IncTechnology.com > Intranet and Extranets

How to Live Stream a Meeting

Michelle V. Rafter — 2009-10-28T10:34:15-05:00

Scott Kurtz was looking for a way to promote his 10-year-old Web cartoon business when he decided to broadcast himself drawing the strip, an ode to video games and the geeks who love them called PvPOnline.com.

After some initial experimentation, the 38-year-old Dallas resident hit on a winning formula: he draws the strip directly onto a touch-sensitive computer screen and live streams the video and audio over a website called Ustream.tv so fans can watch him work.

At first Kurtz was self conscious about sharing his creative process with the world. But once dozens and then hundreds of fans started logging on at any given time -- and sticking around to chat with each other and buy the strip’s merchandise -- Kurtz got a lot more comfortable with the concept. “They really are getting to know me, they’re getting invested, and that’s the X factor between a causal viewer and someone who might want to buy something,” he says.

Like Kurtz, small business owners are starting to use live streaming in all aspects of their operations, including sales, marketing, and customer service.

Broadcasting in real time

Live streaming is like podcasting with a few major exceptions. Both consist of an audio or video segment broadcast over the Internet. But while a podcast is recorded for future download and playback, live streaming happens in the here and now. Unlike the solitary experience of listening to a podcast, broadcasters also link live streams to chat rooms and other social networking features so viewers can exchange comments with each other while they’re watching.

Live streaming is taking off in and out of business circles because the equipment that’s required has become plentiful and cheap. It’s also been helped by a proliferation of Internet-based broadcasters such as Ustream, Livestream.com, and Justin.tv that small business owners can use to stream their feeds for little or nothing.

In many parts of the country, companies that would rather not take on the logistics of live streaming a meeting themselves can now hire a live streaming producer or consultant to do the work for them for hundreds or thousands of dollars depending on the length and complexity what’s being produced.

For do-it-yourself types, a basic live stream set up doesn’t cost much. Must-haves include:

A reliable high-speed Internet connection and some kind of video input -- a high resolution or high-definition video camera is recommended but even a PC’s built-in webcam will do
Audio from a video camera or stand alone microphone
A computer with enough processing power and memory to handle upload speeds of 500 kilobytes per second for normal broadcasting or 1 megabytes per second for HD pictures

Kurtz, the Web cartoonist, uses a free software program called CamTwist to stream what appears on his Mac’s monitor to Ustream, and Audio Hijack Pro, another free program that lets him stream audio from his video camera, Skype, iTunes, or another audio source.

Though she can’t quantify exactly how many of Livestream.com’s 450,000 active channels are run by small businesses, the number is growing, says Deborah Kornfilt, the New York City company’s head of content and partnerships. Among them: Network Solutions, which streamed its recent GrowSmartBizConference on the network; Women’s Enterprise Network, an Ohio-based organization that runs a channel devoted to promoting women in business; and a retailer that streamed a fashion show to market its wedding dresses. “They had a contest to win a wedding gown and used live stream as an incentive to bring traffic to their site,” Kornfilt says.

Like several other live stream broadcasters, Livestream.com offers a free service that’s supported by advertising, as well as premium plans with lots of extra, including a white-label player companies can put on their own website. At Livestream.com, premium plans cost $350 and $1,250 a month for additional channels and storage as well as HD-quality video.

Hiring a live stream producer

Businesses that would rather not do their own live streaming can hire Internet broadcasters and live event producers to do the work for them. SLL Productions in Portland, Ore., handles everything related to designing, setting up, and broadcasting an event. The firm, run by husband and wife team Mike and Cami Gebhardt, also provide extras such as conducting interviews at a company’s event and broadcasting them along with the event’s main stream. “It provides a deeper online experience for people who can’t attend” in person, Mike Gebhardt says.

Joe Christiansen, owner of Blaze Streaming Media, also of Portland, thinks of himself as a virtual event coordinator, staging a client’s live stream, testing Internet access at a meeting space and capturing e-mail addresses from people who watch the live stream for the client to use for lead generation afterward. He also acts as the liaison between his client and the live stream broadcaster and provides extras that a Livestream.com or Ustream might not offer.

Such customization doesn’t come cheap. Christiansen’s fee for live streaming an event runs $1,000 to $10,000. His bill to live stream an Oregon soil company’s three-hour fall meeting, including running multiple cameras and live chat was $3,500. Christiansen’s fee also included statistics on exactly how many minutes each one of the company’s customers tuned in, information sales reps will use in follow-up calls. “Times are tough and their attendance was down” but the live stream gave the company a way to connect to customers anyway, he says.

Blogging Behind Closed Doors

Michelle V. Rafter — 2007-12-17T04:45:30-05:00

Paul Gillin calls it the hidden blogosphere.

“It” is in-house blogs, and while they haven’t garnered the same hype as companies’ public blogs, they could be just as big, says Gillin, a new media consultant, blogger and author of The New Influencers, a book on social media. “Most companies don’t publicize what they’re doing, but by some estimates, the amount of blogging going on behind corporate firewalls is maybe even greater than the amount we see in public,” he says.

The reasons are simple. Blogging tools are widely available, cheap, and easy to use. The way a blog disseminates information -- from one to many -- gives it an edge over e-mail, says Gillin and other business and technology analysts. And unlike e-mail, people can opt to subscribe only to information that interests them, or look at information when it’s convenient, “but they don’t have to have it pushed to them in a way that’s disrupts their work,” Gillin says.

