Server Acceleration:
Valadeo Makes Webhosting a Breeze for ISPs

How much time do your technicians spend on the phone supporting new Web hosting clients? Would your ISP profit from partnering with a company that could speed-up the process for your business and your customers?

by Jeff Goldman [December 12, 2000]

LiveSite is Valadeo Technologies Corp. flagship application that allows both personal and small- or home-office users to easily create and publish a Web site through a series of customizable templates. The product is an attractive option for ISP operators and hosting firms seeking to draw a wider customer base because its adaptable and easy to use.

Cheap and easy
Dale Beckles, Valadeo Technologies president and chief executive officer founded the firm in 1996 after operating a Webhosting company and discovering that customers were often frustrated by how hard it was to build a Web site.

"Most people that I speak to, if I ask them if they have Internet connectivity, they virtually all say yes," Beckles said. "If I ask them if they have a Web site, they virtually all say no. Many of them truly don't understand the value, or they explore it and they realize that the costs and the complexity are beyond their ability to address it."

And so LiveSite tries to make it so easy that it's almost impossible to say no. The solution is directed specifically at courting first-time users. Beckles often uses his Father as an example of a typical customer.

"It's the ability to deliver solutions that are cost-effective and easy enough for a wide range of customers—that's what we're focused on," Beckles said. "We have great technology, but my Dad could care less about the technology; he just wants the damn thing to work. Make it cheap and make it easy."

Platform and pricing
LiveSite platform consists of three core components—LiveSite Server, LiveSite Creator, and LiveContent. LiveSite Server integrates with the Web host's existing infrastructure to automate key back-office functions, including publishing, billing, and customer management.

LiveSite Creator, available in interchangeable Windows-based and Web-based versions, allows a small-business user to easily create a unique web site, while LiveContent incorporates dynamic functions into users' Web sites from partners like Kodak, MapQuest, and The Weather Channel, among others.

To the end user, if downloaded directly from Valadeo Technologies, LiveSite Creator is free of charge. ISPs can distribute their own co-branded version of LiveSite Creator, which only allows its users to host sites with the distributing ISP.

Setup fees for ISPs range from $1,000 to $20,000. The ISP then pays about $3 per user per month for access to LiveSite's servers. The ISP can charge its customers any price it likes. Larger ISPs can negotiate a flat fee for unlimited usage of LiveSite servers.

Beckles said that the LiveSite platform is developed to assimilate easily with any ISPs legacy equipment and infrastructure. End users connect with LiveSite's servers only to publish or update their website—everything else is integrated directly with the ISPs servers.

"We recognize that they're accustomed to doing business their way," Beckles said. "So we knew we'd have to fit into their existing infrastructure, and that means all of their web servers, media servers, database servers, application servers, provisioning systems, and so on."

Web hosting partnerships
LiveSite currently has about 150 ISP and Web hosting partners. One such partner is Net Illusions, which features LiveSite prominently alongside its dial-up services, digital subscriber line access, and hosting services.

Steve Smith, Net Illusions president and chief executive officer, shares Beckles' enthusiasm for LiveSite's ease of use.

"Net Illusions' users have found the LiveSite software easy to use, with little knowledge of web site design needed," Smith said. "Net Illusions hears typical remarks from end users such as 'Wow, that was easy,' and 'I can't believe it, I did it myself' about the LiveSite software." Valadeo recently struck a major accord with EarthLink, which will be working with LiveSite in early 2001 to distribute a free co-branded CD in magazines nationwide.

Bob Furman, EarthLink director of external business sales, said the national ISP is enthusiastic about LiveSite's ability to simplify Web site creation services for its customers.

"We've looked at a lot of different software companies that provide template design for web sites," Furman said. "We only chose the ones that we feel are very good and make the end user experience like we want to have it here at EarthLink—easy, very educational, complete-but mainly easy to use, where it's not an obstacle for the end user to do what they want to do."

Furman added that Valadeo personnel was extremely sensitive to the company's needs in the way they designed its co-branded version of the service to keep expressly user-friendly.

Continuing growth
In November, Valadeo Technologies announced a partnership with Miva Corp. to incorporate Miva's e-commerce solutions into the LiveSite platform early in 2001. The new offering, called LiveSite e-Commerce Edition, will be designed to allow users to build and run online storefronts with the same ease of use that current LiveSite offerings provide. Future partnerships with other e-commerce solution providers are also in the works.

Beckles continues to look forward, seeking more opportunities to expand Valadeo's offering. He believes that the business opportunities for the firm are virtually limitless.

"If you asked us to define ourselves, we would call ourselves a communications company," Beckles said. "We want to facilitate communication for everyday people, any time, anywhere, on any device. So in our R&D labs we're doing a lot of work with voice recognition, we're doing a lot of things with wireless. Our vision of the world is that people want to communicate and share. We want to make LiveSite the enabling platform that allows people to do that over the Internet."

Beckles said an ISP owner's decision to partner with Valadeo should be a simple proposition.

"The value proposition is this—here's our platform, it runs on industry-standard equipment and integrates with your existing infrastructure. Sometimes we'll need to do a little bit of customization—we have a professional services group that can do that. We can get you installed, up and running, typically for under $10,000. And from that point on, we only get paid if customers use us."

— End  

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