Hans, This seems to be a great suggestion (as I have communicated seperately). Thankyou ... A very clear useful suggestion.
I feel a solution for me based on serialised inventory and subscription has some real value. I have run into a subscription problem for which I will create another thread. David G -----Original Message----- From: Hans Bakker [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, 9 May 2007 6:31 PM To: user@ofbiz.apache.org Subject: Re: FW: Serialized Inventory OR Fixed Asset Hi David, Perhaps some additional thoughts. Concerning the Care device itself, if it is still owned by you and you have to do maintenance on it and if you also have depreciation then it should be a fixed asset. If this is not important or you do not want to record this then do not use fixed asset. With the fixed asset you can use the rental features. If you like to combine several products in another product then aggregate products could be a solution, the product then consist of the care device itself you have in inventory and the subscription which was introduced recently. Then you can add a another product to it which is the configuration service. Then it is also possible (with some changes in the system) to combine the possibilities of above, having a (serialized) product which you can ship normally but which is still connected to a fixed asset where you can do maintenance and rental. To select the implementation which is the best needs more investigation and trial with example products. Regards, Hans Bakker http://Antwebsystems.com: Quality OFBiz support with competitive rates. On Tuesday 08 May 2007 20:21, David Garrett wrote: > 1st Issue ... > > As I have mentioned, I am selling a Care device for the elderly. It > requires configuration and may in the future need to be maintained via > a service call and the configuration altered. > > The device initially will not be sold but installed with a recurring > service fee, in the future direct sales may be made. > > A direct analogy is selling a managed router which has been configured > prior to shipping and may in the future require a service call to > update configuration. In most cases the router remains the property of > the service provider. > > I see 2 competing implementations > > Serialized Inventory > ============== > Pros > * seems to fit best with the order and shipping process > * We would capture the initial configuration details as the cart order > is finalized. > * We would further provide checks to ensure that shipping is not > possible prior to confirming that the serialized inventory item has > beed configured and tested prior to shipping. > * the configuration would be held in an entity such as CareDevice and > a new entity field InventoryItem.careDeviceId > > Cons > * I am not sure how to deal with future service calls, configuration > updates and maintenance management > > Question? > Is there anything in place to manage post sale maintenance?? > > Fixed Asset > ========= > Pro > * seems to model what we are actually doing better. > * my assumption is that the Fixed Asset is planned to have some > longevity after the sale > > Cons > * I don't think it fits well with the shopping cart and order process. > Only "sale" of assets I can think of is in the travel system. How > would this work? > > > Core Issue > ======== > When I make the sale should we sell an inventory Item or sell a > service and deliver a configured fixed asset(if so how). > > Thanks > David G
