The Top 5
In this section, we answer the top 5 most popular questions that our customers have about our products. If you can't find the answer here don't hesitate to contact us.
Q1 - How long will it take to complete my site/store?
This varies from company to company and there are a number of factors which influence this. As a general rule of thumb, you can plan on 90 days. The most important factor here is
your responsiveness to us. We'll be asking lots of questions in order to create the best site possible, such as "What single cup options do you offer?", "Which micro-markets do you offer".
The faster you respond to us, the faster we'll get your website up and running!
Q2 - How much does it cost to initially develop my site/store?
This varies from company to company and there are a number of factors which influence this. As a very rough rule of thumb, the approximate cost of an average B-to-B website is $6500-$8500.
OCS Access does not begin charging the monthly license fee until development is complete and we turn the site over to you, ready to "go live".
Q3 - Does OCS Access provide the product pictures?
At this time, there is no central source for pictures that we are aware of. Customers are responsible for providing pictures of the products they carry. There are some
major OCS suppliers who have areas of their websites just for this purpose. They have reseller sections to their sites with all the product pictures, specifications, videos, etc.
readily available for their distributors to download and use.
While many suppliers will have the information available, some will not. You may have to do a fair amount of gathering information on your own. Remember when gathering images
that a large picture can be made smaller and will usually look good. Increasing the size of a small picture usually doesn't work well and probably won't result in an image you'd be
comfortable displaying on your website.
For any private label items, you may have to consider taking photos yourself with a digital camera or possibly hiring a photographer to do so. More than one operator we have
worked with has gone through the process of having all their items photographed professionally. While this can be an expensive endeavor, the pictures are usually very high quality
and are suitable for other purposes as well, such as printed materials.
Q4 - Will my customers be able to order from their mobile devices (phones/tablets)?
OCS Access's online ordering sites are designed to be used primarily by desktop/laptop users. In addition to our desktop sites, we are happy offer our customers
mobile ordering sites as well. It is important to note though, that these are two different websites, each designed to work well on the platform they are designed for. Today's mobile savvy
users expect a different experience on their mobile devices than they would get on a desktop site. To accommodate this, OCS Access has designed mobile cart systems, written specifically
for phones and tablets. A typical scenario would be an operator having a website at www.{yourwebsite}.com and a mobile version at m.{yourwebsite}.com. Each site is licensed by
OCS Access as a separate website subscription.
Q5 - Will my website come up high in the search engine listings? Does the cost of my site include search engine optimization?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a complicated issue. There are companies who specialize in this field and can do a good job of getting the results you are looking for.
At this time, OCS Access does not provide SEO services. We will be happy to work closely with any SEO service company you use to implement their components & suggestions into your website. Since we service a very specific market, we have elected not to directly provide SEO services in order to avoid potential conflict-of-interest situations.
We will be happy to supply you with "pointers" and always do our best to keep our customers aware of new things they should be looking at for SEO purposes. (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, blogging)
We do everything we can to assist in an advisory capacity. Our websites contain mechanisms which assist in boosting your rankings with the search engines as well. We are also happy to assist you in
reviewing any proposals or information submitted to you by SEO optimization companies.
Other common questions
Depending on your needs we can develop an online store, a sales & marketing based site or both. If you already have a website which
you are happy with, the simplest approach is to add a 'Shop Now' button to the site which will bring your website visitors to your OCS Access online store.
If you don't have a website or want a new one, we are happy to provide that service as well.
Yes, OCS Access has an expert staff to assist companies with all levels of technical expertise & assets. The standard subscription includes all the technical support you need. Whether its managing the entire process from beginning to end or simply conferring with your company's IT staff, OCS Access staff can help.
Yes, OCS Access has the ability to assist your company in quickly establishing a web presence. The look and feel of your company's current marketing materials (color scheme, logo, etc.) will be incorporated to present a consistent experience to your customers.
Yes, Our system is designed to integrate seamlessly into existing websites. By adding a link from your site, your customers can be instantly linked to your new online ordering system. The look and feel of your company's current marketing materials (color scheme, logo, etc) will be incorporated to present a consistent experience to your customers.
No. There is absolutely no limit to your store size. OCS Access does not charge additional fees for merchants that sell a large number of products.
There are a variety of ways available depending on your company's current computer capabilities.
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For companies who do not have an internal business system, orders can simply be routed to an email address you specify.
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For those companies who do have an internal business system, OCS Access has developed several interfaces which allow the orders to be written directly into your system.
Be sure to take a look at the list of industry specific business system providers to see if we already have an interface available or in development. If you don't see your system listed, contact us and we will gladly contact your system provider.
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For companies with "home grown" business systems, an OCS Access programmer can work with you to develop a custom interface if desired.
Systems currently supported and well as in development are listed at
www.ocsaccess.com/backend_systems.asp with the appropriate contact information.
If you don't see your system listed, contact us and we will gladly contact your system provider on you behalf.
OCS is a secure online ordering system. All of your company's and customers' information is stored in a secure format.
Our sites employ SSL technology and 256 bit encryption.
Technical support is included in the price of your subscription. There are no additional support contracts or charges. Support representatives are available via phone, email, or fax, Monday through Friday 9:00 a.m. -5:00 p.m. est.
Yes. In order to deliver a completely integrated solution, OCS Access's programs and staff will need to have access to sensitive data from your company such as customers, products, pricing, etc.
There are several ways for you to influence the on-going development of the OCS Access online ordering system. One way is to simply contact anyone at OCS Access via phone, fax or email & submit a recommendation for the feature you wish to see. We take customer feedback very seriously at OCS Access, and there is a good chance your request will be implemented in a subsequent software release. For companies who have very specific needs which do not fit with the general OCS Access release, custom programming services are available.
Our Business-to-Business websites do not currently support payment via credit card. Customer orders enter your normal operational flow for fufilment and billing under your normal business practices.
Our Business-to-Business cart systems are designed to service your existing customer base and new clients which you establish a relationship with.
Users of the online cart system will need to have a relationship with your company prior to placing orders on the site. Visitors can always peruse the site to
see all the products and services you have to offer, but they must contact you prior to ordering.
OCS Access does not provide hosting services. We feel that is better left to companies who specialize in website hosting. We strongly urge our customers to consider having their website hosted by Weblications in Princeton, NJ.
We have a very good working relationship with Weblications and the majority of our clients have their hosting there. We have no financial relationship with Weblications, we do not collect a referral fee or receive any other type of compensation for asking our clients to consider them.
We have found that Weblications offers highly reliable hosting services at a competitive rate. Additionally, because we have so many clients using their hosting service, they are very familiar with the requirements of each new customer, so setup is quick and easy.
They also provide use with fairly high level privelages on their servers, which would not be typically granted by other hosting companies.
We work very closely on many projects and find it is beneficial to our clients to have them handle their hosting. Should you desire to have your site hosted by another company, please see our hosting considerations {here}
No. OCS Access's Online Ordering Solution is a month-to-month service with no contract. We are so confident that you will be happy with our product and our service that no contract is required. We would rather keep you as a customer because you are happy with what we provide than because of a contract.
We began working with customers in the Office Coffee, Vending, Water & Food Service industries in 2003. Our company was actually founded in 1998, at which time we did general consulting for a variety of clients.
Simply go to our contact page at
www.ocsaccess.com/contact.asp and fill out the form provided. The process takes less than five minutes and an OCS Access representative will contact you. Or call us at (973) 361-0014.
