Compact Services

  vSkills

The vSkills Vision

  • Produce Intranet/Internet (I*Net) tools that are user centred, scaleable, customisable and dependable.
  • Empower the I*Net site visitor, via user-friendly visual menu interfaces, to perform complex tasks.
  • Empower the I*Net site owner to easily update and maintain visitor access to their digital data.
  • The visual menu interface is data driven allowing the site to evolve automatically as new options are added, or existing options edited/removed as required.
  • Databases and programs are maintained and function on the site server thus providing more uniform performance to the site visitors (less powerful personal computers are not at a significant disadvantage as all processor intensive operations are performed on the server).
  • Multilingual – the databases are currently single language; however, due to the extensible programming structure, multilingual options will be available allowing the site visitor to select the language of their choice on entry to the site.

The vSkills Current Range

vSkills – B2Catalogue

Designed for businesses to have a single database driving a business-to-consumer shop window displaying retail prices, whilst at the same time providing a password protected business-to-business eCommerce Trade Entrance with facilities for storing, by individual account, trade discount, settlement discount and VAT rate percentages.

All visitors can navigate the site using simple visual/textual data mining tools...

  • Catalogue Pages
  • Product Type Pages
  • Text Search

All three navigation methods are built on the fly from the generic database that has facilities for text, pricing, catalogue page, product type and image details.

Retail visitors can browse through the entire site seeing retail prices and may use “Retailer Locator” to find an on-line shop or their nearest stockist.

Trade visitors can browse and buy – the shopping cart system is based on the local currency; however, the total price can be instantly displayed in any currency. The prototype site uses the principal currency rates as published by HM Customs & Excise for use for VAT and Customs purposes; however, links to any exchange rate data source may be established.

vSkills – Retailer Locator

Retailer Locator is a database driven directory search program using geographic maps to navigate the site visitor to their nearest local retailer. Thus transforming the task of trawling through pages of text in a paper based directory into a simple point and click operation.

The database can contain name and address, telephone, fax and e-mail contact details as well as a URL hyperlink – thus when a site visitor is viewing the details they may choose traditional contact methods or auto launch their e-mail package or web browser to connect.

Whilst this module is entitled “Retailer Locator” it can be customised to any geographic search, for example: museums, libraries, theatres, cinemas, places of interest, branches of a retail chain, et cetera.

vSkills – Visual Designer

Visual Designer is a database driven text, number and image manipulation program.

The prototype system empowers the site visitor to design jewellery from two, three or four option menus. All menu items have been designed/chosen by professional jewellery designers – thus the site visitor can select any combination, which may well result in a unique piece of jewellery, yet rest assured that the choice is based on the design skills of a professional jewellery designer.

The vSkills database is used to automatically populate two, three or four option menus.

Each option menu is assigned to either the top, left, right or bottom of the visual design window.

Each item on the option menu has optional fields for an image name, placement coordinates, textual description, hyper-links to multimedia attachments, item code and unit price.

As the visitor selects menu options the design window can automatically update text and images: performing textual string manipulation and arithmetic computations, plus creating and positioning composited images.

Pricing

Description Price  
vSkills – B2Catalogue £1,250  
vSkills – Retailer Locator £750  
vSkills – Visual Designer £1,000  
Services:
Re-purposing of existing digital images £1.50 per image
Data analysis and preparation assistance £500 - £1,000 per day
Initial site construction/configuration £500 - £1,000 per day
Site maintenance/support available from £0.25 per product/per month
Indicative price of a typical installation linked to WAY data sources £3,000 - £5,000  
Indicative price when linked to other data sources only available on request, as the cost of "one off" customisation can significantly impact the overall cost.

All prices in GB Pounds Sterling - Prices (correct as at 1 September 2007)