For companies contemplating starting an internal blog, the first step is deciding what purpose it will serve. For that, small businesses can take a page from their larger counterparts. Microsoft, for example, started a jobs blog that lists openings and lets employees who hold those positions post comments about what the job is like. Casio uses a blog to have departments quickly change content on the company’s intranet. HP has an internal blog platform employees can use to blog on their choice of topics, although 90 percent are about what they’re working on, says Tac Anderson, Web 2.0 strategic lead at HP’s LaserJet business group in Boise, Idaho.

Next steps to blogging in-house

With a direction in mind, companies can take these next steps:

Choose who’ll write it. Some blogs are one-person affairs. Others are a team effort. Whatever the arrangement, someone needs to be the go-to person for choosing the software, making sure things stay up and running, and handling problems.
What’s the topic? Blogs can cover a lot of ground, so limiting what’s discussed might be counter productive. A better approach might be deciding what not to write about. Trade secrets and other proprietary information shouldn’t be discussed in an open forum where content could easily be copied into an e-mail message and circulated for all to see, Gillin says.
Get people to use it. HP’s Anderson suggests that an internal blog-meister enlist the aid of a few well-placed company cheerleaders who’ll help promote it by posting comments and talking it up in meetings.

Tools of the trade

When it comes to blog software, there’s something for everyone, no matter how minor the undertaking. With such a range of choices, it follows that costs are all over the map too. Companies that want to host their own blogs can download open source software like WordPress, b2evolution, orRoller, or proprietary programs like Moveable Type. Or they can sign up for a hosted service like Blogger, TypePad, or LiveJournal. Some vendors of enterprise social networks are starting to build blogging into their platforms, including Blogtronix and Awareness Networks. If companies choose to use a third party to host their internal blog, they should double check vendor agreements to make sure they retain rights to any information stored on someone else’s servers, says Lee Huang, a Web 2.0 consultant and former director of digital strategy and technology at Nielsen Business Media, the print and Web publisher.

SIDEBAR: Blogs about In-House Blogs

Now that everyone and their brother is blogging, there is plenty of information about tools, tips and protocol available in -- where else -- blogs. Several that discuss the mechanics and nuances of enterprise blogs are:

NewCommBiz.com, Tac Anderson’s blog on Web 2.0 technologies
Paul Gillin’s blog, Social Media and the Open Enterprise
56 Resourceful Blogging Tips and Tools For The Young & Old, from self-proclaimed “Wordpress Rock Star” Etienne Teo, which includes links to software platforms and vendors

Pick and Choose: Social Networking Vendors

Michelle V. Rafter — 2007-12-17T04:36:28-05:00

Imagine shopping for a new car and having 80 auto makers to choose from. Intimidating, right?

Well, to all small businesses planning to set up an in-house social network, consider yourselves warned. The more popular social networks become and companies see the benefit of deploying them internally as well as externally, the more technology vendors venture into the business. Jeremiah Owyang, an analyst at Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass., estimates 80 companies now offer enterprise social network platforms, and dozens more sell software and services for blogging, wikis and other iterations of Web 2.0.

But before meeting with sales reps, company managers should consider what they want an internal social network to do, who’ll use it, and how it could grow over time -- in other words have a plan. Those decisions will drive the technology and delivery method you choose, industry experts say.

Determine how a network will be used

A company may want an in-house network -- often referred to as a community or employee network when it’s inside a business -- to:

Foster collaboration between workers
Identify and cultivate “star” employees
Maintain the corporate knowledge pool
Keep tabs on departing employees

Certain vendors are better at some niches than others, says Rachel Happe, a research manager with technology researcher at IDC. Or a company might start an employee network now and add an in-house blog or other Web 2.0 applications later, so they’ll want a platform that can grow with them, she says.

When Scott Westfahl left his professional development job at McKinsey & Co.for a similar post in Washington D.C., at Goodwin Procter, a high-profile law firm, he wanted to duplicate the same high-caliber alumni network McKinsey operated. That led him to partner with SelectMinds, a social network vendor that got started creating corporate alumni networks.

Goodwin Procter’s alumni network debuted in September 2006, and includes a searchable employee and alumni directory, job board, and career counseling center. Since then, 70 percent of the firm’s current attorneys have signed on, as well as 550 alumni. It’s become a great tool for, among other things, helping associates who don’t make the partnership track to find new jobs, Westfahl says. “I want them to be part of our network because they could be a potential client, but it also shows that the firm still cares about their development after they leave.”

Other factors companies should consider when choosing an enterprise network platform:

Whether to license social network software or sign up with a hosted, software-as-a-service provider. Companies with an IT staff might choose the former, while companies without much technical expertise might choose the later.
What person or people will oversee the network? Depending on how it’s used, that individual could come from product development, marketing or HR, analysts say.
What policies are needed to address issues of proper use, security, and privacy? Policies should be set down in writing. “Will you let employees set up interest groups around biking or knitting, or is this just business? Either is valid, but be clear about what your expected use is,” IDC’s Happe says.
How long a vendor has been in business and who their customers are: the closer the match to your company plans to use the technology, the better, analysts say. They also recommend creating an exit strategy in the event a vendor gets acquired or goes out of business.

