Porterhouse Limited

5 . The eBusiness Solution

The eBusiness solution developed by QBIKS for Porterhouse has three main aspects:

• A Start of case study page/shopfront viewed by all visitors to the site including the general public and potential retailers
• Site administration functionality to allow Porterhouse to update and maintain the website
• A customer ordering mechanism, incorporating an online catalogue Shopfront

Members of the general public come across the Porterhouse website, even though the site is not targeted at them. They can gain access to a limited product catalogue for Clothes, Accessories and Start of case study Furnishings, which does not display prices or allow ordering. The Locations link gives the casual visitor a listing of retail outlets by country enabling them to find their local Weave of the Irish stockist. This can be done online, allowing the member of the general public to search for and find this information online without having to resort to contacting Porterhouse. This facility also supports the retailers who sell Porterhouse products.

In a similar manner, new retail outlets hoping to become Porterhouse stockists can search for the agent for their country, allowing them to access the information quickly and efficiently. This also supports Porterhouse’s network of agents.

The Start of case study Page also offers background history of the company and an email address for getting in contact with Porterhouse.

The visual impact of the Start of case study page is very strong and portrays the quality image that was requested by Porterhouse.

Site Administration

An important prerequisite of the site was that Porterhouse should be able to maintain and update its own website in-house. Therefore a site administration or content management solution was an essential part of the eBusiness solution.

It was essential to be able to perform a number of administration or housekeeping functions easily e.g. amend the pricelist, which is updated on an annual basis.

The Porterhouse content manager enters the site administration part of the site by clicking on the Login option on the bottom right-hand corner of the Start of case study page. Username and password are then entered giving access to Site Administration.


Within Site Administration, a Porterhouse staff member has the following options:

Clicking on Add an Item gives the content manager the following options:


Clicking on Add Product displays the following screen:

This does not feature drop-down menus so it essential for the Porterhouse content manager to be very familiar with product codes etc.

In a similar way, the content manager can add a user, a swatch, a pricelist, an agent and a size. Swatches are added as thumbnail sketches and also as larger versions to enable the customer to view the material in more detail.

The site administration function is well designed and enables Porterhouse to maintain and update its site with minimal help from its web design agency.

Customer ordering mechanism

Porterhouse decided to implement a customer ordering mechanism that would give existing customers an extra alternative to choose when deciding upon placing their orders. This would include high quality graphics and clear and consistent navigation.

Initially, only one area of the product range i.e. woollens, was transferred online. This may be added to pending the outcome of the initial solution.

The creation of an online catalogue allowed the printed woollens catalogue to be replaced by the images on the website. Both a small professionally printed brochure and a larger in-house printed catalogue were discontinued.

A customer enters the customer ordering mechanism by clicking on the Login option on the bottom right-hand corner of the Start of case study page. Username and password are then entered giving access to the Account Details page.

From here, the customer clicks on the View Account link to gain access to previous order details or else can click on a product type to view images of the products as below:

The customer can then click on a product image to view product details and available swatches. This provides extra details, including the specific price to that customer, as driven by the online pricelists, seen below:

Similarly, clicking on Start of case study furnishings will display the following information to a customer:

A customer can click on a thumbnail sketch of a swatch to see the design or texture magnified in further detail:


The customer can place orders and then view these in the shopping basket. The price is calculated automatically. The customer can cancel the order at this stage if desired by placing a zero in the quantity field, adding extra flexibility to the customer ordering process. A reminder of this is given making the process clear and user-friendly.

This process replaces the previous customer ordering mechanism in which customers faxed or posted in their orders. Not only is it more user-friendly to customers, it also gives Porterhouse more control as products that are out of stock can be removed at speed which was not possible with a printed catalogue.

Due to Porterhouse’s legacy DOS-based textile network, invoices are still sent out as before from Drogheda. For US customers only, hard copies of invoices are sent from the Manhattan office.