Follow up with Magento as a e-commerce solution for a group of specific needs

// June 11th, 2010 // Strategy

Problem: We will need to build separate web retail properties for our different parts of our business that operate outside of each other.
Solution: With Magento you can create separate targeted sites or micro-sites with their multi-store retailing functionality.

Problem: We will eventually want to have some sort of exclusive gift-card program using both virtual and physical gift cards at our various
Solution: Magento’s Enterprise edition is all set up to enable an online customer to purchase a physical gift card that comes in the mail or a virtual gift card to an inbox. The customer can choose amounts, load and re- load and admins have the control to manipulate how long a gift card can be alive. There is also the ability to add personal messages to the cards for special events. Recipients can check card balance before checkout and use card balance as part of payment. There is also stored, a gift card history so we can see how they are being used. We could reward loyal customers based on the information. Store credits can also be offered in this way.

Problem: We use Sage/Timberline in our back office. Will it seemlessly integrate with magento?
Solution: Magento’s bridgeConnect module fully integrates with Sage/Timberline

Problem: Our back-end administrators will not be tech saavy. Will this be an issue?
Solution: Adminstrative screens and abilities are intuitive and multi-leveled (meant for various users)

Problem: We will need to use the e-commerce package to book rooms in 2 different locations with different length of stay criteria plus the ability to pick and choose from a variety of scheduled activities during a particular stay.
Solution: With the booking and reservations module (made by aheadworks) you can:

•    set flexible price rules
•    offer gradual staggered pricing
•    flexible exclude days (same as blackout days with airlines)
•    specify date and time of product availability
•    booking period is displayed in order details and invoice
•    can display number of calendar pages displayed on the product page
•    Instant order reviews on the product with the calendar widget

While Magento seems to be a good fit for this particular project I wonder about the price (15,000) and whether or not there is something really comparable for less?  Not to mention that I am not a big personal fan of the way Magento integrates open source with proprietorship software.  It seems … wrong somehow.

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