SIDEBAR: Vendors galore

With a plan in place, it’s time to sift through vendors. Bigger companies might work with a consultant or purchase market reports from companies like IDC or Forrester that spell out who’s who among enterprise social network vendors. There’s also plenty of free information about the vendors to on blog posts like this vendor list on Web Strategist, a blog Jeremiah Owyang started before he joined Forrester. Companies can also keep tabs on vendors at Groundswell, a social networking technology blog written by fellow Forrester consultant Charlene Li.

OurSpace: Create an In-House Social Network

Michelle V. Rafter — 2007-11-28T00:05:17-05:00

Your company built a Facebook page to nab job hunters, created a blog to promote products and services, and started a customer service forum on your website. Now what?

For many businesses, the next step is bringing social networking technologies inside the company firewall. As companies grow accustomed to using MySpace, Facebook, and other social networking sites, many are using Web 2.0 tools in house to improve how employees communicate, work together, or move through the corporate ranks. “For Gen Y, it’s a tool they’ve grown up using to connect with people, so when they go into an organization, they’re demanding the same kind of tools to foster connectivity,” says Diane Pardee, chief marketing officer at SelectMinds, a social networking platform vendor.

Enterprise heavyweights Microsoft and Cisco Systems as well as specialists like SelectMinds, Visible Path, and Leverage Software offer enterprise social networking platforms, and more products are debuting all the time. They’re competing in an applications market that’s still tiny but is expected to grow to $428.3 million by 2009, according to a report published earlier this fall by IDC, the technology researcher. "Social networking is the new must-have communication application and is being used for both marketing and operational efficiency," says IDC research manager Rachel Happe, in a written statement.

Keeping employees happy

Faced with a shortage of knowledge workers, companies are doing everything they can to find and hold onto people, and one way to do that is to make them feel connected at work. What’s more, companies with virtual offices or multiple locations need to make it easier for workers to share knowledge. Enter social networks. Think Facebook, but instead of profiles that list people’s friends, bands and movies, an employee’s profile on a company network might include jobs held, current projects, proficiencies, special interests, bookmarks, and a list of their work partners and friends.

Some businesses set up mini-networks within networks to help out specific employee groups such as sales team, mentor partners, or women. Networks are also a great way to keep in touch with employees who retire, go on family leave or quit for a different job, because you never know when someone might want to come back. “Maintaining relationships for life is very important,” says Pardee, of SelectMinds. “From the time someone’s an intern making them part of the company’s social network so they can be in touch makes it more likely they’ll be recruited back into the organization.”

Start out simple

Many social networking applications are offered as software-as-a-service solutions, so the requirements of getting started can be minimal. But if even that sounds daunting, or if a business isn’t sure a full-blown enterprise social network is right for them, there are ways to adopt social media that don’t take a lot of time, effort, or money.

For example, if a company uses Microsoft’s intranet platform they could try that technology’s SharePoint feature for Web-based collaboration if they aren’t already, says Tac Anderson, Web 2.0 strategic lead at HP’s LaserJet business group in Boise, Idaho, and a long-time social networking industry tracker. Or start an internal company blog, says Anderson, who blogs about social networking at NewCommBiz.com. “If you have a relationship with a Web developer or IT professional and you’re happy with them, this is work that they could do,” he says.

For companies considering out-of-the-box solutions, Anderson recommends reading product reviews on the blog TechCrunch.

Joining the VPN Set

Renee Oricchio — 2007-05-25T14:01:02-05:00

It wasn’t too long ago that “logging in from home” was less of a phrase and more of a perk for corporate upper-management types. Nowadays, with the proliferation of secure virtual private networks (VPNs), it’s actually more like a given for the average worker.

“It’s as essential as a cell phone,” says Benjamin Brukner, an IT consultant with Stemp Systems, based in Long Island City, N.Y. “If you’re a small to mid-size business without a VPN, we find with our customers it’s entirely an issue of education.”

It’s also typically an issue of size. The statistics tell the story. According to AMI Partners, a market intelligence company based in New York City, only a third of PC-owning companies with five to 19 employees has a VPN. Compare that to 75 percent of all companies with 50 to 500 employees that have VPNs.

In other words, the bigger you get the more likely you need it. If you’re business is one of those companies still doing without or contemplating scaling up, perhaps this brief primer will help you take the next step:

What a VPN is

A VPN is not a wide area network (WAN). A WAN is a point-to-point connection between two distant computers or private networks typically over leased lines or a dedicated circuit path. Larger organizations, including internet service providers and entire cities typically have a WAN. The Internet itself is considered a WAN.

A VPN is a cheaper solution that connects far-flung private networks and its users by piggy-backing across already existing public telecommunications infrastructure using secure connections protected by a variety of “tunneling” and privacy protocols.

VPNs can be kept in-house or hosted by outside companies. To determine what type your business needs, consider the following questions:

How much traffic do you anticipate? Take an inventory of the number of remote offices or work-from-home employees involved.
How often will these satellite users be dialing in to the system?
What percentage of your staff works on the road almost exclusively?
What about access for customers and suppliers?
How mission critical will your VPN be to the business?

