I’ve been looking all over for a “business directory” software solution (a customizable software package that can be used to organize and display business listings online). We would like to integrate a business directory into an existing website, and ideally avoid building the directory software from scratch. But I’m surprised at how hard it is to find a good solution for such a common need. The apparent front runner in the field has a surprisingly poor sales support, making me wary of moving forward with them – and there don’t seem to be any real contenders for 2nd place.
Adding a niche business directory to your website can be a good way to generate interest (or even revenue). For example, if you have a website about swimming pools, by adding a business directory – maybe a listing of swimming pool contractors, by county – to that site, you provide a sort of niche yellow pages to your viewers. If your site gets popular enough you may even be able to charge businesses to be listed in your niche business directory.
You can, of course, always build (or have someone build) the software for the directory you want. But unless you’re doing a good bit of the work yourself, and unless your directory will be totally unlike other directories, you should consider buying a packaged solution. This is a common conundrum known as “build vs. buy” – with well documented advantages and disadvantages on each side. But with so many technologies available on-demand these days, it’s often easier to buy a good packaged solution and tailor it to your needs than it is to build one from scratch. Business directory software seems like a good candidate for the “buy” option, but I’m still looking for that slam dunk provider that proves my assumption.
Through my research I’ve identified several “business directory” applications, but very little unbiased information about any of them…so they’ve been difficult to compare side by side. There are also a number of “link directory” software solutions, but those aren’t quite what I’m looking for – link directories are generally very basic in terms of the information they give about each listing. Let me give an example to help clarify: botw.org (Best of the Web) is a link directory, whereas Yelp is a business directory. I’m looking to create a niche business directory, with substantial contact and description information listed about each business in the directory.
Appropriately enough, the best collection of directory-like software solutions that I could find is on botw.org (on this page (Software > Non Profit > Membership Management)). So there, ironically, you have a link directory of directory software solutions. It’s a pretty long list, but not all of the solutions listed would work as a business directory. So, we had to narrow it down.
One of the business directory solutions listed on BOTW that seems to be a close fit for our requirements is eDirectory (from Arca Solutions). I actually met the president of Arca Solutions at Ad:Tech in San Francisco – he had a booth, and was promoting their product. It looks promising, but the non-response I’ve gotten from the president (who gave me his business card), and indifferent attitude from the sales rep, have really made me skeptical of the company’s ability to provide quality service. Plus I found this scathing review of the eDirectory product (or more specifically Arca’s services), which doesn’t help my confidence. Arca really pissed off at least one client.
Other directory software solutions that I’ve ruled out for one reason or another include:
There has to be something better. Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Otherwise, and I find it hard to believe, but maybe the best option is to build rather than to buy.
Dear Jeremy,
I am trying to help a client find a (more or less) ready-made community portal / business directory software package. Like you, we were and still are very impressed with the edirectory package features and design: it has most of the features my client wants (including events, classifieds etc) and has quite a clean, sophisticated design. We have more or less concluded that the costs and timescales of getting something custom-made to my client’s brief are prohibitive.
The attractiveness of the features and design is underlined by the number of people requesting programmers to produce a clone of edirectory!
However, we have found it very, very difficult to get accurate reviews of edirectory, or of any of the other packages. The few that we have found complain of:
1. Difficulty in customising it – the complexity of the setup and coding (1 case only)
2. Terrible delays in getting replies (2-3).
I have asked eDirectory about the former – and they have given me stuff to look at (which I have passed to our programmer.
And our own experience of the latter – delays – is that their response has been immediate to two requests (and to some 6 or 7 subsequent emails). I have been dealing with Owen Zhu of sales.
I notice that the scathing review link you placed now shows a favourable review! This underlines the difficulty in trusting any comments I have found – yours is the first I have found that seems genuine (I hope it is!). I have found on the sitepoint forum that there is a running (perhaps quite personal) battle between esyndicat.com and edirectory.com which I guess has spread to other sites / forums.
So, a long way of asking if you have had any luck with any other packages, or if you have had any other advice or feedback about eDirectory. It is still our front-runner and we are working our way through the fine detail of its demos and producing our next batch of questions.
Do get in touch personally to my email, if that is possible on this forum.
With kind regards,
Peter Murray
I see, sadly, that you have had no replies. I have f
Hi, Peter. Thanks for your comment. Good timing, actually, because I’m in the middle of writing a review of my experience working with Arca Solutions – the makers of eDirectory. I ended up purchasing their product, and having them do significant code modifications to customize the software for my website.
The gist of it is that the software itself it pretty robust, and will probably be very polished in future versions, but it leaves a bit to be desired. One of the major shortcomings of the software is the clunky workflow customers to sign up. The admin interface is good, but the front-end consumer interface is, by default, not very intuitive (for customers to sign up for a new directory listing, for example). Don’t get me wrong, it’s not terrible. In fact it’s better than any other software I found. It just required customization to get it to work the way I wanted.
I had Arca do the modifications to the system, because their work estimates seemed reasonable, and they obviously know the system better than anyone else. But their turnaround time can be painfully slow when they’re busy with other projects. Their developers are based in Brazil – so there’s a timezone difference – but it seems like there’s always about a 1- to 2-week delay on all change requests.
The upside is that Arca uses a software package that they developed called ChangeRequest.com, which they use to manage all their change reuquests for eDirectory modification projects. I’ve been pretty happy with the ChangeRequest.com system…it allows us to keep track the status of all open changes, documentation, conversations with project managers, etc…all online…very simply. It gives me peace of mind since there’s an audit trail for the work they do.
I’ve been working with them on the modification of this installation of eDirectory for many months, and I’d give the eDirectory software 7 out of 10 stars – while I’d give their friendly, but slow service department only 6 out of 10 stars.
It’s much easier to undseratnd when you put it that way!
And now, are you happy with the outcome?