Update on ProMart Database Development

We have had a lot of interest in our data standardisation and promotional products portal.  I’ve outlined on linkedin the various features that we are looking to incorporate.  After discussions with various suppliers we have altered some of the initial specs and data fields.

As per my last 5 posts we are looking to rebuild our database to incorporate a standard set of fields that will be used in all the data feeds, XML, CSV and a HTML version of product data. What this means is that we are set back slightly while we rebuild the database it’s self and remap all the fields on the product pages and within the quotation system it’s self.  

Whilst I appreciate that suppliers and product portals are eager to get on board with the new system I feel it’s important that we build a system that works properly from the offset.  We can already export the data from the portals in the standard format but cannot receive data using the fields that we have assigned to each field.  It’s a lot of work to get everything upto a launch point. Baring in mind we are fronting all the development costs ourselves and are providing the service free of charge.

I’d like to be ready to start rebuilding the portals within the next 4-5 weeks. But as these things go it may take longer as we don’t have a team of developers working on it.  Just myself designing the system and my developer in Vietnam trying to work at a ever increasing pace with my constant alterations!

I am excited at the prospect of having a constantly updated feed of product data.  I can’t wait for my sales team to be able to quote a client without picking up the phone to first obtain and verify a products price.