May not be s bad for "mr cash sales" retailer, but when you are talking
university bookstores, with difgferent discount structures for
students, staff, ancillary staff, walk ins, coupled with special
promotions, then I think that something that can REALLY talk to you
backend logic is "useful"

"Luckily" these guys aren't B2B - I have 1 client in an "extreme" case,
where a single product can have >100 selling prices, based on qty,
customer, other product purchases etc ... if you fit "off the shelf",
then that will give good bang for $ .... if you "survive" & "thrive" on
wheeling & dealing, then it is unlikely an off the shelf solution will
have the necessary flexibility

Ross Ferris wrote:

This type of client drives me crazy. You take the time to build a
system to handle all these cases, which can sometimes be quite complex,
yet you continually get calls asking, "Why did this price come up on
the order?".

It's funny how it always seems that we end up knowing a customer's
business operations better than they do.

Cheers,

--
Kevin Powick

I thought that it was just our client base that did that!

I'm glad to hear that other peoples client base desire
mega-high-functionality but then are incapable of using it!!

Regards
Simon
"Kevin Powick" <nospam (AT) spamless (DOT) com> wrote

I understand the frustration (and humor), been there, done that, but
at some point requirements like "we can't figure out the numbers" have
to drive development. When it gets this bad I suspect it's time to
write code that explains the modifiers applied to base pricing - maybe
even get some BI tool to allow management to figure out how all of the
modifiers are affecting the business. As the pricing code applies
modifiers, assign a modifier code and value, then save that data at
the line item level and document level. Isn't this exactly what we do
with a General Ledger COA at a different level? It wouldn't go over
well if a CFO had to call the programmer to explain the period-end
balances, that's why we have ledgers. Complex pricing schedules
should be no different.

T
Just ignore me, I need to get away from my desk...


"Simon Verona" <news (AT) aphroditeuk (DOT) com> wrote:

To overcome the sort of issues you and Kevin are talking about, we also
have a "special" enquiry screen where you can enter key information in
(eg: customer, product, date), and ghet a "running report" of the rules
that have been applied top arrive at a price.

Our priding rules also give warnings "X" days prior to a price rule
becoming 'extinct' so that even if management has overlooked a price
review, the operators can warn them of impending "doom & gloom"

As we all know, many of these routines were originally developed for a
REAL "owner" (if not of the business, then of the system!), and without
the intimate knowledege of thye drivers .... still, at the end of the
day, that's what an expert system is supposed to deliver - the ability
for any 'temp' operator to price like an expert :-)

Simon Verona wrote:

We also have some spectacular pricing in the oil industry. We can have one
truck (triple trailer) do 45 drops for the one customer in 5 states on the
one trip with a different price for every delivery plus he delivers more
than he loaded - he loads at night and it expands in the heat of the day.

So we have a special screen that shows every element and some still ask why
is it this price. One even said "Oh! I know but it is easier just to ring
up"

You can take a horse to water but making the bugger drink can be difficult.
I should have charged more from the beginning.

Peter McMurray
"Ross Ferris" <rossf (AT) stamina (DOT) com.au> wrote