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Article by Sam Martin, PE, CVS, President of OfficeOnWeb, Technologies. 10/1/2000

Since OfficeOnWeb specializes in creating business applications, I am often struck with how many mistakes people make in the Internet portion of their business. Some businesses almost seem to be screaming, "stay away, do not do business with us, we are not professionals."

With the hundreds of e-mails I receive each day, only about 50 will I examine for business purposes. The rest get dumped. "Make millions like I did." Right, and you cannot even afford to get a real e-mail address. If a business is using Hotmail, Yahoo mail, or the other free e-mail groups, it means they are not a real business at all. When I see a business that is Juno, I figure they cannot even afford to purchase Internet access. No way am I doing business with those people. Only, the ones that are using a real domain e-mail have some chance.

Today most real businesses have some kind of web site. Accordingly, before I purchase from a company, I look at their web site. If it professional, designed well, and can I get to where I want quickly, I am willing to look at their products. A site that looks like it was designed and built by a child, someone that didn't understand what the site was to do, or just doesn't look nice makes me less confident in the business. After all, if their web site does not show quality and care, how can I expect their product to have quality and reliability.

If support is an issue, I also check out if their web site has support documents and addresses support issues directly on line. The books for your car, TV, VCR, and all the rest can take a powder or just be out of date. When it is three AM, their office is closed, and absolutely no one is available that can answer how to get it fixed. Their web site should have the answer to my questions. If it appears to, then I have more faith in the product.

I also check out their contact information and how recently the contact page has been updated. If I need help, I want to know who to call. Further, if reputation is an issue, I may want to examine their pages on the company history and other features.

Discussions groups (Forums) are available on the web for about any subject one can imagine. If it is a major decision, I will join one and find others that have used the company's products. Again, I take notice of their e-mails. If they are really knowledgeable about the company, they will probably have a decent mail service. Further, if they are a competitor, their e-mail address will probably show that too.

Even if I plan to purchase in person, I also check out what happens when I order on line. If they don't place me in secure mode or I see that they are about to transmit my credit card data in an insecure fashion, I probably won't buy from them at all. How can I trust them if they don't try to protect their clients?

Finally, I find out how they market themselves. If they "spam" I figure that they are probably crooks, as all high volume spam is in violation of every backbone provider and indicates low character.

So, have you used the web to help you decide whom to trust with your business? Drop me a line and let me know how you have used it.

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Did you know that in 1998 more than 95% of OfficeOnWeb's new customers made a profit from their web site within their first year of operation? Sad, but it is true. This compares to less than 20% industry wide ever even breaking even. Why? Professional and directed expertise. This industry average for people leaving their current web service provider is 4% per month! That's nearly 50% over a year! Ours is less than 1% per year. That is because we endeavor to make our clients money and don't just offer a "pat solution" that we know has a low probability of ever making our client a profit. Some of the features that make up the level of success that our clients enjoy are:

 Five redundant backbone connections

 99.999% up time on UNIX servers

 Redundant OC-3 connect to all five backbones

 Full data center services

RAID 5 system with weekly backup of critical systems

 True Web Developer Services

 Large support site for clients and visitors

 Four level or higherencryption on all e-commerce solutions designed by Office On Web (this is the government standard required if Government people are to use a site)

 We NEVER host a commercial site on an access server (that is really bad, but common in dial up providers)

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