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Article by Sam Martin, PE, CVS, President of OfficeOnWeb, Technologies. 12/8/1998

You've already heard about it. Everywhere it's www this dot com and www that dot com. It's on the television, radio, in the paper— everywhere you look. Is it time for your business to join in, or is it just another "pet rock" fad? Can your business profit from it, or will it be an expensive drain on your finances?

It is not a fad. It is the future of business. According to monitoring services, 15% of US citizens had web access in 1997, by mid-June 1998, the estimate was 25%. In Europe, more than 15% have Internet access. In April 1998, Time UK stated that, "For a business, having an Internet address will soon be as important as having a telephone number."

Today, virtually every kind of business has a web site. Even if you don't have an Internet address, you can bet that your competition does. A business that ignores marketing in a popular media where the competition can be found is asking for trouble.

At present, an estimated 100-million people are connected to the Internet. That is a pretty big market. To join in that market and generate a decent return on your Internet investment, you need professional help. Few of us would try to become an electrician to install lights in our business, so why expect to generate years of programming, marketing, and other expertise within your firm to launch a web site? Instead, hire a commercial Internet professional firm.

An electrician must at least have a license— not so on the Internet. A 12-year old with a computer can launch a web design firm. In picking a professional firm, do some checking. If you need to, go to the library and use a computer there. When talking to a web design firm, ask for examples of the commercial sites they have done. Do they have satisfied clients? Who? What are those web site addresses? Check the sites. Are they business specialists as well as web design professionals? Not every business is the same, yet many people will allow the marketing of the Internet side of their business to be identical to all other businesses. Are their servers "business" servers? If they are, they will be connected to multiple "backbones" with T3 (DS3) or better, dial-in access users will not share the lines, the server will generate real business visitor statistics (that only the web site owner and the provider can access), and they will offer many support services. So spend a little time to check it out so that your business can be another Internet success— and don't be behind your competition.

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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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