Hosted VPNs

There are many advantages to a hosted VPN. Top of the list, it’s a turnkey solution for the company, not having to deal with maintenance or upgrades. This is especially advantageous for smaller companies with little or no on-site IT staff. “The more dependent you are on outside IT support, the more likely hosted is better. For the early stages of deploying VPN, you’re better off with hosting,” says Andy Bose, CEO of AMI Partners.

Bose, who frequently advises small to midsize businesses, offers the following tips for picking a hosting provider:

Make sure the host is industry friendly to your business. If you’re an insurance company, find a provider that caters especially to the insurance industry, for example.

Find out what brands of IT solutions they use, like Cisco or Microsoft. Make sure they are certified to maintain them.

Seek out references and client testimonials. How big is the provider? What size companies do they serve and how many?

Commit to only six months up front. “For that first contract, six months is a good length. Less than that wouldn’t give you enough time to gauge the provider’s effectiveness. But, you want to be able to get out of it fairly quickly if it’s not working out,” says Bose.

Keeping a VPN in-house

If a hosted VPN is so easy, why would any company choose to do it themselves? First of all, it means more control and better service since you are relying on your own IT staff. If you already have a robust IT infrastructure and staff, the organization will likely get a better result in terms of integration, future scalability and customization. It may also be cheaper.

Here are the types of VPN solutions on the market today:

Point to point tunneling protocol (PPTP). PPTP is largely associated with Microsoft since it was developed by them. Naturally, it works great with the Windows operating systems. Not all firewalls, however, support PPTP, so integration can be seamless or a nightmare. Double check before you commit.

Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP). L2TP is a hybrid solution developed by Microsoft and Cisco. L2TP works with a wider range of other brand name VPN appliances than PPTP. But there are still limitations. Again, do your homework before buying.

Internet Protocol Security (IPSec). IPSec is a security protocol that sends data securely through an encrypted “tunnel” through the Internet. Unlike PPTP and L2TP, it is supported by all of the other major VPN and firewall vendors making it your best bet for integration and scalability in the future.

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). This is the so-called clientless solution, since it is Web-based. There’s no need for client software, no worries about integration and there are no limits on the number of users that can use it. The only hitch: it can only access Web-enabled servers.

Last piece of advice: make all your decisions with an eye on the future and with scalability in mind. The last thing you want to do is have to start over from scratch.

What is an Extranet?

Jodi Mardesich — 2006-10-09T21:52:58-05:00

The Internet popularized instant communications with far-flung computers via the simple click of a mouse. Anyone with a Web browser can follow links and hop from site to site, gleaning information that companies and people have decided to publish. That same point and click access can be used to speed communication and enhance collaboration between a company and its partners and customers.

But what happens when a company needs to share information that is confidential?

That’s where the “extranet” comes in.

What is an extranet

An extranet has the appearance and feel of a website, but adds levels of security to prevent unwanted viewers from clicking through to private data. Similar to an intranet -- a private Internet for people inside a company -- an extranet widens the circle to privileged outsiders.

An extranet can streamline the sharing of information, as well as applications and services. For example, a public relations agency may want to review marketing materials with a client. Rather than e-mail a large file, or fax it, or send it via costly overnight mail, the agency could put the materials on a private website. An extranet. The agency might also want to use this extranet to collaborate with clients, sharing calendars, project management tools, and other applications.

“An extranet allows the organization to have a closer, interactive relationship with its customers, partners, etc., without the need for complete management of the users or their IT environment,” says Ray Wagner, research vice president with Gartner Inc., of Stamford, Conn.

How does it work

Extranet functionality comes in different forms. A public website is a simple extranet, Wagner says. “If it has interactivity, it’s a little more complex. If it has a limited user base that’s controlled by the organization in some way, it’s even more complex,” Wagner says. “If it has real applications that allow business transactions, collaboration, or sharing of corporate intellectual property to occur, it’s very complex and requires significant resource outlay, planning, and security.”

Extranets also require measures to ensure privacy and security of information. Some of the security methods that can protect extranets from unauthorized access include the use of virtual private networks (VPNs), firewalls, user authentication and/or encryption.

Extranets for small business

One way for a small business to provide an extranet is through hosted applications, like WebEx’s WebOffice, Trichys’ WorkZone, and Microsoft SharePoint Services. In addition, Microsoft plans to release Microsoft Office Live, a hosted version of the Office application suite that allows groups to collaborate.

Sharing information via a hosted workspace is often easier on the bottom line, which is important to the small or fast-growing business, says Karen Leavitt, vice president of WebEx. “It’s far more cost effective to put information into a hosted workspace, a shared repository on the Web to exchange information in real time with your clients,” Leavitt says. Hosted applications are great for small businesses without an IT department, she says. “There is no setup at all,” she says. “Everything is hosted on the Web.”

Besides saving a company the cost of running a more expensive server-based application, like Microsoft Exchange, such collaboration services help a company to accelerate revenues. “If a sales guy can literally meet with six different prospects in a day by conducting Web meetings with them, rather than getting on a plane and doing one or two, they have more opportunities to close business for the company,” Leavitt says.

The Basics: What is an Intranet?

Peter Suciu — 2006-09-27T13:05:29-05:00

The Internet had made the sharing of data and other information between businesses, the customers and partners extremely easy, even if the users are located across great distances. Likewise, the navigation of the World Wide Web has been readily streamlined in such a way that information can be retrieved quickly, and requires little installed software beyond a Web browser. However, the downside of the Internet is that this information is also available in such a way that it can be found and accessed by other users, as well.

