Hostway brings support, technology and reliability to SME clientele

Rawlson King, theWHIR.com

Chicago—November 5, 2002—Hostway will continue to cater to the small and mid-range enterprise segment. The company is renowned for the wide range of services it offers to resellers and small business owners. The firm was the first service provider to put forward completely managed dedicated server packages intended specifically for the SME marketplace.

Unlike other dedicated server packages, where companies only manage the network and hardware, Hostway manages every aspect of service so that small businesses need not undertake their own system administration tasks. The company entitles this service level as "Advantage." Under these service plans, offered on both Linux and Windows platforms, Hostway provides continuous network and service-level monitoring, tracking all load, resource and process usage.

According to John Lee, director of marketing and a co-founder of Hostway, the service is popular: "The last thing many of our customers want to worry about is their hosting provider. This service allows us to give our customers a hassle-free experience."

Hostway's "Advantage" level services are offered in conjunction with the company's proprietary hosting platform technology, SiteControl, which provides users with all the tools necessary to administer the necessary aspects of their server with ease through their own Web-based control panel. All other network and application-level services are maintained by Hostway systems staff to ensure uptime and effective administration. The company also offers small businesses traditional services such as shared hosting.

"Hostway continues to specialize in offering services to small businesses because the SME segment continues to experience health growth," reveals Lee. "We continue to experience a 100 per cent growth rate per annum."

The reason that the company continues to grow, according to Lee, is because of the company's credibility.

"Being publicly or privately owned should not be major criteria for a potential consumer of hosting services - instead a company's track record and profitability are key."

Lee states that Hostway's track record is based upon three factors, which differentiate the company from its competition: customer support, technology and reliability.

The company's customer support is superior because Hostway actually trains its employees through over 50 curricula developed in-house. Hostway also invested heavily in developing customer relationship services even before the term customer relationship management or CRM was en vogue. The result of implementing high-quality customer care programs is that over one-third of the firm's business is derived from customer referral.

The company also differentiates itself from the competition by focusing on developing its own hosting automation technology in-house.

"Our own home grown system, SiteControl, is completely tied to our back-end," states Lee. "We have spent a lot of resources in order to ensure that customers can control nearly every aspect of their service."

Hostway even offers its consumers a Web site building tool entitled "SiteBuilder" to ease the small business hosting experience. SiteBuilder's template driven software enables its customers to create a professional-looking site in a matter of minutes. Users can choose from hundreds of templates and designs to create a site for their company.

The company will continue to thrive due to the emphasis it places on serving the small business customer well, states Lee.

"Any hosting operation must focus on its business. Financial problems that other companies are experiencing cause them to focus less on their products, support or service."

The result, according to Lee is that the company continues to grow with half its customers coming from other companies. Users clamour for Hostway services due to its reliability.

"We continue to improve customer support, tweak products, better our operations and crease efficiencies to bring savings to our customers."

Hostway demonstrates that privately held, hosting companies that target the SME segment continue to grow and offer dependable services despite, or indeed because of the down market. The firm already has opened offices in Korea and the UK in the past two years and intends to open up additional offices in Europe and Asia before the year is out.

About Hostway Corporation

Hostway Corporation provides domain name registration, Web hosting and ecommerce, colocation, managed dedicated hosting, SaaS hosting, Web design and online marketing services to more than 600,000 customers worldwide. It operates state-of-the art data centers that reduce the complexity and cost of Web-based technologies for small businesses and large enterprises. Founded in 1998, Hostway is one of the three largest Web hosting companies in the world with a direct presence in 11 countries, 15 worldwide operation centers and more than 700 employees. Hostway franchises include: Affinity Internet, Bigstep, DiscountDomains, Hostway UK, Hostway Netherlands, Hostway Korea, Hostway Australia, Hostway Denmark, NetNation, PowerMedium, RegistryPro, Server Service, Service Over Internet, ValueWeb and WinSave.