InFocus Story July 24, 2000
From Our Archives HTML for the massesEveryone can have a website, but now
service providers have MICHAEL W. CHURCHILL
Hypertext markup language (HTML) has finally reached the masses. But what is it? No longer limited to educational institutions, early adopters, Internet startups and Fortune 500 companies, managing a website is now becoming a mainstream society occupation. Increasingly, small businesses are establishing an Internet presence with elaborate websites, and e-businesses no longer need to be an Amazon.com wannabe to operate ambitious e-commerce sites. Thanks to the evolution of technology, a less technically savvy population is attempting more sophisticated website design, requiring very technically savvy operations and features. This occurrence presents opportunities as well as challenges to Web hosting companies and other service providers. Service providers must offer solutions for the increased needs of this population without increasing their support costs. With website development growth averaging 8% per month, service providers face tremendous demands. But there are also many opportunities for those that can meet customers' needs. Who Can Rise to the Challenge? The technology adoption curve illustrates the typical trends for adoption of new technology. Internet technology has passed the infancy/early adopter phase and is well into the mainstream adoption phase. Coupled with this change, however, is a complication: Mainstream adopters are conversely less technically sophisticated and tend to embrace the technology without necessarily fully understanding it. As a result, service providers face increased customer support costs when assisting a customer that is developing and operating a website. Software developers have addressed this need by developing "what you see is what you get"--known as WYSIWYG (pronounced wizzy-wig) editing tools for website design. These editors bring the web page creation to the masses by allowing users to create a website with many of the same bells and whistles that professional website developers use–without the know-how to code HTML. These tools work well for the most simple websites. However, most users are creating more extensive, interactive websites that include features such as guest books, shopping carts, dynamic content and e-commerce transactions. While automated HTML editors can assist users in developing content, their ability to create a complete site is limited. The applications available today for development of e-commerce and some types of B2B sites do not incorporate the server-side requirements. In fact, there is a critical lack of integration between the two. No cross-platform or platform-independent solution exists that allows users to create websites and incorporate tools such as common gateway interface (CGI)-based customer support, configuration options and other interactive solutions without significant server-side implementation problems. Because less experienced users, new to the online world, largely lack the technical expertise necessary to create the type of Internet presence envisioned and competitively required, service providers must step in. Implementing the CGI programming necessary to support some of the server-based features is well beyond users' abilities. Furthermore, users aren't interested in learning the programming techniques required to accomplish objectives. Users today just want to cut down the tree--they don’t want to have to build a chainsaw. These users will seek out service providers to assist them in implementing the features they desire. Service providers must offer more comprehensive support to make up for users' who lack an understanding of HTML code and CGI programming. Since websites often are easy to relocate, service providers must support these customers efficiently, effectively and completely or risk losing them to another hosting company. Automation is the key to achieving this goal and it must be coupled with industry coordination and standardization between software developers and ISPs. The lack of standardization is a key problem with the current state of the technology. HTML editors provide a number of HTML and JavaScript-based features such as page design, pull down menus and graphics rollovers, but they cannot fully exploit the features of server-based technologies. Guest books, shopping carts, credit card processing and database-driven dynamic content are all dependent on server-side code, and HTML editors cannot provide these features. As a result, unless a service provider provides these services along with the technical support necessary to allow customers to implement these features on their site, customers are left to flounder–trying to install freeware, shareware or commercial packages. For early adopters of new technologies, hurdles such as these are expected, if not relished, but mainstream adopters simply want the technology to work and to otherwise stay out of the way. Opportunity Knocks The telecom industry can facilitate the growth of this market segment by rising to the challenge of supporting the needs of this less technically savvy population. Hosting companies in particular are in the unique position of controlling the spread of HTML to the masses. As the intricacies of technology increase, the industry must provide tools that address customers' needs on both the front end and the back end. This customer requirement is creating demand for software products with interfaces and backend integration with the service provider. To conquering this challenge, service providers must work with the software developers to coordinate and standardize a set of functions and CGI script application programming interfaces (APIs). This would enable editing tools to assist users to develop the necessary hooks into the server-side CGI scripts to implement the backend features desired. This standardization would allow users to develop a functional website using a favorite HTML editor. Hosting companies would be wise to anticipate and address the needs of these new entries into Internet marketing. Providing these solutions without requiring knowledge of HTML code or CGI scripts creates a differentiator for the hosting company, which is operating in a highly competitive market. Furthermore, offering customers access to website creation tools without asking them to learn how to install a multiplicity of packages himself will benefit a service provider, the customer and, ultimately, the telecom industry as a whole. What’s In It for Me? As service providers fill this void by working with developers to produce products that integrate their own server side requirements into web design criteria, the availability of these tools could attract new customers, foster stronger customer relationships, improve customer satisfaction and increase customer retention. Standardizing the interfaces to these types of features also can reduce technical support costs, while facilitating the ability of the customer to create and operate a website with all the desired features. The current Internet marketplace is ripe for web hosting companies to offer other types of value-added services to the less technically savvy customer as well. These solutions can further facilitate new customer recruitment, increase current customer retention and reduce support costs. Some examples of such solutions are online tools for website maintenance and promotional services tailored to non-technical users. The vision to provide customers with access to these tools would improve website quality and the marketing potential for the customer. It follows that these tools would then enable service providers to better control user support costs and ultimately increase the bottom line. Additionally, this vision provides customers with access to advanced technology and critical knowledge not available with their existing resources. Look a Little Deeper Service providers have a challenging opportunity to provide additional products to this new market--products that facilitate the full use of their primary service offerings. Basically, they need to provide mainstream adopters with more technical website features and tools. These products will to allow users to operate and implement an otherwise unattainable website. While eliminating the need for the customer to understand HTML code and basically increasing the technical capabilities of end users, the service provider’s bottom line benefits as well. The opportunity for service providers to tailor products and services to newcomers in the market and to provide comprehensive solutions is a virtually untapped arena. These products can be in the form of
value-added services available through that service provider. The need for
these types of products is not limited to website creation but can also
include website maintenance and promotion. Enabling customers to build
fully featured, interactive websites that can successfully access server
side processes is just one of the many opportunities open to telecom
industry service providers that want to serve and retain this new
population segment. Visit NetMechanic on the web. For questions or comments,
www.internettelephony.com |