POS, framing software

Becker

Grumbler
Joined
May 21, 2003
Posts
16
Loc
Northwest Ohio
I have used fullvision for 7 years. I am now opening my own shop and would appreciate anyone's opinion on other programs. We will be a gallery as well as a frame shop. We will be dealing in a good deal of consigned artwork. Any considerations as to this will also be helpful. Thanks, Becker
 
I was one of the original bata sites for Fullcalc in 1992. I worked with Steve, their programer, and Terry's Father, Lee. I think I talked once with Terry after his father sold the business. All I got was "It is not a priority for us" from the customer service department.

I switched to Frameready a year ago and have been very happy with their product as well as their attitude towards comments. I even managed to have the Fletcher programmer, Scott, talk with them to set up the interface at last years Atlanta show.
 
Like Jerry, I was a long-time FullCalc user (since 1994). FrameReady was installed in three of our network computers last year, and it was a good decision.

I think FrameReady has two advantages over FullCalc:

1. FrameReady is for smaller businesses like mine, whereas FullCalc is for multi-store networks such as Michaels, its parent company. The program had bugs that weren't fixed.

2. FrameReady's technical support is absolutely unbeatable, IMHO. Friendly, too. I got the distinct impression that my calls for FullCalc tech help (needed too often) were an annoyance for them.
 
The best advice I got when searching out POS was to download or acquire 4-6 sample programs. It is worth the homework.

I decided on Artisan Frameshop by Certek Software and am quite happy with the program and support. Certek is also continuing to improve the program to meet it's users needs.

Though I looked at more, my final three-way coin toss was between Artisan, Specialty Soft & Frameready. All had unique and desirable & undesirable qualities!!
 
I was in a similar bind but ultimately went with this software FrameSmart

My experience with the tech support has been nothing but stellar and they routinely add features at users request for FREE... all the other want to charge -- it's true that the software is going thru some growing pains but overall it is very easy to use once you get the hang of it.

Jason.
 
Ditto what Jason says about Framesmart. Initial cost, and all of the free support and upgrades is reason enough, but ease of use and flexability in pricing structure sold me.

 
I've had my shop opened for over a year now and am on my second POS system. I, like many of the posts above has settled on Frameready and am very happy with it. It has a few quirks (what doesn't?), but overall it is accurate, easy to use, good at frame design, material order management, and retail sales.

If you are looking for a system to manage a single store, you can't go wrong here.
 
From a suppliers point of view, I'd like to put in my $0.02 about FullCalc.

No one but FullCalc charges a supplier to include their data to you. Admittedly, they did drop the cost from what I thought was an absolutely outrageous $400 last year (it had been $175 the year before), to $200 this year. I have to commend them for responding to what must have been a lot of unhappy people, but IMHO they shouldn't have gotten into that position in the first place.
 
Well, ... I looked at many of them, narrowed it down and chose based on features.

The vendor I went with has been very helpful and I find it easy to teach and learn.

BUT, ... most of the framers in this area (New England) seem to use a different brand. The [local] vendors are quick and accurate in supplying catalog chages to that (more prevalent) software vendor. They are ALL on the list of the vendor I selected, but TOO OFTEN the "hand-off" between a moulding vendor and the software vendor gets botched. It seems to take weeks to get it straightened out. I believe they are all genuinely trying, but arghhhh! :mad:

I don't really blame either of them. They must set priorities based on percentage of usage by their customers. So, I RECOMMEND you

1) Find out what priority the software vendor you are considering has with YOUR moulding vendors. NOT JUST ARE THEY ON THE LIST, but DO they WORRY about them. If the "list manager" at the moulding vendor (there IS ONE! Ask!) says "What was that company again?" RUN!!! And it might be a GREAT software package.

2) Ask what other framers in your area are using mostly. It helps get priority attention from your local suppliers.

The best package in the world is no good if the data you need isn't kept up to date!

Cliff

[ 05-28-2003, 01:52 PM: Message edited by: Cliff Wilson ]
 
We tried all the different POS demos, and finally decided that for our shop Specialty Soft would fit the bill. It has a good design program, and covers the General Items (IE: art and other stuff you sell). The best advice I can give is, before you buy, go and see it in action! Don't JUST try the demos.
 
Hi,

Cliff Wilson brings up a really good point about software vendors getting timely updates from the suppliers.

In Yellow Page industry there is a similar process between those who sell advertising in the Yellow Pages and those who publish the actual books. I'm now working for one of the software vendors in this industry.

Here's how updates are passed from the Publishers on to the users of our software; in a timely manner...

With an agreed upon format the publishers(suppliers) from all over North America upload their prices and descriptions to a central organization called YPPA (Similar to PPFA). They can update and upload their prices any time they want. From there all the data is combined into flat files(tab delimited). Then on the first day of every month, those using our software connect to the YPPA site(via our software) and download the data to their pc's. Afterwords, our software automagically parses the data into the user's database.

There's alot similarities and differences between the two industries but the above model works well and could be modfied to work in the framing industry.

If anyone has questions about this process, feel free to ask me anytime.
 
Back
Top