Ensim Ignite Completes the Web Hosting Package

• By The WHIR, April 12, 2004

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Ensim Ignite Completes the Web Hosting Package

By Liam Eagle, theWHIR.com

April 12, 2004 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY

REVIEW) -- Most Web hosts and analysts are, by now, in agreement about

the tremendous potential held by the small to medium-sized enterprise

(SME) market as a base of Web hosting customers.

Along with the attention, of course, has

come an increasingly sophisticated set of hosting and hosting-related

solutions for SME customers, as many of the largest companies in the

Web hosting business – Interland, Verio and others – have turned heir

attention, and their considerable resources, squarely toward the SME

market.

Many large Web hosts, through acquisition

and internal development, have built out their basic Web hosting

solutions with additional services like Web site building tools and

Internet marketing solutions, providing customers with access to more

complete support for their Internet presences. With much more limited

resources, smaller hosting providers are finding it difficult to offer

a comparable solution.

With the launch of its Ensim Ignite offering on Monday, Web hosting automation software firm Ensim Corporation (ensim.com)

says it has enabled smaller hosting providers to move beyond just Web

hosting and offer customers a complete solution comparable to those

previously offered by only the largest hosts.

According to Steve Dauber, vice president

of marketing at Ensim, most small businesses think of their Web

presence as just a part of a larger marketing strategy, and often have

not considered the amount of work involved in marketing the Web site

alone.

"What small business are looking for is a

whole solution of which a Web site is a piece," says Dauber. "They're

not technologists. They're looking for their hosting company to guide

them in using the Internet as a tool."

Through a series of partnerships, says

Dauber, Ensim Ignite allows hosting provider to offer their customers

email marketing, search engine submission, merchant services and SSL

certificates.

For search engine marketing service, Ensim partnered with SubmitNet (submitnet.net),

a firm specializing in technology-driven search engine optimization

tools. Through Ensim Ignite, hosting providers will be able to offer

their customers SubmitNet's tools for analyzing, testing, monitoring

and reporting on the quality of their online presences.

To enable hosts to offer customers an email marketing solution, Ensim partnered with Roving Software (constantcontact.com),

developer of the Constant Contact do-it-yourself email marketing

service. Through Ensim Ignite, hosts will be able to provide customers

with the tools for creating effective, affordable email campaigns.

For merchant services, Ensim partnered with PaySystems (paysystems.com),

a provider of online payment systems and merchant services, allowing

hosting providers to offer customers simple tools for processing credit

cards and checks over the Internet.

Ensim also partnered with secure computing firm VeriSign (verisign.com)

to enable hosting providers to offer customers SSL certificates, which

will allow them to establish secure connections with customers,

ensuring that online transactions are safe.

Through Ensim Ignite, says the company,

hosting providers can generate increased revenue and profit with almost

no up-front investment. The service is free to install, and simple to

implement, says Ensim. Customers purchase the services directly from

the participating vendors, so hosting providers are not required to

deal with the customer support or billing expenses involved. For every

service sold, Ensim sends out payment to the hosting provider.

Making implementation simple for hosting

providers was a matter of key focus for Ensim Ignite, says Dauber. And

to that end, the company has created a set of marketing materials to be

made available to Ignite users. The materials include things like email

templates and Web site graphics that are free for hosting providers to

use in selling the ignite services to their customers.

"What we've done as part of this

solution, in addition to pulling all the vendors together and arranging

for the hosts to be paid, is we've created a set of

professionally-developed marketing materials," says Dauber. We've even

arranged for hosts to get a free email marketing account through which

they can manage their marketing of this solution to their customers."

Participation in Ensim Ignite is not

limited to customers of the Ensim Pro control panel software. The

program is available to all hosting providers, including those using

competing control panels.

Dauber says Ensim Ignite could level the

playing field for small hosts serving the SME space. Much the way Ensim

Pro opened up the Web hosting market to companies of every size, says

Dauber, Ensim Ignite could allow smaller hosts to provide the complete

solution previously available only to the large hosting providers.

Tags:  Partnerships  SSL  control panel  billing  Search engine  Search engine optimization  Constant Contact  Ensim  Ignite  Iona  NEC  Search Engine Optimization  Secure Computing  Submitnet  Verio  VeriSign 

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