Business Customer and Order System - Creating from scratch

[Desmo]

This is something I've always wanted to get up and running here at work, but we've never had the money to be able to buy something in.

What we need is actually fairly simple. A customer database that holds, business name, address, tel numbers, etc. We also then need a jobs database that holds specific job information on product type, amount, colour, etc. I then need to be able to link jobs to customers.

We don't really need anything overly complicated but I really don't know where to start. I'd like to use a mysql backend with a web front end. I'm happy using Dreamweaver so I can customise the front end to what we want, but how easily can I get the database up and running? Can I add form fields in DW and allow it to take care of sorting the database? (after some initial setup obviously).

I don't know if it's something I could teach myself, or if I'm biting off more than I can chew or even living in cloud cuckoo land in thinking that it's possible for me to do this way. Are there any examples out there I can take a look at or use as a starting point?

[Daz]

Have you thought about an open source CRM? Even as a starting point, least you wont be reinventing the wheel.

SugaCRM (http://www.sugarcrm.com/crm/community/sugarcrm-community.html) springs to mind :)

[edit]Others (http://www.insidecrm.com/features/top-open-source-solutions-121307/).

[Mark]

I'm a code monkey myself so I have no idea what DreamWeaver can and can't do. Pretty easy to knock together the database code in PHP though.

[Desmo]

I've SugarCRM before Daz. It's very good at what it does, but seems overly complicated for what we need and it focuses more on customer relationships rather than order processing.

[Matblack]

You have some great resources here Jamie, if Mark says it can be done I'm sure it can and people will pitch in and help with what knowhow they have :)

Wish I had some expertise which was of use to you :o...... I can do careers advice, hugs and making a mess.

MB

[Fayshun]

Wish I had some expertise which was of use to you :o...... I can do careers advice, hugs and making a mess.
And I can lock you up, apply handcuffs and make pissweak custody tea.

Maybe after work eh? ;)

[leowyatt]

I'd go with a simple MySQL db with a php front end :)

EDIT: Infact take a look at Zend Framework, I guarantee you will look at it and go "ZOMG" at first but that would be my starting point :)

[phykell]

You could try a DotNetNuke module as part of your own web site. The problem with this (less so with a DNN module), SugarCRM or even Microsoft Dynamics CRM (current version is 4.0) is that it's like cracking a walnut with a hammer and you might find it doesn't do *just* what you want; but it depends on whether your ordering system will need to expand in the future too.

If you do plan on the system scaling up as the business grows, it might be worth looking at something from Sage. I only have experience of their "mid-market solutions" (my company was a Sage development partner) - I think the current version is Sage 200 and was previously Sage MMS but a lot of their products have attachable modules, for example, Sage 200 has a stock/orders module which lets you handle inventory and warehousing. You can integrate with the purchasing side of Sage and obviously, it's pretty good at doing the accounts as well ;)

If you want bespoke, I can sort you out with an ASP.NET/SQL Server solution for a relatively small consideration :D

[leowyatt]

http://framework.zend.com/ all you need to know. Any questions I'll do my best to answer :)