Making the Most of Your ISP Real Estate:
Front Porch Communications

A content management system that can move messages, ads, and other content into your subscribers' browsers, can also move revenue into your coffers.

by Christopher Knight [February 12, 2000]

Customer service is a challenge for every ISP. If there is a hiccup in your network, it can easily cost you $2 to $8 every time someone on your tech or customer service staff picks up the phone—even if it's to just reassure your subscribers that everything will be okay in a few minutes or hours. Enter a company called Front Porch Communications, which has found some ways to turn situations like these into revenue for you.

Front Porch's solution, called the PorchLight, is a TCP/IP based hardware/software/service device that sits between your authentication server and your router. Designed to be seamlessly integrated into an existing network with very few changes to the production environment, the unit is not a router replacement but rather a device on your local network that performs specialized tasks.

Perhaps the PorchLight can best be described as a specialized server/router coupled with value-added services from Front Porch. These services help ISPs take advantage of the first view of a web session by channeling subscribers to co-branded portals and delivering targeted content windows throughout a subscriber's web session. Front Porch's Internet Partnership Program incorporates their PorchLight suite of services to provide an easy way for ISPs to generate substantial additional revenue while simultaneously personalizing and reinforcing their customer relationships.

Here's a quick rundown of what PorchLight is designed to do for you:

• Improve customer satisfaction by delivering customized service messages to your subscribers
• Generate revenue by creating greater subscriber exposure to targeted Internet advertising
• Generate revenue and provide value to your subscribers by directing them to predetermined web sites
• Manage and customize subscriber participation
• View reports on usage and revenues

There are no fees for participating in the Front Porch program; all software and hardware necessary to implement the service are provided free of charge. The company has chosen the revenue sharing model, which motivates them to help you succeed with it, instead of selling you a solution and then leaving you on your own to make it work.

Front Porch's core services include the following offerings:

InfoSplash A windowing technology Front Porch touts as a powerful new means of communicating with your subscriber base. It will change the way your subscribers view advertisements, according to the company.

InfoSplash is a full-page window that is delivered to subscribers upon logon as the browser loads in the background. With InfoSplash, the ISP is guaranteed to capture the subscriber's first page view. The InfoSplash screen consists of two sections. On the bottom is the ISP Branding Bar, where ISPs place their logo, links to their Web site, and a real-time updateable message box that can be used to inform your customers of important announcements and customer service messages. The top portion of the InfoSplash is a targeted advertisement.

The ISP can choose how long the InfoSplash remains on the screen (10 seconds or longer). The InfoSplash is automatically transitioned to the start page if there is no user interaction.

InfoBurst Another windowing technology that can be utilized both for displaying advertisements and for communicating with your subscribers. The InfoBurst technology allows your ISP to continue displaying both advertisements and customer service messages to your subscribers at predetermined intervals, irrespective of the particular web page they are viewing, or the web site they are browsing.

InfoSplash and InfoBurst can help generate additional revenue through windowed advertisements. You can choose which customers view content windows and how often. You control the frequency of the advertisements, and therefore the amount of revenue generated. The more subscribers you enroll in these services, the more money you make.

ServerSelect This technology enables you to redirect your subscriber traffic to a chosen destination site, and Front Porch's PageMelding technology allows you to co-brand the destination site with your logo and other important information you currently communicate to your subscribers through your existing web site. You will receive new revenue from the destination site, and your subscribers will enjoy receiving the additional benefits of having you partner with major Internet content providers.

With ServerSelect and PageMelding, you make money while your subscribers gain access to new and exciting content co-branded by your ISP. Larger ISPs like their Server Select product to help channel subscribers back to their own portal, and smaller ISPs, who are sometimes resource constrained, can be married with a portal partner and the portal pays for the traffic. At this time, Front Porch has no portal partners signed up, but will in the near future.

Revenue generated by these advertisements and portal payments can offset lower dial-up fees and still generate additional revenue for your business. This model allows you to reward users for participating or increase your bottom line.

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