Software Development Cycle

Analyze
SC Creative Solutions will sit with you and analyze your project and how it relates to your business goals. We will collect data and documents from your organization related to how things are currently done at your office and how these problems can be improved

Quote & Approve
SC Creative Solutions will provide to you a quote to build your project with a detailed analysis of the functional points and time involved in building them

Mockup
A picture is worth a thousand words — and providing you a mockup of the functionality of a new feature sometimes says volumes about the way the system is constructed.

Create
Creating the code that powers the program

Stage & Test
We gives our clients the ability to see features and releases as we are creating them

Release
When the new release has been tested and is on staging, we will then put the release into production for use by our clients and their customers.
At SC Creative, we believe IT consulting is all about assessing technologies from a myriad of options and selecting solutions which will best meet business objectives and ensure long term value. Our solutions help you organize business and technology strategies - cost effectively

E-Commerce Applications

E-Commerce is a massive growth area, were colossal sums of money are being made and spent every day. This is largely to do with the hype of the Internet and on-line shopping. The Internet is growing exponentially, and will continue to grow for some time to come. This, coupled with good advertising, can provide a solid foundation from which to launch a stake in the Internet and e-commerce boom. E-commerce is big business. The fact that people want it is probably the biggest lure for companies to jump onto the bandwagon, but there are other factors, making e-commerce a good sense solution. - Lower transaction costs. If the site is implemented well, the web can significantly lower order taking costs and customer service costs after the sale by automated processes. - Variety for shoppers: It gives people the opportunity to shop in different ways. - The ability to build an order over several days - The ability to configure products and see actual prices - The ability to compare prices between multiple vendors - The ability to search large catalogues easily - Larger catalogues: On the web, a company can display their entire range. If they were to print a glossy catalogue to do the same job, it would be too big. E.G. Amazon sells 3 million books. Imagine trying to fit all their available books into a paper catalogue. The Web cuts out printing cost and distribution. - Global availability: Anyone with an Internet connection, in any part of the world can access online services, without costing the company a penny, over and above the marketing costs. This ubiquitous presence is far greater reaching than a catalogue drop. - New business model: E-commerce allows people to create completely new business models. A mail order company has high costs for staff and catalogue printing & distribution. However in e-commerce these costs fall practically to zero. There are several ways in which to implement an e-commerce application. Consider the following. Out of the Box / Server-Based Out-of-the-box is an ideal that eliminates, or at least reduces time consuming and complex e-commerce site building, by providing all of the various functions of an e-commerce solution from one source. Out-of-the-box is an “instant” low price solution requiring minimal IT recourses for implementation and operation. It is has a “Lego” mentality by shielding the user from heavily involved technical programming and scripting etc, simply by assembling the various software components into an established framework. This is done using a GUI interface, where the developer moves the software objects around analogous to the child with Lego bricks, snapping them into place, and building a functional entity. Microsoft’s Commerce Server 2000 provides a comprehensive set of features to let developers quickly build scalable, user-centric, business-to-consumer and business-to-business e-commerce sites. Commerce Server 2000 offers robust and easy-to-implement functionality that makes it the ideal solution for building e-commerce applications. Its features include the following: Development Tools - Commerce Server 2000 gives developers the power to quickly build and deploy effective e-commerce sites. Developers get a fast start with a choice of two starter applications that provide comprehensive e-commerce functionality. - Personalisation, merchandising, catalogue search, customer service, and business analytics. - Secure user authentication and group access permissions, purchase order and requisition handling. - Built-in, online auction capabilities. - Speed up and simplify development efforts with code samples and in-depth documentation. Administrative Tools - simplify and centralise administrative tasks such as site configuration, deployment, operations and maintenance, reducing cost of ownership, and increasing application availability. Partners – Microsoft in partnership with independent software vendors, ensure the highest availability and quality possible for solutions, including credit card validation, taxation, shipping and handling and content management. Profile System - helps you manage information about millions of users and groups of users. In addition, it establishes secure authentication of site to ensure users have access to authorised areas of your site. You also serve users custom content, such as special pricing or products, based on the user's profile. Targeting System - enables one-to-one marketing, determining the most appropriate content (ads, discounts, up-sells, cross-sells, catalogue data, and more) to provide to a given user in a given context, based on explicit user preferences. There are many more features in Commerce Server 2000. For more information, visit Microsoft’s web site at http://www.microsoft.com/commerceserver/default.asp The price of this solution is around £6000 with the same being paid again for each licence required. Licensing is calculated on a per per-CPU basis. In other words, if the server machine running Commerce 2000 has 4 CPUs, then expect to pay £24000 for your solution!

Business to Consumers diagrams(B2C)

Bluetooth

(TS) – The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) today announced the adoption of Bluetooth® low energy wireless technology, which is the hallmark feature of the Bluetooth Core Specification Version 4.0.

As an enhancement to the specification, Bluetooth low energy technology opens entirely new markets for devices requiring low cost and low power wireless connectivity with this evolution in Bluetooth wireless technology that will enable a plethora of new applications – some not even possible or imagined today. Many markets such as healthcare, sports and fitness, security, and home entertainment will be enhanced with the availability of small coin-cell battery powered wireless products and sensors now enabled by Bluetooth wireless technology.

