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    <p class=default>
      
        Auction software
      
    <br/>

      
              OpenSite offers affordable auctioning 
      
    </p>

      
              By Andre Kvitka 
      
    </p>

      
              Now that more companies are migrating toward electronic commerce to stay 
        competitive, Internet
      
    <br/>

      
              auctions are emerging as a powerful method for creating and retaining business. With 
        OpenSite
      
    <br/>

      
              Technologies' OpenSite Auction 4.0, you can easily set up and maintain an online 
        auction at half the
      
    <br/>

      
              cost of other solutions. 
      
    </p>

      
              A better business practice
      
    </p>

      
              Many companies have found online auction software to be helpful for a variety of 
        business activities,
      
    <br/>

      
              including liquidating overstock or unwanted inventory, quickly moving time-sensitive 
        products, or
      
    <br/>

      
              determining pricing for new products. OpenSite Auction is fit for all these 
        activities and more. The
      
    <br/>

      
              company offers three versions of the product -- in three distinct price brackets -- 
        that offer varying
      
    <br/>

      
              capabilities to fit specific business needs. 
      
    </p>

      
              The Professional version is an entry-level product that lets companies get items on 
        the auction block
      
    <br/>

      
              quickly. The Merchant edition lets outsiders become sellers on your auction site, 
        generating more
      
    <br/>

      
              traffic and revenue. The Corporate version, which I tested, is the complete turnkey 
        solution that
      
    <br/>

      
              offers an open architecture and the best flexibility. 
      
    </p>

      
              Although OpenSite Auction has been on the market for a few years, this is the first 
        version to be
      
    <br/>

      
              distributed on CD. In the past, users would initially require help from an OpenSite 
        Technologies'
      
    <br/>

      
              engineer due to the complexities of installing and maintaining an online auction. 
        Most of OpenSite
      
    <br/>

      
              Technologies' direct competitors, including Moai Technologies and WebVision, still 
        help with the
      
    <br/>

      
              installation or even host the auctions for you. Now OpenSite Auction is far easier 
        to use than many of
      
    <br/>

      
              its competitors. The installation took less than an hour and I was ready to start 
        selling my first ten
      
    <br/>

      
              items shortly after the configuration step. 
      
    </p>

      
              OpenSite Auction's pricing is an added bonus. Most of its competitors are 
        ridiculously expensive -- in
      
    <br/>

      
              some cases more than $100,000 with monthly fees lopped on top -- which is more than 
        double the
      
    <br/>

      
              cost of OpenSite Auction.
      
    </p>

      
              OpenSite Auction's features and flexibility thoroughly impressed me. I could 
        complete everything
      
    <br/>

      
              from configuration to daily maintenance through a Web browser. I was amazed by 
        OpenSite
      
    <br/>

      
              Auction's capability to teach me everything I needed to know about auctions, and I 
        was not burdened
      
    <br/>

      
              with the task of learning the rules of different styles of auctions, thanks to the 
        product's
      
    <br/>

      
              comprehensive descriptions. I had complete control over the auction rules, members, 
        page displays,
      
    <br/>

      
              customers, items, sellers, commission rates, and bid increments, I could choose 
        between various
      
    <br/>

      
              templates to give my site a unique look, and I even had control over individual site 
        components. 
      
    </p>

      
              Despite OpenSite Auction's impressive feature set, a few aspects soured my 
        experience and will
      
    <br/>

      
              certainly annoy anyone dealing with the product on a daily basis. For example, the 
        Corporate edition
      
    <br/>

      
              supports either OpenSite Technologies' proprietary database or any Oracle database. 
        To be a viable
      
    <br/>

      
              solution, however, it should also support ODBC, Microsoft, Sybase, and Informix 
        databases. 
      
    </p>

      
              Further, the Web-based interface was easy to master but could have been streamlined 
        to automate
      
    <br/>

      
              my workflow. For example, I could view a list of customers but could not click on 
        one to modify the customer record. Instead I had to look
      
    <br/>

      
              up the customer ID and enter it in a different field to make changes to the record. 
      
    </p>

      
              Creating invoices is another area in which automation is lacking. I first had to 
        generate invoices by entering the start and end dates in two
      
    <br/>

      
              separate fields. Then I had to enter the end date again in a different field to view 
        the generated invoices. It would have been nice to have
      
    <br/>

      
              either a drop-down date field or pop-up calendar that would facilitate faster data 
        entry. I also found it strange that even though the system
      
    <br/>

      
              recognized me as an administrator, it did not allow me to access administrative 
        menus unless I manually entered a specific URL. 
      
    </p>

      
              Also, the product lacks any integration with secure credit card transaction engines, 
        such as CyberCash. The built-in integration with Intuit's
      
    <br/>

      
              QuickBooks accounting software is limited to a comma-delimited file format, leaving 
        the administrator no choice but to either process
      
    <br/>

      
              payment information manually or build a custom application to process invoices 
        automatically. 
      
    </p>

      
              OpenSite Auction is a work-in-progress, but it is still a very good solution if your 
        company is considering an online auction as part of its
      
    <br/>

      
              overall e-commerce strategy. 
      
    </p>

      
              Andre Kvitka ( andre_kvitka@infoworld.com ) is a technical analyst at InfoWorld.
      
    </p>

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