Intranet: a private Internet

A closed version of the Internet is an “Intranet,” which is a private, or at least semi-private computer network. It relies on the basic Internet protocols (those unique addresses that every computer online has), as well as the same type of network connectivity between machines. But unlike a basic local area network (LAN), an Intranet doesn't require that all the computers on this network to be within the same room or building. As with the Internet, the network can rely on the public telecommunication system to connect distant computers together.

The difference is that this semi-closed network is basically protected by firewalls or other encryption, making it like an exclusive club. This is perfect for a business that has information that it wants employees or partners to see, but not any one else. Others can try to access it, but without the right password or other protocol, access is denied.

“An Intranet is used to convey information,” says Charles Kolody, an analyst with IDC, a Framingham, Mass. research firm. He says that an Intranet is ideal for any company that wants to have a single point where employees can get information about the company. Information about training, benefits, products, or customers can be deployed on the company's Intranet, but that information will be protected from outsiders.

Unlike a LAN, an Intranet is also about more than merely accessing another computer's desktop or hard disc drives for file and print sharing. Intranets typically use a Web-styled browser, but also support other features such as FTP sites and e-mail for the sharing of information and communication with other users.

"An Intranet helps to centralize and organize data in one place, so employees can quickly and easily locate, share and contribute timely information," says Carolyn Douglas of SQBox Solutions, founder of Intranet Connections, an Intranet software maker from North Vancouver, British Columbia. “One of the more powerful features of an Intranet is the ability to collaborate with other employees and obtain important corporate data from one central source."

In some ways, an early Intranet was America Online. Users had to dial into a server PC that then connected to a larger network. Today's Intranets are also more advanced, and with the Internet however, you can connect to an Intranet through your existing connections, and possibly any outside computer. The downside to Intranets that are accessible through the Internet is that they are susceptible to hackers, who can attempt to access one point and thus gain access to the entire network.

Benefits of an Intranet

The main goal of an Intranet is to allow a company to share information among employees or partners, but it can also limit access to the outside world. Sometimes access to the Web is restricted so that workers don't spend a time surfing Web sites that have no relation to their work. For a small business, there are many benefits of an Intranet:

Greater access for all employees, especially for a small or medium-sized business that must rely on the quick sharing of information between multiple offices or locations. This provides faster and easier access to more accurate company information.
Ease of use for employees, because existing Web browsers can be used to navigate the Intranet. This reduces the need to install specialized programs in many cases, and further requires little additional training of applications.
Ease of shared data, reducing the need for printouts or other hardcopies.
Protection of sensitive material, as users log in to a closed network and data does not have to be sent out to users in different offices or those working remotely. Instead the data is access by the individual, thus limiting the chances that a person outside the company might access it.
Updated information can be available to all users at the same time.

Can Visitors Navigate Your Site?

Matt May — 2006-09-08T13:31:52-05:00

Testing Web sites for usability is largely recognized as a requirement for launching top-quality sites. Advocates of usability testing have emphasized the need for sites to evaluate how successfully they've communicated their message to their target audience. And the results of usability testing are extremely valuable, not only in terms of fixing user interface flaws, but also in uncovering users' needs.

Still, something's missing. It seems that many Web sites consider usability testing to be a luxury, an unnecessary expense that can be ignored. The belief that companies need to hire an outside agency to run usability testing also causes them to shy away. Really, though, you don't need much time or money to test your site. Spending just a couple of days with a dozen or so subjects, you can run a successful, professional usability test for less than $1,000.

The Tools

The first thing you'll need in order to begin testing is, well, a room with a computer. You'll want to equip the machine with a 33.6 Kbps modem (don't forget, this is how most of the Web sees your site) and a 14- or 15-inch monitor. It's possible to test usability with nothing more than this and a moderator, if you like, but there are some extras you may want to consider. Programs such as Virtual Network Computing (VNC) or Microsoft NetMeeting -- both freely available -- can let your development team watch the users' actions, including their mouse movements, from a computer in another room. (You don't want users to feel like they're performing in front of an audience.)

For a few dollars more, you can add an $80 Web camcorder to watch the users' facial expressions. These often speak louder than words. You can even save all this information for further review with a television, VCR, and a VGA-to-TV converter, which can be purchased for less than $200. Remember, this equipment is reusable, so a $300 initial outlay is pretty reasonable.

The Subjects

It's usually not hard to find subjects for usability testing. You'll need 8 to 12 subjects to produce reliable test results. Often you can post a message to a newsgroup or mailing list, or even your own site, soliciting participants. Offering cash -- say, $50 -- in exchange is a popular tactic but, depending on your audience, you may do just as well giving away gift certificates, T-shirts, or something else.

It's important to be an objective moderator in usability testing. Be extremely careful with your mannerisms and reactions: Anything you do may skew the sample you're collecting. Encourage your subjects to be as descriptive, honest, and candid as possible. Welcome all types of feedback, including comments on your choice of color scheme and font. These comments are all valuable. Ask subjects to describe every step they're taking as they navigate through the site. Have them make notes on everything that's awkward or confusing.

The Questions

Create a set of opening questions, focusing on the users' general experience with computers and the Net, previous experiences with the site, and what they want from it in the future. Prepare a set of simple tasks related to common features on the site. Allow users to stray from the path: This can help you determine exactly where you should place certain features of your site.

