Taking our lab services on line - chapter 7
Consumer software
Our lab was ready to accept online photofinishing
orders. Next we had to make it possible for customers to send it to us.
If a consumer visits the Fotowire website and
downloads the software from that site, he gets to choose from all the labs
that are signed up with Fotowire. That's good for the consumer, not so good
for our lab!
If we give the consumer the software, it sends orders
to our lab and doesn't give the consumer the choice of changing labs. The
software can be distributed either on a CD or downloaded from our website.
We chose both options.
Fotowire offers two options for software.
- Fully customized software has six image panels, all
of which are designed by the client.
- Semicustomized software has six image panels. Two
are designed by the client and four are more generic.
Because we're a member of Independent Photo Imagers,
our semicustomized software is actually a little closer to customized in its
look and feel. The generic panels contain information about our dealer
association.
Fotowire creates software in both PC and Mac formats.
The PC software package is a self-opening installation system; the Mac needs
to be opened using Stuffit. File size is small, so downloads are fast. Once
installed, an icon is placed on the desktop of the customer's computer.
One of the nice things about the system is the
self-updating client software. This means that our customers will always be
running the latest version available. It also means that they will have the
benefits of the latest release when available. For example, cropping and
rotation were added to the customer software about six months ago.
On my store's website I've given consumers the
opportunity to download the software, and those links are posted here:
Download the free software now.
For Windows
For MacIntosh
We also have burned copies of it onto CDs with an
introductory html page and will be distributing them at the store.
That handles the hardware and software part of the
project. Next the most challenging portion: Marketing
Online Photofinishing
Our story so far:
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