Frequently Asked Questions about the Store Ordering System

I've never heard of you - why would I want to trust my business to the SOS?

The makers of the SOS have decades of experience in the signage and software industries. The SOS is a mature application, and has been helping businesses manage their signage programs since mid 2007. The SOS was built specifically for the signage industry, and was being used for real projects as it was being built. It has tracked thousands of inventory items and processed hundreds of orders worth over three quarters of a million dollars for customers such as HMV, H&M, Club Monaco, Winners, and The Beer Store.

The last time I tried to automate my work, it took months to get set up, cost lots of money, required special servers, we had to rewire the entire office, and after all that nothing really worked correctly. Am I going to have to go through all of that again?

Not at all! We've already done all of the messy setup on our own servers. All you need is an internet connection and a relatively recent web browser.

'Enterprise' IT providers make a lot of money on customization and integration specialists and expensive consultants. We make our money by providing your company with a useful functioning service. While it is customizable, the SOS is not custom software - it is already a proven application that is already making life easier for paying customers.

Why would I want to put my business information on your servers? Wouldn't it be safer to keep it in my own office?

Your office is probably not as safe a place for this kind of information as you think it is. Office networks are notorious for hosting viruses and other nasty software. A leaky roof or burst pipe could ruin your entire server setup and stop your business cold. Do you have off-site backups? Up-to-date server, firewall, and antivirus software with all of the latest security patches? Encrypted passwords? Volume-scalable server infrastructure? Redundant high-volume internet connections?

Properly maintaining servers and keeping data secure isn't easy - but it's the heart of what we do. You're already busy and have lots of other things to worry about besides looking after your own servers. We're already doing it for our other customers, so why don't we do it for you as well?

We had a customer whose office was broken into and who had all of their computers stolen. Because they were using web-hosted software, they didn't have any interruption in work - they just got other computers and they were back in business. If they had hosted the SOS on an expensive server in their own offices, they would have lost everything.

Also, a key element of the usefulness of the SOS is that it allows you to communicate and share information with your store managers, your customers, and your suppliers. Hosting the application internally would limit this sharing and provide you with much less value.

If you have lots of companies using the same server, wouldn't my competitors be able to see my information?

The SOS has been built from the ground up to be secure and to keep every customer's information separate - unless they specifically want to share it. We wouldn't last very long as a service if our customers couldn't feel that their information was secure.

We don't buy signs - we make them - can the SOS help us as well?

Certainly. You can set up your own catalogues of standard items, and set up your customers with access to these catalogues so they can send you orders.

We're also working on extra functionality for sign manufacturers, including labour/materials costing and shop orders. Fill out the 'contact us' form and we'll let you know about future developments.

So how much does this cost?

To use the SOS there is an up-front fee for initial setup and configuration, and a monthly maintenance and support fee.

The details are covered on our rates page.

Don't miss our package deal as described on the rate page. We've tried to make the SOS affordable even for small companies or individual departments in larger companies. Our one year introductory package is within the amount that many departments can spend without having to get approval from higher management - so you can be automated and more productive without needing permission from the CFO.

That's all it costs? I thought business software was expensive. You're not a serious business, are you?

We use state-of-the art languages and technology to build and manage software much more quickly and efficiently than traditional 'enterprise' software companies. Traditional business IT requires large teams of developers, expensive consultants and salesmen, and big servers on which to run. Our development team is small and nimble, and we use open source software and off-the-shelf commodity hardware. New features can be developed in days and deployed in weeks, rather than in months and years. This means that the software is much less expensive to build and maintain - and we pass these savings on to you.

Also, the SOS is a single piece of software that is used by multiple customers - that way the costs of development and maintenance are spread around more evenly.

Why is there a monthly charge? Your servers can't cost that much to run.

The monthly fee covers server maintenance, backups, technical support, fixing any data issues that might come up, and other such things.

Also, the SOS cost a lot to build and is constantly being updated. This fee covers this development as well.

How much extra do I have to pay for upgrades and fixes?

Nothing! You don't even have to do anything to get your upgrades. All of the latest is automatically there for you when you log in. The SOS is constantly evolving, with new features being added and existing features being streamlined and made more efficient. All of this comes to you automatically at no extra charge.

That said, we sometimes come out with entire new modules in the SOS, such as shop orders and production management. Using these separate modules may require an additional fee.

Our signage programs are a mess - we don't even know what we have anymore or where any of it is. Can you help us figure this out?

Yes we can! The SOS was originally developed for Get Signage Components, who can set up or even redesign your signage program, and build catalogue items for you.

We have very particular workflow requirements - orders ship only during the full moon, and only if the total price is a prime number - can this work on the SOS?

The SOS is designed to be heavily configurable, but if your requirements just don't fit the current workflow, we can work with you to extend the functionality of the SOS for your needs. This may cost extra - see our rates page.

If my data is living on your servers, then who owns the data?

Your data always belongs to you - we're just looking after it and making it easier to work with. If you ever want to get your data back, we can export it from the database and send it to you in a spreadsheet-compatible format.

What if I don't want to use the SOS anymore?

If you really want to go back to faxes and emailed spreadsheets and yellow sticky notes, simply let us know and we'll close your account. We'll send you all of your data in a spreadsheet-compatible format and deactivate your logins. Unless you specify otherwise, we'll keep your data in an archive, so if you change your mind and want to use the SOS again, we can just reactivate you and you'll be back online instantly.

Times are tough - what happens if I can't pay my monthly fee?

If you can't make payments, we'll send out friendly reminders each month that you're late - and will suspend your account after three months of non-payment. Neither your account information nor your data will be deleted - so once you get cashflow-positive again, you can start right back where you left off.

Note that you can get a discounted rate if you pay for a year up front, which might make things easier.

What are the specifics of your license agreement?

You can read a non-binding-for-review-purposes-only version of the license agreement here. A real agreement will be signed when the initial setup fee is paid. The short version? Shindig owns the SOS. Customers have a license to use the SOS. Customers own their data and can get it back when they want. Shindig can stop providing service if the customer goes bankrupt or otherwise stops paying. Our lawyers put in all sort of Other details on "Acts of God" and how "time is of the essence".

What technologies are you using to run the SOS?

The SOS is built entirely in Ruby on Rails, using PostgreSQL as the database server. It is hosted on multiprocessor Xeon servers running Debian Linux.