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ISP Tools
Business Marketing
Tips
Business Development Techniques
e-Business:
Increasing Speed may Bring Increased Revenue
It's no secret that one of the biggest impediments
facing e-business today is speed. According to one study,
reducing the time it takes for your company to complete
online transactions can ultimately increase the revenue
you generate.
Zona Research, a consulting firm familiar with e-commerce,
estimates that more than $4.5 billion in e-commerce
sales are lost annually due to the public's growing
frustration with lengthy connection times. Other analysts
report that high-speed surfers generally have more money
to spend online, making the issue of high-speed connectivity
even more vital for the Internet economy.
By forging special relationships with selected Websites,
you can increase the bandwidth available to your premium
target surfers. In essence, you're creating clear, direct
paths for customers visiting specific Websites.
For instance, a Web company may want an Internet service
provider (ISP) to help direct traffic to them by boosting
the connection speed when a customer wants to download
MP3 files, video, or other data heavy payloads. This
would streamline a traditionally time-consuming process,
and could lead to additional orders from existing customers,
as well as generating new business. Many Web businesses
are happy to underwrite the cost of increasing connectivity
speeds on demand, and will even share a percentage of
the business generated from this approach with you.
As business on the Web continues to become more competitive,
ISPs can offer Web business a true competitive edge.
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Guaranteeing Connectivity Reinforces Your Commitment
to Your Customers
In today's techno-centric business environment, disruptions
are more than inconvenient; they are the nemesis of
any business that conducts transactions over the Web.
Downtime means lost revenues for users; dissatisfied
customers for you. But savvy ISPs have found a way to
reduce the fears surrounding lost connectivity —
and demonstrate that service reliability is one of the
best methods for reinforcing the bond with their customers.
Simply put, an ISP guarantees that its service will
be up and running for a specified period of time, such
as 99.99 percent of each 30-day cycle. If the service
is down beyond this length of time, customers would
receive a prorated credit toward their next month of
service. Sprint provides service level agreements (SLAs)
backed by credits to guarantee that service levels for
Sprint Frame RelaySM Service and Sprint ATMSM Service
meet the performance criteria promised. More information
about SLAs for Sprint Frame Relay and Sprint ATM is available.
What's more, there are a number of ways for you to
increase reliability — and decrease recovery time
in the event of a loss of service. Building redundancy
into the network infrastructure, application servers,
and data content will increase reliability. Changing
the geographic load of a system also will aid in minimizing
loss of service. And above all, testing and re-testing
of these measures will prepare you to fully respond
to any loss of service.
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A Heads up can Keep Hackers out
Give your customers a heads up on hackers: what they
need to know, what they need to do, and how to avoid
becoming a victim.
Inform your customers to be wary of cloned or "spoofed"
sites, which could be controlled by hackers. These sites
con users into believing they are on legitimate Websites.
To spot a clone, check the domain name in the site's
URL. If the wording in the URL doesn't seem to relate
to the intended site, it could be a dummy site.
Users also can check Internet registration sites, Network
Solutions (www.nsi.com),
and Register.com (www.register.com)
to verify the legitimacy of the site in question. If
the details don't match the Web business that you're
looking up, then it may be a clone.
Customers should also beware of pings. Sent over digital
subscriber line (DSL) or cable lines, pings are like
digital searchlights that scan Internet protocol addresses
to find always-on machines. A good deterrent: firewalls.
Hardware or software firewall solutions can prevent
intruders from penetrating networks and protect your
users from getting burned. It's also another service
you can provide.
Warn your customers to proceed with caution when shopping
online. Currently a big trend, cybercrooks are hacking
onto legitimate sites and posting customers' credit
card numbers on the 'Net. Although credit liabilities
are limited to $50, advise customers to shop with well-known
Web merchants just the same. They should look for a
locked padlock in the bottom corner of their browser
before entering personal data, or use a separate card
for Web purchases.
Your customers will appreciate those valuable tips,
helping you promote retention. Visit the Sprint
IP Security Web site to find out more about Sprint
security solutions.
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Internet Service Providers (ISPs) - The Other Anti-Virus
Antidote
By offering your own ISP-based anti-virus protection
service, you can help your customers combat the viruses
that often infect their computers —- even before
they've had the chance to protect themselves. With two
economically distressing viruses attacking businesses
in 2000 — Inter@ctive Week reports the "ILOVEYOU"
virus cost the United States economy $8.7 billion, and
"Melissa" $1.2 billion - the need for alternative anti-virus
protection services cannot be overstressed.
Initially, the focus should be on scanning the e-mail
attachment, since this is how most viruses are spread,
and it's very easy to do. By offering your own fee-based
virus-protection service, you can intercept and destroy
many viruses before they reach your customers; this
service would be especially helpful to users who have
no virus protection. Also, customers won't have to worry
that installing another program will overload their
already taxed systems. Although this will probably not
eliminate the problem, the ISP scanning business seems
a logical and cost-effective first step to providing
increased security and service to your customers.
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