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I have been
reading these lists since their inception and have enjoyed the
discussion. It is rare to be able to watch a channel interact in such an open way and, for us managing the business, it is extremely valuable. I thought it was appropriate to share with you what we are trying to do and why we are trying to do it. I know many of you know some of this, but too few of you know all of it so here goes. Tucows has been around since 1994 when Scott Swedorski began creating software libraries of the best Internet software. By 1995 these libraries became available for hosting by ISPs around the world and currently our software libraries are hosted by over 1000 ISPs in over 90 countries around the world. These libraries have always been popular with ISPs as they allow their users to download from their local network thus conserving scarce inbound bandwidth. This is especially of value outside of North America, hence its huge popularity internationally. In looking at how to add more value to our ISP community we identified domain registration as a real opportunity. Domain registration for ISPs was an administrative burden, the supplier was not very helpful and prices were unreasonably high. In addition, we identified domains as a "gateway" product. One which was not valuable in and of itself, but was required to provide higher margin, higher priced products such as hosting, corporate e-mail, or high-end access. Thus, we wanted OpenSRS to be a service that addressed these needs. It was an immediate success and we now have business relationships with a broader more diverse group of not only ISPs, but also Web Hosting companies, domain resellers, Web designers, VARs and suppliers to business of many kinds (we call this group Managed Service Providers or MSPs). We also saw it as only the beginning. At Tucows we have a very specific view of what it takes to be a successful MSP. First, we strongly believe that all of you are able to compete successfully regardless of size. The most important competitive variable is customer service. All Internet-related applications and services are still somewhat complex, some very complex. They are commodities in the sense that they are available from many different suppliers and are very price competitive, however they are also highly differentiable in that they are complex and end-users typically require some degree of assistance. Thus, we believe that MSPs must excel in their core competancy and focus on attracting and retaining customers. MSPs need to own the customer relationship, build up loyalty through a high level of customer service and use this loyalty to create additional revenue opportunities. By outsourcing the supply of these additional revenue opportunities MSPs can focus on marketing and customer service, attracting and retaining customers. Any MSP which excels at these two things will be HUGELY successful, and, if you are only good at them you will still be VERY successful. For us the challenge becomes how can we help MSPs be as successful as possible. This is what we have started to try and answer with the applications and services we will be launching and the features we will be adding. You will start to hear more about some of these over the next few weeks and, as always, we will need your feedback (and of course expect to get it :-)). We expect to create more value going forward with our software libraries, to continue to provide value with OpenSRS and to begin to layer on numerous additional revenue opportunities through the OpenSRS platform. The reason for describing all of this is to give you a sense of what we are trying to do and why we are trying to do it. We are not trying to be all things to all people. We are tring to help MSPs who hope to build businesses be as successful as possible. We feel that if we are able to succeed at doing that we will serve our business as well. Good karma and all. We have had the
opportunity to meet many of you over the years and
always receive valuable feedback. We are going to try and encourage even more of it by posting our trade show schedule with you and having a dinner or gathering of some sort at each appearance. I think in 2000 alone we will have been in 10 different countries by year end . We also encourage any of you that will be in Toronto to let us know and come by when in town. Of course your comments are welcome. Regards Elliot Noss
President, CEO Tucows Inc. |