When a task is completed, ask subjects what they thought of the process and how it can be improved. (In the event that a user fails to complete a task, don't force the issue. Move on. You're testing the site, not the user, and a user failure may indicate something that needs to be reworked.) When the testing is complete, ask the subject for an overall opinion. Focus on trouble spots.

The Results

In the final analysis, you'll need to look at your notes, user responses, and any video you've gathered, and try to determine patterns. The most important details to be worked out are failed tasks. They're likely to be problem areas for many users, and they should be addressed immediately. Take note of any other common problems users had, and address them as soon as you can. Even after the usability testing, you can take e-mail feedback and see if user troubles have continued.

Keep Going!

What do you do when you're done with usability testing? Run another session! I recommend running usability testing at least every quarter, in order to catch new problems as they surface and any changes in your target users and their needs.

In addition, it is very important that sites conduct usability testing before any site rollout or redesign. Successful testing -- and the changes that come with it -- produce tangible results in terms of user acquisition and loyalty. For that alone, it's well worth the time and effort.

Great Space, Southern Exposure, Free T1

Jill Hecht Maxwell — 2006-09-08T13:24:19-05:00

Inc.ubator

Leasing office space? You could get high-speed Internet access for a very nice price

Depending on where you lease your office space, a fast Internet connection could cost your company as much as $1,500 a month. And that's if the building is already wired. How does free wiring and access sound instead?

Several telecommunications start-ups are now wiring office buildings for high-speed Internet access at no charge to the building owner or the tenants -- and, in at least one case, they're giving away the service itself. Those companies call themselves on-site service providers, or OSPs, and they make money -- or at least plan to make money -- by selling other data and voice services to the buildings' inhabitants. Their arrival could signify big savings for small companies.

As a business model, the OSP approach may sound screwy, but it's been done before. Retailers call it a loss leader: a product that a store sells below cost in order to attract customers who'll buy much more. Think "Old Navy Item of the Week." Similarly, high-speed Internet access has recently become the performance fleece vest of the information age.

Several of the start-ups that have jumped into the giveaway game are already economic forces to be reckoned with. They include Allied Riser Communications Corp., in Dallas, which went public last October; OnSite Access Inc., in New York City, which filed for an initial public offering earlier this year; Cypress Communications Inc., in Atlanta; and BroadBand Office Inc., in Palo Alto, Calif.

Given the larval stage the market is in, it's difficult to predict which companies will morph into something even bigger. What is clear is that small businesses stand to benefit from the early competition. As many as 85% of small companies lack dedicated Internet-access lines, according to an August 1999 report from Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, and OSPs really want those customers. So they've competitively priced their offerings, which include local and long-distance phone service, E-mail, and Web hosting. And the founders of those start-ups know that in the juicy but choosy small-business market, customer service is clutch. Several have adopted the strategy of stationing a customer-service person at each building for tech support and sales. That's a far cry from the endless androidesque voice-mail menus of the traditional phone companies.

And there's more good news for small businesses: at least one small start-up OSP has taken the idea of a digital loss leader a step further than the rest. Urban Media Communications Corp., which set up shop in Palo Alto in March 1999, not only wires buildings at its own expense but gives the tenants free high-speed Internet access. The company employs 75 people but at press time had only finished wiring one building, a funky 1920s stone edifice in San Francisco. It has lined up 80 additional buildings for wiring in cities across the United States.

In addition to providing superior customer service, OSPs also trump Ma Bell and her babies on flexibility, according to Urban Media customer Mark A. Corrales, vice-president of operations at Fort Point Partners, an Internet-services company in San Francisco. Corrales says his company's traditional PBX phone system worked great for fewer than 100 people. But as new hires joined the company every week, the system simply couldn't handle the voice and data volume.

"Every time we grew by another 10 or 20 people, we had to buy some extra crap," Corrales says. "They'd say, 'Oh, you need a new gizmo number 17, and that'll be another $5,000.'"

When Fort Point's employee roster was approaching 100, the company moved into the aforementioned funky San Francisco building that Urban Media serves. Although Urban Media's presence had little to do with Fort Point's initial choice of the space, Corrales bought Urban Media's pitch and changed systems. Now when Fort Point adds, changes, or deletes an employee phone connection, Corrales doesn't have to order phones and have them shipped or hire a contractor to do the work. The Urban Media customer-service rep is in the building to take care of business. With Urban Media, Fort Point's phone costs are about the same as they were before, Corrales says, minus the equipment add-ons that the PBX required.

Trade-offs, at least for now, appear to be few. First of all, Urban Media's free Internet connection is faster than the fastest dial-up rate (56K) but slower than a state-of-the-art T1 line. None of these start-ups forces customers to view advertising for the privilege of using free or cut-rate services. But Allied Riser customers connect to the Web through an Allied Riser portal, and Urban Media's free-broadband customers abide an "E-commerce toolbar" -- an innocuous, if ever-present, menu posted on their desktop screens. The toolbar makes money for Urban Media when customers click to and purchase from Web sites selling office supplies and airline tickets. As wired buildings get filled and space becomes a premium, landlords may increase rents, but that doesn't seem to be happening just yet.

As many as 85% of small companies lack lines for high-speed Internet access -- and on-site service providers really want those customers.

