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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.
Our systems run some 15 live auctions each
weekday and many over weekends.
Reliability
In designing our Windows platform 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, Works or SQL and so
on.
One of our largest customers are Woolley
and Wallis, Salisbury. In 2005 and again in 2009 they were the largest
individual 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 PC's and WinTerm
Thin Terminals at the remote site. Their website is fully automated
and integrated with our software. In the years 2000 - 2008, their
auction software was not available for a total period of just
four hours. That is four hours in nine years. That is four in 18,000 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.
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Live Auction Technology - Key Features |
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Written in
Borland's Delphi 7.0 for Microsoft's Windows XP Professional, Vista
and Windows 7 Operating Systems. |
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Runs on any network of
Windows computers connected either in Peer-to-Peer or
Client/Server. Not available for Apple Macintosh
computers. |
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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. |
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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. |
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Special database duplication facilities to
ensure the system is as fault tolerant as possible
during a live
sale. |
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Any one user can access many simultaneous
sessions with full record locking between sessions. |
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Has a
Button-and-Windows Grid man-machine interface. 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. No drop-down menu's. |
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Database operates over LAN or WAN
installations and via WAN VPN.
Can
connect to web-based virtual servers using Unix SAMBA. Provides an alternative solution to Broadband/VPN for
multi-site installations. |
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Automatically saves work
as user moves from grid to grid. No
File/Edit/View.. menu bars. |
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Runs on
Hewlett-Packard TouchSmart or similar Tablet PC's in touch-screen mode. |
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Extensive range of import/export facilities
for exchanging data with Microsoft's Word, Excel and Access products. |
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Runs on Windows
Terminals (WinTerm) under Microsoft Remote Terminal
Services. |
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Connects to
postcode/address verification software - QAS for
example. |
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Designed to provide a safe recovery from
power failures. |
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