“With today’s announcement the race is on for product designers to be the first to market,” said Michael Foley, Ph.D., executive director, Bluetooth SIG. “Bluetooth low energy modules for all sorts of new products may now be qualified – this is an important step towards our goal of enabling new markets with Bluetooth wireless technology. For example, the Continua Health Alliance has already selected Bluetooth low energy technology as a transport for the next version of its guidelines.”

“Today’s news from the Bluetooth SIG is an exciting step forward for technology in mobile health and wellness devices,” said Rick Cnossen, president and board chair, Continua Health Alliance. “Our selection of Bluetooth low energy for the Continua Version Two Design Guidelines extends exciting new capabilities to manufacturers and consumers alike, as well as enabling additional use cases within the Continua ecosystem.”

Bluetooth low energy wireless technology, the hallmark feature of the v4.0 Bluetooth Core Specification, features:

* Ultra-low peak, average and idle mode power consumption
* Ability to run for years on standard coin-cell batteries
* Low cost
* Multi-vendor interoperability
* Enhanced range

E-Commerce Website Design & Development

E-Commerce websites are specialized websites that allow financial transactions to be transacted over the internet. E-Commerce websites can be stand alone operations, or can augment physical retail operations. Realize that e-commerce websites do not necessarily have to sell products – e-commerce websites can be also be built to sell services such as stock trading, subscriptions and memberships.

General Features of an E-Commerce System:

User Interface or Front End - this is where the users interact with the e-commerce website and is comprised of forms and screens that visitors use to interact with the website.

Shopping Cart or Product or Service Catalog -A shopping cart or a product/service catalog, whether it is a single product or several hundreds of thousands or products, becomes the core of an e-commerce website: it provides the functionality that allows the management of users, products, orders as well as order tracking options. We use various levels of e-commerce shopping carts or product catalogs that are then customized to fit the requirements for a given website.

Payment Gateway or Payment Processing System - An e-commerce website requires a mechanism to collect payments and this is done via a payment gateway service provider. In a nutshell, a payment gateway is a third party service provider that facilitates the collection of payment and the subsequent deposit of that payment into a merchant account. Examples of payment gateways are: Autorize.net,Paypal & Google Checkout etc. Please note that payment gateway providers charge a monthly fee and a per-transaction percentage commission and fee for their services.

Merchant Account to handle payment facilitation - Once a payment has been processed by the payment gateway, the money is then deposited into a merchant account which subsequently transfers the money into the e-commerce website owner or operator’s bank account. It is worth pointing out thatPaypal is the only payment gateway that also acts as a merchant account. Please note that merchant account providers charge a monthly fee for their services.

Security (SSL) Encryption using SSL (Secure Sockets layer) on HTTPS - Security is critically important when it comes to the Internet and the HTTPS protocol uses SSL technology to securely encrypt the communication between a user’s browser and the server that hosts the e-commerce website. SSL certificates come in various flavors and sizes and encryption strengths ranging from 40-bit keys to 1024 –bit keys. Some examples of SSL certificate issuing authorities are VeriSign and GeoTrust. SSL Issuing authorities may charge a one-time setup fee and annual renewal fees for their certificates.

Cloud Computing based Hosting – We offer comprehensive hosting services that are based on cloud computing and are very well suited for e-commerce operations. It is best to host your website on your website design & development company’s servers due to the familiarity of the company with its hosting services. Please view our E-commerce Hosting Packages.

Additional Optional Features of E-Commerce Websites

Fulfillment management services – third party operators that will stock and manage your product fulfillment by actually handing the shipping of your products to your customers and also provide and shipment tracking details.

Secure Seals such as McAfee Secure or Control Scan offers a guarantee against hackers, or exploiters and will monitor your e-commerce website on a daily to make sure that it is not exploitable.

BBB Reliability Seals – organization such as the Better Business Bureau will validate and/or certify a business to add credibility to its online operation.

Our E-Commerce Solution
We offer 4 types of e-commerce solutions. Each of these solutions is comprehensive and is targeted toward a certain volume of products, transactions, volume and advanced features.

Basic E-commerce Solution
Ideal for up to 5 products or services without categorization on a pre-configured, hosted shopping cart system that provides a robust set of product, user and order management features. Pricing for our basic e-commerce websites start at $1,999. You can request a no-cost price quote for your e-commerce website.

Mainstream E-commerce Solution
Ideal for up to 1000 products with multi-level product categorization with a licensed shopping cart that provides a comprehensive set of product, user and order management features. Prices for our Mainstream E-Commerce Solution start at $3,499.

Advanced E-Commerce Solution
Ideal for more than 500 products with multi-level product categorization with a licensed shopping cart that provides an exhaustive list of product, user and order management features. Prices for our advanced e-commerce solution start at $4,999

Custom E-Commerce Solution
Ideal for customized e-commerce requirements such as membership groups, subscription services. Most custom e-commerce solutions are designed with a custom shopping cart or product catalog and incorporate specific requirements and needs. Realize that just because a particular website falls under the custom solution, it can be fairly simple and straightforward.