web based data-base.....help
 

Hey folks, I’m the marketing dude for my company and also manage our website. My boss has decided that he wants a web-based customer database for our salesmen, the salesmen should be able to edit this database from their homes or mobile laptops or what ever.

I’m wondering if V-bulletin would work? I mean look around…..it obviously works, I just wonder if it’s got enough options to work in this type of business application.

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Chris

There are a great many ways to accomplish what you want. There are also a great many things to worry about including programming it, backing it up, and securing it.

You should take a look at the web-based CRM solutions like Salesforce.com and Netsuite.com. Very powerful and accessible from anywhere you have a Internet connection. No worrying about the IT side of it either - pay your monthly fee and rest easy.

good advice.. Bravo sir.
In school we created a database for our clients "teachers" that had a userbase of 30+ people with read/ write access.
It was a pain in the ass.. always worrying if some yahoo was going to enter a null feild, or something dumb to throw the DB off. Look into all the issues before youdeceide on what to do. If you gotta maintain a databes useing PHP or ASP.. be sure you plan well in advance, and ask for a raise.. cuase it sure as hell isnt covered in your job description.

Yea, this could easily be more trouble than you might think. If it were me... I'd have a MySQL server, use PHP/Perl for the front end. I don't have any experience with things like vBulletin, but I don't think that's the right choice for this situation. Anyone feel free to prove me wrong, but things like vBulletin have specific functionalities. I don't think you'd be able to customize it to meet the particular needs of your company.

p.s. most importantly, follow Ganguro's advice: get a raise.

My company uses Salesforce.com, like Rubicon mentioned. You pay a monthly fee per user, and you won't have to worry about managing the equipment or software at all.

I've built some web based database-driven apps before, and I'd still recommend looking at something like Salesforce.

You might also want to take a look at ACT! Web. I don't know a lot about it, but it looks like something you host yourself if you want to go that way.

http://www.act.com/products/web/index.cfm

If you don't want to have to manage anything but a monthly fee, the above CRM solutions sound like a good plan. If you think you may require a custom-built web app and/or salesforce.com doesn't do enough for you, you could speak privately with myself or another TFPer that does web dev work. I do custom php/mysql coding for a wide variety of different clients, and outsource the particulars of domain hosting to another company.