatically populate the keywords, description, etc based on the contents of the page, this includes category and section pages as well as product pages
- For optimum visibility in search engines the solution includes the generation of XML sitemaps and also feeds for product comparison sites such as Froogle. This enables potential customers looking for a specific product on a search engine to obtain a link directly into the relevant page of Rapid’s site
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Design
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Netalogue were not contracted to provide web design and creative services for this web site but were contracted to advise as consultants and developed all web design ideas provided by Rapid. The main reason for selecting the final design was that it offered maximum flexibility for varying the site’s home page content which is frequently updated by Rapid’s marketing department.
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Hosting
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- With an established web customer base we analysed existing levels of traffic to Rapid’s previous web site to determine the level of dedicated bandwidth needed. By calculating the average weight of each page on their previous site and comparing that to the equivalent replacement page we were able to accurately determine their data requirements before going live. With the purpose of the new site being to increase the level of web sales we also incorporated additional spare capacity to cater for the expected growth in demand. Within two months of launching the new site demand had grown by 25%
- With Netalogue’s servers located on the internet backbone we can quickly add additional capacity as and when it is required, this had proved extremely beneficial in keeping abreast of the continued growth in web sales
- With the requirement for guaranteed, dedicated bandwidth, peak performance and extremely high levels of availability the Rapid solution runs off dedicated web and database servers at Netalogue’s London hosting facility which were configured, installed and monitored by Netalogue’s in house hosting experts
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Accessibility
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- Cross browser
- Text only
- Variable text size
- WAI-AA
- Access keys and skip links
- 800 x 600 browser compatible (with zero loss of features)
- Dynamically expanding for larger browsing settings
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After Sales Support
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- In a fast moving sector with rapidly changing challenges it was important for Rapid to have total confidence in the support offered by their web site provider
- Rapid have direct access to their dedicated account manager as well as direct telephone, email and extranet access to the programmers and technical support personnel at Netalogue, around the clock
- With an average response time of 4 minutes Rapid have been able to rest assured that any technical issue is dealt with in the fastest possible time
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Payment
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- Credit/Debit card for new customers
- Immediate online authorisation of cards with hand over to back office systems
- Cards debited on completion of warehouse picking process
- Account facility for existing customers
- Customers’ account balances and account status’s are checked live before accepting order
- Order is injected into back office systems for automatic processing
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Maintenance
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- The internet is a fast moving and continually changing environment in which to trade, with Rapid being a leader in their field it is essential that they keep ahead of the competition and make sure their site has the very latest facilities and functions
- In conjunction with Rapid, Netalogue hold regular review meeting to discuss any new features or trends that are emerging to determine if they are of benefit to Rapid and their customer base
- Any new desirable features are quickly implemented in a secure development area for trial and testing before being release to the live server
- Updates to the site are performed seamlessly, usually out of hours with absolutely no downtime to the site and no inconvenience to Rapid’s customers
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Integration Challenges
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- Like most companies that produce a catalogue Rapid operate two discrete back office systems, one for processing sales, managing stock and accounts and another system for product content management that generates the catalogue
- It was essential that the content for the website was derived from the same catalogue content management system that was used to create the hardcopy catalogue to allow new products and product amendments to immediately appear on the web without manual intervention
- Integration processes were formulated by Netalogue to take the catalogue content from Rapid’s internal servers onto Rapid’s dedicated web database server, any new products or amendments being visible on the web server in less than an hour of entry
- The back office system for sales and inventory control facilitated real time integration, Netalogue developed a custom library of routines that queried Rapid’s back office system to obtain immediate live stock levels, account status’s, specific contract prices, lead times, etc..
- All web order are automatically entered into the sales ledger for automatic picking and packing through the real time integration link
- The web integrates with Rapid’s debit/credit card clearing provider (Commidea) to authorise online transactions before accepting the order, this information is then passed on to their sales order processing system, the card is then debited only when all the goods have been picked, packed and dispatched
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