Internet database software

Although 'Internet database' might seem to be a contradiction in terms, you may be surpised how many Internet sites are actually driven by a database. Obvious examples are sites like eBay and Yell.com, however virtually every content managed web site you come across will have its text and structure stored in a database, and even sites like Twitter, Facebook and Google are based on complex, highly optimised databases behind the scenes.

All Samarind's content managed sites are database driven - take a look at our client portfolio for some examples. However many of the sites we've developed go much further than this and link directly to our customer's back-office database in order to enhance and extend the service they provide to their customers.

An example

This is an outline of an database-driven website we've developed recently. This is one that is fully integrated with our customer's back end database and associated Windows application and accounts system.

The public facing site has over 200 pages of professionally-written SEO-friendly content, all stored in the content management system (Samarind CMS).
Visitors to the site can fill in either a simple or detailed enquiry form, and ask to be called back. They don't have to enter their full address manually because the web site has full postcode lookup facilities. If they opt for the detailed enquiry form they are automatically provided with a logon to the secure section of the web site so that they can complete the form at their leisure. They can also upload photos and other documents to the web site.
When the enquiry form is saved, it goes immediately into the main database. (In actual fact the business can see part-completed forms too.) The photos and other documents are also stored in the database.
As soon as it's in the database the new lead pops up on the screens of the Windows application users. New leads are highlighted and sorted according to how quickly each potential customer wants to be called back.
The Windows application user deals with the enquiry and if appropriate marks it to be referred to one of their external partners. Doing this automatically sends an email to the partner concerned, telling them that there's a new lead available. Depending on the business arrangement that our client has with the partner this may also generate an invoice, again automatically, and email it to the partner's accounts contact.
The partner can then log onto the secure 'partner portal' area of the web site, view his or her outstanding leads and decide how to action them.
If the partner forgets to process his outstanding leads the system sends him or her a reminder emails every three days.
Once each day all the invoices that have been generated are automatically posted to Sage so that our client's finance team can take over the credit control and VAT processing etc.
New leads can also come in from our client's out-of-hours call centre. These too are brought automatically into the database and appear on the Windows users' screens when they get in the next day.
The web site has full visitor tracking built in so that our client can monitor the performance of his web site compared to how many leads actually come to fruitition.

The whole system has been designed to eliminate duplication of effort and to completely streamline our client's business processes from end to end. This is enabling him to grow his business quickly and efficiently without having to take on additional admin staff, and his partners are impressed with the speed and efficiency of his operation.

Would you like a fully integrated web database like this? Why not contact us now for a free, no-obligation software consultation..