Ensim Ignite Completes the Web Hosting Package

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Ensim Ignite Completes the Web Hosting Package
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By Liam Eagle, theWHIR.com
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April 12, 2004 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY
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REVIEW) — Most Web hosts and analysts are, by now, in agreement about
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the tremendous potential held by the small to medium-sized enterprise
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(SME) market as a base of Web hosting customers.
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Along with the attention, of course, has
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come an increasingly sophisticated set of hosting and hosting-related
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solutions for SME customers, as many of the largest companies in the
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Web hosting business – Interland, Verio and others – have turned heir
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attention, and their considerable resources, squarely toward the SME
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market.
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Many large Web hosts, through acquisition
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and internal development, have built out their basic Web hosting
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solutions with additional services like Web site building tools and
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Internet marketing solutions, providing customers with access to more
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complete support for their Internet presences. With much more limited
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resources, smaller hosting providers are finding it difficult to offer
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a comparable solution.
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With the launch of its Ensim Ignite offering on Monday, Web hosting automation software firm Ensim Corporation (ensim.com)
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says it has enabled smaller hosting providers to move beyond just Web
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hosting and offer customers a complete solution comparable to those
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previously offered by only the largest hosts.
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According to Steve Dauber, vice president
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of marketing at Ensim, most small businesses think of their Web
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presence as just a part of a larger marketing strategy, and often have
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not considered the amount of work involved in marketing the Web site
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alone.
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“What small business are looking for is a
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whole solution of which a Web site is a piece,” says Dauber. “They’re
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not technologists. They’re looking for their hosting company to guide
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them in using the Internet as a tool.”
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Through a series of partnerships, says
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Dauber, Ensim Ignite allows hosting provider to offer their customers
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email marketing, search engine submission, merchant services and SSL
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certificates.
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For search engine marketing service, Ensim partnered with SubmitNet (submitnet.net),
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a firm specializing in technology-driven search engine optimization
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tools. Through Ensim Ignite, hosting providers will be able to offer
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their customers SubmitNet’s tools for analyzing, testing, monitoring
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and reporting on the quality of their online presences.
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To enable hosts to offer customers an email marketing solution, Ensim partnered with Roving Software (constantcontact.com),
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developer of the Constant Contact do-it-yourself email marketing
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service. Through Ensim Ignite, hosts will be able to provide customers
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with the tools for creating effective, affordable email campaigns.
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For merchant services, Ensim partnered with PaySystems (paysystems.com),
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a provider of online payment systems and merchant services, allowing
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hosting providers to offer customers simple tools for processing credit
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cards and checks over the Internet.
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Ensim also partnered with secure computing firm VeriSign (verisign.com)
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to enable hosting providers to offer customers SSL certificates, which
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will allow them to establish secure connections with customers,
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ensuring that online transactions are safe.
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Through Ensim Ignite, says the company,
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hosting providers can generate increased revenue and profit with almost
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no up-front investment. The service is free to install, and simple to
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implement, says Ensim. Customers purchase the services directly from
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the participating vendors, so hosting providers are not required to
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deal with the customer support or billing expenses involved. For every
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service sold, Ensim sends out payment to the hosting provider.
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Making implementation simple for hosting
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providers was a matter of key focus for Ensim Ignite, says Dauber. And
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to that end, the company has created a set of marketing materials to be
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made available to Ignite users. The materials include things like email
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templates and Web site graphics that are free for hosting providers to
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use in selling the ignite services to their customers.
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“What we’ve done as part of this
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solution, in addition to pulling all the vendors together and arranging
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for the hosts to be paid, is we’ve created a set of
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professionally-developed marketing materials,” says Dauber. We’ve even
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arranged for hosts to get a free email marketing account through which
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they can manage their marketing of this solution to their customers.”
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Participation in Ensim Ignite is not
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limited to customers of the Ensim Pro control panel software. The
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program is available to all hosting providers, including those using
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competing control panels.
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Dauber says Ensim Ignite could level the
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playing field for small hosts serving the SME space. Much the way Ensim
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Pro opened up the Web hosting market to companies of every size, says
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Dauber, Ensim Ignite could allow smaller hosts to provide the complete
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solution previously available only to the large hosting providers.
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