Speaking of landlords, they're another group poised to profit from the OSP invasion. Kent Barner, senior vice-president at Prentiss Properties Trust in Dallas, says that last summer a "great flurry" of providers knocked on his door ready to wire Prentiss buildings at no charge. All offered equity in their companies in exchange for a foot in the door. Prentiss wound up purchasing a stake in Urban Media and giving the OSP first crack at wiring the 45 million square feet of office space Prentiss manages. Such deals amount to instant customer acquisition for the providers.

But numbers don't guarantee success. Urban Media CEO Sean Doherty wants to roll out services to a billion square feet of office space this year, which will cost the company about 75¢ a square foot. To start making a profit, Urban Media must sign on 10% to 20% of the tenants in each building for its services. And once the company enlists those tenants as customers, it will have to keep them on the hook. Early customers like Fort Point are satisfied for now, but nothing will prevent them from switching service providers, since such real estate deals typically aren't exclusive. According to Maribel Lopez, a senior analyst at Forrester Research, in Cambridge, Mass., "Most of the landlords have figured out that they can milk this cow a few times."

So if you're currently renting your office space, you might want to give your landlord a heads up about free broadband installation from OSPs. Then you can sit back and watch the companies jump at the chance to serve you. Unlike them, you've got nothing to lose.

Jill Hecht Maxwell is a reporter at Inc. Technology.

THE SITES

Broadband by the Sea

While the competition for wiring office buildings heats up, another market is taking shape: high-speed Internet access for hotel rooms. The idea is that businesspeople accustomed to a fast connection at the office will gladly pay for one on the road. A variety of companies are fiddling with the phone lines in hotels to create a broadband connection for guests. The companies label their enterprise "visitor based" or "nomad" networks.

Ever try downloading your E-mail from the phone line in your hotel? Molasses City. Even if business travelers are using a 56K modem, the best rate they can expect from a clunky hotel connection is 28.8, says Stephen Drake, a senior analyst at IDC in Framingham, Mass., who follows the visitor-based network market. Now, as long as their laptops have network interface cards (NICs), business travelers can plug in their laptops to a special jack and get a high-speed connection from their hotel rooms. The cost: about $10 a day, which is tacked onto their hotel bill. "Those companies are erasing some of the frustrations of business travel without creating a tremendous increase in costs," says Drake.

Visitor-based networking is an arena for companies of all stripes. First there's the hardware. With its EtherLoop technology, Elastic Networks Inc., in Alpharetta, Ga., turns existing copper phone wires into data Ethernet connections without disrupting voice service on the same lines. "It's kind of like two virtual pipes -- a big water pipe for the data with a little straw outside for voice," explains marketing vice-president Phil Griffith. Since providing the service requires no rewiring, hotels don't have to close rooms for the upgrade.

Then there's software. Cais Software Solutions Inc., in San Diego, markets a product called Iport that allows all the guests of a particular hotel to connect to a single T1 line. Cais has contracts to service 10 chains including Hawaii's Outrigger Hotel Resorts, where the company has installed Iport in beachside cabanas so that guests can check those all-important stock tickers during piÑa colada hour. The cost: $2.50 for 10 minutes.

Finally, half a dozen companies have adopted the on-site service provider (OSP) model, upgrading hotels to high-speed access at the provider's own expense -- which can run as high as $400 per room -- and charging hotel guests for time online. Since the providers share the take with the hotels, the business model could be a boon to both sides -- not to mention making molasses-speed E-mail downloading a thing of the past.

SETTING UP YOUR OSP

1. Landlord signs on with an on-site service provider.
2. The OSP installs fiber-optic lines and switches throughout the building.
3. Every desktop can be hooked up for high-speed Internet access through the OSP.
4. Tenants can buy local and long-distance phone service, Internet access, and Web hosting from the OSP.

Q&A

Wired Bricks

Dale Anne Reiss, global industry leader for real estate at Ernst & Young, recently spoke with Inc. Technology about the need for Internet speed and how technology is affecting her business.

Inc.: What has spawned the rush to connect office buildings to the Internet?

Reiss: Five years ago, the ability to deliver those services in a cost-efficient manner wasn't practical. Now it is.

Technology companies need high-speed access to exist, and more traditional companies need it for productivity advantages.

Inc.: Can OSPs really make money by giving away the wires and selling services later?

Reiss: The opportunities are absolutely there. The world has yet to be totally wired. First, these companies have to get a critical mass of buildings. The most important thing over the long term will be the level of satisfactory service provided to the office tenants.

Inc.: But is there room for all of those start-ups?

Reiss: There's probably a consolidation waiting to happen. Then again, we're still waiting for a consolidation in the mainline real estate industry.

Inc.: Is there a downside to the convergence of technology and real estate?

Reiss: That's like asking if there's a downside to progress. This is becoming a true competitive advantage not only for office owners but for apartment owners and even home builders. The issue will be, is some sort of wireless technology going to obviate the need for this kind of service?

Please e-mail your comments to editors@inc.com.

