Hi all
I know there’s a few programmer types on here. I need some help getting a ballpark quote off to a client as part of a larger job. The job will be done sometime in October.

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Brief:

Overview:
A microsite allowing customers to reserve/book a timeslot at an event.

Event details:
There’s an event at 2 shopping centres that need to be booked in advance.
The events will run in 15min slots from 10am-5pm over 2 days. There is capacity for 3 people in each 15min slot.

Website requirement:
A visual representation of the timetable, colour coded for which slots are available and which are already booked.
Clicking on a slot allows the visitor to book that slot. At this time, the slot is marked booked for other visitors (to be unbooked after a timeout if they don’t proceed).
They will need to enter realname and email address to complete the booking.
After reserving a slot, the customer is emailed a confirmation of the booking.
(I will take your advice on whether a confirmation click is required from the email.)
At a predetermined time before the event, the client needs to be able to see a full list of the schedule and bookings.

My role:
I would manage the client and project manage the microsite.
I will design the pages and emails and produce HTML 4 CSS versions.
I could provide a suitable domain and host (if you can’t provide).

Your role:
Conversion of my HTML files into the fully working system.
Depending on your thoughts on the complexity of the system, support may be required during the time the site is live.

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Let me know if there’s any further info needed.

At this point we’re looking for a ballpark figure for the programming side, in order to add it to a shopping list of features for the shopping centre to choose from.

Thanks for reading!

Cheers
Alex

to be honest there’s loads of providers who will deliver this functionality already online and will allow you to skin up their code to suit you – they’ll manage everything for you and even take payment via paypal or card if you want them to.

I think writing this from scratch is going to cost someone a fair amount of money and not deliver anythign that you couldn’t get for a few pennies per slot booked on a ppc basis.

Hi wwaswas – thanks for reading and replying.
I spent an hour or so looking into online systems yesterday. I concluded that I didn’t have the experience to be able to choose between the many providers and be 100% confident of providing the most appropriate solution to the client.
Many don’t feature prices on their sites, so it becomes a complex task to compare these offerings when there is no money available at this stage of the project.

Any pointers from people on here would be much appreciated.

try –

bookit this is an NZ based solution – not sure if they offer a terling service or not but they quote prices here – http://www.bookit.co.nz/solutions_suppliers.aspx

(I have no experience of either of the above other than as someone with experience in this sector)

I still think that for what’s probably going to be a £5k piece of work you’re doing your client a disservice by trying to write it from scratch – a few phone calls to any of the established suppliers would give you prices and confirm functionality and you can look at their client lists and talk to them about their experience.

Thanks wwaswas – much appreciated.
I agree that this seems the best approach. I’ve quickly called a 2 in the uk and found that we’ll be able to do something for under £1,000 + my time.

We have a theoretical max of 168 attendees and the first 2 I contacted seemed to price it at roughly £4-5 per attendee.

I’ve seen lower prices on US sites ($3.95), so I’ll continue to make a few calls.

Thanks again

Forgot to mention – our event is free. So no payment gateway needed.
Also many providers seem to charge on a percentage of money taken basis, so this isn’t relevant.