Actinic pushes into the enterprise

Firm unveils new offerings to appeal to large online merchants

E-commerce software specialist Actinic has made a major push into the enterprise market with a new product and business unit, both designed to appeal to large online merchants wishing to expand their web presence and integrate sales channels.

Actinic Enterprise includes several features enabling the product to scale further and provide the functionality demanded by larger firms, according to managing director Phil Rothwell. These include functionality to allow multiple users to process orders, manage the catalogue and update customer details, and improved order processing via a configurable summary screen, he explained.

In addition, the product is now based on the SQL Server database rather than Microsoft Access, which will enable greater speed and scalability, Rothwell argued.

“This is a significant evolution for us,” Rothwell explained. “In the past, customers tended to outgrow us in terms of the technology and services we provided.”

Support for Postcode Anywhere and YESpay will enable real-time card processing, while an integrated offline order entry screen for mail order and telephone ordering is designed to improve multi-channel strategies, said Rothwell.

Actinic also launched a separate business unit, capable of providing pre-sales consulting, high-level technical support and expertise in a range of areas, including SEO and payment services.

The Business Services unit can also tailor Actinic e-commerce solutions for individual businesses, said Rothwell. “We had to change the perception of us not being a service provider but purely a box provider,” he added. “This will help meet the needs of customers who have been successful but now require an off-the shelf package.”

Ben King of internet application development specialist bit10 said Actinic had to get into the en terprise space after losing customers because they had outgrown their e-commerce packages.

"Actinic was a poor man's e-commerce solution, and they have also been under pressure from the open source fraternity who are releasing some good products, so they are trying to buy into the enterprise space," he argued.