One-Stop Dialing

Rachael King — 2006-09-08T13:24:09-05:00

CEO's Start-Up Toolkit: CLECs

A new kind of telephone company wants your business and will go to great lengths to get it

When Don Holcomb came on as vice-president of operations at Amfinity Business Solutions, in 1998, he discovered the employee-leasing company didn't have E-mail. The 15 employees in the St. Petersburg, Fla., headquarters relied solely on the telephone, the fax, and snail mail to communicate with the company's thousands of leased workers nationwide. "We had no E-mail functions, and we had no ability to tie other locations to us," Holcomb says. That would have been fine except that Amfinity's client base had grown so rapidly since the company was founded in 1996 that staffers were having problems processing the voluminous payrolls, tax statements, and medical and retirement forms in a timely manner.

Holcomb knew he could use the Internet to make the company more efficient, but he found that most existing service offerings were geared for larger businesses and were too expensive for his company. Then he discovered 2nd Century Communications, a relatively new provider known as a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC). The folks at 2nd Century said they could offer Holcomb's company what more established providers would not: an affordable Internet package that included high-speed Internet access, E-mail, and a hosted Web site. The company also gave Holcomb local and long-distance telephone service and desktop support -- all on one bill, all at a savings of 10% per month compared with the company's previous bills.

By bundling a wide variety of phone and Web services, CLECs can give discounts of 30% or more.

Start-up 2nd Century is just one of more than 200 CLECs that have blossomed since the passage of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which broke up the local monopolies held by the Bell companies. In 1999, CLECs pulled in more than $26 billion in revenues collectively and served almost 400,000 office buildings nationwide. By bundling their various communications services, these providers can give discounts of 30% or more.

Besides cost advantages, the new providers bring other benefits. For instance, Holcomb found that by replacing the handful of service providers he had previously used with just one, he eliminated some hassle. Now he manages only one vendor relationship instead of seven, so when a problem crops up, he knows exactly whom to call. That has eliminated the previous finger-pointing among providers that he knew only too well. In addition, industry observers claim that small companies typically get better service from CLECs. "As opposed to the incumbents, the CLEC sales reps are Johnny-on-the-spot," says Craig Clausen, senior vice-president at New Paradigm Resources Group, a Chicago-based consulting firm. "They'll go out of their way to give you all the information so that you can compare apples to apples and then give you the opportunity to ask some questions."

Don Holcomb found that by switching to just one service provider, he eliminated some hassle.

Companies may find some CLECs willing to do things that other providers won't, like troubleshooting the network, helping to upgrade equipment, and providing desktop support. George Fajta, chief technology officer at Kadem Capital, found CLEC Winstar willing to undertake some complex technology challenges in order to win his business. Kadem, a two-year-old U.S. equity trading fund with 22 employees, needed a backup connection to the Internet in case its primary one failed. To deliver that, Winstar worked with Kadem's current provider, Eze Castle, to set up a special kind of routing between the two providers.

Although there are many good reasons to sign up with a CLEC, customers may run into a few hitches along the way, especially if they're currently receiving service from a Bell company. In order for a business to keep the same telephone number while switching telephone companies, the providers must follow a complicated procedure to make the transfer. Both the old and the new providers must make changes to their databases at the same time; otherwise the customer could be left temporarily without phone service.

Vince DiBiase, senior vice-president of ICG Communications, a CLEC based in Englewood, Colo., acknowledges that it can be a challenge for companies like his to get new customers up and running. "This is a disadvantage that every CLEC will have unless the particular customer is located in a building that either my company or another CLEC actually has wiring into," he says. If a CLEC doesn't own the wires into a particular building, then it must go through the often lengthy process of ordering and reselling service from a Bell company to serve customers at that site. If a small business calls a Bell company like US West directly, it will likely get service within a couple of weeks, but at ICG it could take as long as a month to 45 days to order that service resale from US West, says DiBiase.

Getting personal service: "If I needed to, I knew I could go pound my fist on their door," says Holcomb.

For CEOs like Kathleen Bagley, the ultimate benefits of doing business with a CLEC typically outweigh the initial wait. About a year and a half ago Bagley relocated her company, Prime Source Lending, to another location in San Antonio. It took three months for ICG to switch her company's service from Southwestern Bell to its own. But Bagley says she switched because Southwestern Bell had told her that because of the move she'd have to get a new phone number for her company and pay a monthly fee to have calls forwarded from the old number. That arrangement would have been renewable on a year-to-year basis, and if Southwestern Bell had needed that number at any time in the future, the company would have taken it back, she says. ICG, on the other hand, let Bagley keep her old number and didn't charge any monthly fees. In fact, Bagley has been so pleased with the relationship that she's also switched her long-distance service from AT&T to ICG.

Initially, even Don Holcomb felt that it was risky to give his business to a new provider. Still, he found comfort in the fact that 2nd Century was located close to his company. "If I needed to, I knew I could go pound my fist on their door," he says. And so far that personalized service has paid off for his company. Recently, several employees complained to Holcomb about slow Internet connections. Before Holcomb could pick up the phone to call 2nd Century, he had already received a call from the company. "They said, 'We've noticed that you've been having problems with your connections today. We're working on it now to take care of the problem, and it should be resolved in 10 minutes,' " he says. "That just floored me."

Rachael King is a freelance writer based in Hoboken, N.J.

Looking for a CLEC near you? A good first step would be to check out www.clec.com, where you can search for providers by city and state. You can also check with your state public-utility commission, which keeps a list of all new providers licensed to operate in your state.

For more on the gear you really need to start and grow your small business, see our CEO's Start-Up Toolkit.

Please e-mail your comments to editors@inc.com.