joeyconcrete Posted May 12, 2009 Share Posted May 12, 2009 A £300,000 project to create an online directory of Manx retailers has come under fire from local service providers. http://www.iomtoday.co.im/isle-of-man-busi...with.5254877.jp An online directory is hardly a new concept, and they are several already in existence, with others over the years. Surely 300k could be better spent elsewhere. I can appreciate they want to help local retailers but I'd seriously question the value for money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempus Fugit Posted May 12, 2009 Share Posted May 12, 2009 spend it on the hyperbaric chamber Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deckard Posted May 12, 2009 Share Posted May 12, 2009 isleofman.com must be having kittens. I agree though 300k is taking the piss Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Tatlock Posted May 12, 2009 Share Posted May 12, 2009 Total waste of money. All they need is a good basic directory (A-Z of business) - leave the rest to commercial organisations and the phone book. £10K - done - move on, and give the £290K change to those running the hyberbaric chamber. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeyconcrete Posted May 12, 2009 Author Share Posted May 12, 2009 Bring back beemanx, next we'll have e-mail encryption for every citizen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slim Posted May 12, 2009 Share Posted May 12, 2009 Bring back beemanx, next we'll have e-mail encryption for every citizen Ehabitant! £300k was some sales job by the directory provider, they must be chuffed to bits. Got no place in government though this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scarbunny Posted May 12, 2009 Share Posted May 12, 2009 It would make more sence for the database to be some sort of comercial venture, run in a similar fashion to Amazon market place. Pay to list items have your own style and layouts maybe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeyconcrete Posted May 12, 2009 Author Share Posted May 12, 2009 £300k was some sales job by the directory provider, they must be chuffed to bits. Got no place in government though this. - Yes this is an online directory where people can view a list of shops on the internet - What, in my browser? - Yes, at home, they can get a list of shops in Douglas - Wow, how much? - 300k - Great Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slinkydevil Posted May 12, 2009 Share Posted May 12, 2009 From what I know it's using the Venda ecommerce system for manx retailers to sell their goods online. Not just a directory listing service. I think the DTI are selling off shop space to each retailer so it's an instant online shop for them. Why they feel they needed to do this god only knows and I can see why it's pissing on a few local developers. Currently the DTI will pay half of the costs towards an ecommerce site if you qualify for funding and you use an approved local web developer. At least then the money goes back into local businesses. It seems with this initiative they are cutting off that ability for local agencies to pitch for the ecommerce business. Instead £300k of taxpayers money is taken out of the system and then local web developers lose out on potential work. Nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fubar Posted May 12, 2009 Share Posted May 12, 2009 Let the private sector do it and then the DTI can use the £300K to create a few more "none" jobs for their mates in the civil service. A hyperbaric chamber or a few more paper pushers to whom excitement is coloured paper clips and management seminars? Decisions, decisions! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeyconcrete Posted May 12, 2009 Author Share Posted May 12, 2009 I pointed a mate towards 1and1 years ago, they have their Eshops service - £2.49 a month! People have to realise that this kind of thing is easy to do nowadays and gone are the days when you need a seasoned web developer, unless of course your requirements are complex. Looking at it, Venda's offering is very similar to every other webhost in the UK. Instead of £2.49, £21.99 a month or whatever, they charge £49.99 to small businesses, each month. Where I'm confused is where the 300k comes in to this and why the DTI are involved. I can understand covering the costs to assist local retailers but surely value for money is key to all of this, and some kind of feasibility study as to whether having an online presence will offer any value; lets face it, not all shops would benefit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slinkydevil Posted May 12, 2009 Share Posted May 12, 2009 I pointed a mate towards 1and1 years ago, they have their Eshops service - £2.49 a month! People have to realise that this kind of thing is easy to do nowadays and gone are the days when you need a seasoned web developer, unless of course your requirements are complex. Agreed. There are so many off-the-peg systems that are fine for most SME's that we mainly just point our clients in the right direction saving them a load of development cost. The last time we worked with a client on an ecommerce project, we provided a breakdown of all the options they could have from a fully bespoke shopping cart with online merchant accounts down to simple paypal 'buy now' buttons. Our recommendation from the list was for them to use paypal - it just fitted their business model better. The government seem to like the sales pitches from the large corporations. 'Global leader' doesn't mean it's the best fit!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slim Posted May 12, 2009 Share Posted May 12, 2009 Ebay & paypal too. Have any businesses actually asked for this stupidness? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Shoe Posted May 12, 2009 Share Posted May 12, 2009 from the £1million on e-habitant to the 50-50 grants for e-commerce to the large sums given to PDMS "for anything that happens to occur to them on that day"... the DTI just like giving money away. and in 6 months time...can we just not mention it anymore? hell, it's only £300k this time. more importantly, can someone please point out the company that needs the kind of "comprehensive" facilities that Venda has? which amazon-like e-tailers need that kind of back-end? waltons? colebourns? post-a-rose? b&b? who? who?! it's lucky the government are too inept to be corrupt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Shoe Posted May 12, 2009 Share Posted May 12, 2009 btw why is this thread in "technical support"? although it's kinda about computing, it's really about the IOMG spending money. and so should be in local news. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.