Those That Can Adapt Will Survive

Faced with an ever-changing business environment, Go Concepts has reinvented itself to meet the challenges by building new business lines.

by Jim Thompson [April 9, 2007]

"In the struggle for survival, the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals because they succeed in adapting themselves best to their environment."
—Charles Darwin

When Go Concepts, Inc. in Lebanon, Ohio first opened its doors in 1997, the company faced daunting odds. Like most hopeful but struggling independent ISPs, Go Concepts needed to find a way to distinguish itself in the marketplace if it was to survive. It did this by delivering broadband cable and electric meter reading services through the city's Telecommunications Bureau. The partnership vaulted the ISP to a leader in the market.

But after eight years of providing this service, Go Concepts was faced with another challenge when the cable infrastructure was purchased by Cincinnati Bell. Instead of accepting defeat, it leveraged its position and experience to create new business opportunities.

According to Dan Oliver, chief technical officer for Go Concepts, it was a matter of survival. "We just had to evolve if we were to survive. We are not a facilities-based company. We don't own any copper in the ground, so we had to come up with other ways to provide services."

Experience and expertise
Go Concepts quickly realized that its biggest asset was the talent and experience of its people. "Like most ISPs, we have skills in many areas, including communications technology, trouble ticketing and customer support," says Oliver. "We just had to find new ways to capitalize on those skills."

Go Concepts started by forging a new alliance with Cincinnati Bell and was soon providing customer service for its cable internet customers using the same in-house cable provisioning software they had developed over the past five years. When customers need help, they call the Go Concepts help support desk for solutions, not Cincinnati Bell's help desk. Additionally, Go Concepts does "a lot of the back-end routers and network design services for the Bell company."

Another new product was developed originally for the City of Lebanon. Go Concepts built a web-based, ticket tracking, workflow software called Dexatrack. According to Oliver, the software, which is available as a commercial, stand-alone product, allows "better communications between internal departments while streamlining the process of tracking customer issues."

John Gambill, CEO of Go Concepts, adds that "it is targeted toward municipalities, organizations, utilities and cable implementations to do internal tracking for any issues and for customers to submit tickets, as well. Basically, the customer calls in to report a problem, a ticket is generated and the issue is tracked from there on out. Since it is completely web-based, the information can be accessed from anywhere."

Diversify, diversify, diversify
The company has done more. It offers a host of services, including: dialup, DSL and other broadband services; domain registration; website design and hosting; colocation services; network design and installation; custom software applications; technology consulting, and hardware sales.

"We have been leveraging our people and expertise over time," adds Gambill. "We provide consulting from the small business owner right up to very large corporations and we offer security consulting for banks. Right now our main focus is application and software development like our Dexatrack product."

When asked if these new services and products are becoming the major focus of the business, instead of what is seen as the traditional business of the ISP, Oliver answers, "we are definitely heading in that direction."

"In many cases, we play a support role for other ISPs in other cities. We become kind of the tier 2 or back-end support network. We manage their servers and routers as well. The support services that we provide to other businesses is becoming a much bigger part of our business. But it all grew out of what is traditional ISP services."

He advises struggling ISPs to identify their areas of expertise. "You just have to find what you are good at—a niche—and go after it. Our Dexatrack software, for example, started as a cable ticketing system, scheduling system for technicians, and trouble tickets software. We have expanded it past that to networks, electric departments and water departments and other city utilities. It all grew out of one area where we had knowledge."

—End