Pacts Technology

Our auction management software is written in the Borland 7.0 Delphi language for Microsoft's Windows Operating System. It cannot be run under DOS, MS-DOS Prompt or from the Command Prompt and does not require the presence of these DOS-based services. It has been optimised for Windows XP Professional and Vista.

Our auction management software has been designed to be fast, full featured, flexible, easy to assimilate, easy to use, good to look at and provides a reliable range of services to auctioneers and their clients.

In designing our software we have paid particular attention to reliability - our internal database structure is unique; it is fault tolerant - data is kept automatically and simultaneously sorted into client name, account number, lot number, item number and so on and data is stored in multiple locations; if the database is ever damaged we can almost always re-create it. This is not necessarily the case with databases based on Microsoft Access, SQL, MySQL and so on.

Reliability

Our systems run some 20 auctions each day.

One of our larger customers are Woolley and Wallis, Salisbury. In 2005 they were the largest auction house outside London. Woolley and Wallis operate our Stock auction management software on a Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 network with twenty workstations. They run Stock from two locations connected by a VPN-based Broadband link. They use WinTerm Thin Terminals at the remote site. Their website is fully automated and integrated with our software. In the period 2000 - 2007, their auction software has not been available for a total period of just four hours. That is four hours in eight years. That is four in 16,000 working hours. A reliability of 99.99%.

Important Note: Wireless networking must not be used with our auction management software. Wireless networks are unreliable and will seriously compromise the overall system reliability.

Some key technology features:

 

			Written in Borland's Delphi 7.0 for Microsoft's Windows XP Professional Operating System.
			Extensive range of import/export facilities for exchanging data with Microsoft's Word, Excel and Access products.
			Proprietary internal database. High speed, data redundant, self-sorting and self-correcting. Makes exclusive use of the Windows Win32 API . Database implements record locking down to the field level within any one item record. Database provides simultaneous access to networks of twenty computers or more.
			Database operates over  LAN or WAN installations and via WAN VPN.
			Special database duplication facilities to ensure the system is as fault tolerant as possible during each live sale.
			Any one user can access many simultaneous sessions  with full record locking between sessions. Designed to provide automatic recovery from power failures.
			Human interface based on best practice for retail IT applications. Operates via Mouse/ Windows Buttons and/or keyboard commands. Can be operated entirely via keyboard commands if desired. Designed for users with no previous IT experience. Top-level menu structure with buttons directly linked to important print functions and underlying Windows Grids and Controls. Menu options allow direct access to the most important operations and printouts. No multiple Pop-Up Window panes.