UKFast Newsletter
November 2006

Lawrence Jones has also been talking to the North West business community about setting up online companies and I’ve been rubbing shoulders with Manchester's top businesses at the MEN business awards for our podcast.

The judging of the UKFast Internet Awards is also in full swing right now and a special announcement will be made in the next week to announce this year's five big winners.

Inside this Issue

November@UKFast – Building communities online and off
Tip from the Techies – Capacity Threshold Monitoring
A Marketing Minute – Considering e-commerce
Spotlight on the Client - Brokering a great online deal
Hot Topic - Convergence – The Internet’s biggest catalyst

Feel free to contact me with any comments on this month’s newsletter.

November@UKFast – Building communities online and off

Over 2006 we’ve discovered a desire from clients to be able to do more through our online interface. This is why we’ve made the Client Area a big priority this year. Here are a few of November’s new innovations.

Your lists of domains on the UKFast network continue to grow, so we’ve added functionality in the domains section to export your list into CSV format to store locally and use within other documentation. We’ve also updated the list domains API function so that those of you handy with code can integrate an always up-to-date list into your website or user applications.

If you connect to the net through another provider and send email through UKFast, we’re currently adding SMTP Authentication details to your client area. If you don’t send mail through us but would like to, you can set up SMTP automatically using this new section on the client area. It will be within ‘Services’ marked with a ‘New’ logo and should be live in the next week.

Offline, we’ve been busy in the business community this month. Lawrence Jones teamed up with UKFast client Vanilla Storm to inspire North West entrepreneurs looking to excel in the world of E-commerce. The event was part of a series of online business seminars which, due to demand will run again in the New Year.

In advising the audience, he put great emphasis on security and protection, revealing that 90% of DOS attacks, which can cripple a servers power, are undertaken by wronged clients or disgruntled employees. He also spoke about Capacity Threshold Monitoring showing us the future of cyber crime detection. You can read more about this in the Tip from the Techies.

While Lawrence was nurturing businesses of the future, I was mixing with the regions top flight at the MEN Business of the Year awards. From Blue chips to new ventures the awards commended businesses from manufacturing and construction to online and fashion design. I was there to capture a flavour of the event and interview all the winners. You can hear the results on our podcast page, or listen right now.

Before next time, look out for our new podcast on Good Vibrations with Jacqueline Gold CEO of Ann Summers. Developing a business as a woman in a man’s world she’s full of advice and inspiring stories.

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Monitoring with graphs Our senior technicians and R&D team have often collaborated on new products. SafeDNS, which has made a big name for itself in the industry was one of the first. We’re pretty sure that our new Capacity Threshold Monitoring system will cause similar waves. Neil Lathwood and his team continuously fortify the boundaries of the UKFast network and protecting your businesses is a top priority. Our CTM system is one of the most proactive in house software’s we’ve developed in the fight against spyware and now you can harness its capabilities too. As the network gets bigger and more and more multinational companies join us we naturally attract more attention from the online underworld. But now, we are able to detect intrusion like never before. Even with a strong first line of defence there are still ways to become compromised, such as opening email attachments, forgetting to administer OS patches or downloading files online. Well now, as soon as they begin to try and use your server’s capability our intrusion detection and threshold monitoring can reveal CPU usage and load average results that pinpoint anything out of the ordinary. We’ve already used the system to help a number of clients avoid serious server compromise and in all cases we’ve dealt with the problem before the client has realised they have one. If you’d like to find out more about how you can get active with Capacity Threshold Monitoring, then give me a call on 0870 421 1585, or email me. Back to top

When a customer arrives at your website and considers buying from you it’s crucial you make their experience completely painless. The moment they consider they can get a better offer elsewhere they’re off and you’re unlikely to see them again.

After last month’s Hot Topic on e-commerce in the UK, it’s obvious this is a massive growth area, so we’ve put together a quick five part plan for setting your e-commerce site off in the right direction.

1. Functionality – keep the process simple.
Don’t confuse the customer. Clearly label all buttons, maintain a clear navigation and avoid too many click throughs within the browsing process and the payment system.

2. Speed – latency can be fatal.
Web hosting is like rent on a high street shop. You can’t run a fast, reliable and efficient website if you’re saving money on cheap hosting. Allow your customers a moment to consider other options and the transaction could be over.

3. Transactions – payment systems and SSL certificates.
When parting with payment details customers need reassurance they’re in the best possible hands. Browsers dictate encryption capabilities so make sure that, like UKFast, you use certificates that not only account for this but improve your options.

4. Stickiness – encourage extra purchases.
You’re after repeat visitors and multiple orders so anticipate people’s tastes well. Amazon’s ‘Customers who viewed this item also viewed’ proactively highlights complementary products and links you into a community of customers.

5. Membership – create shortcuts in the system
With the agreement of customers, retain data that allows you to streamline the purchasing process next time. Create them a login and password. This means it will be easier to buy from you again than go to a competitor.

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Vote for UKFast

Please vote for us in the Web Hosting Directory

We did well this summer with Webhost Directory, becoming their Best Linux Host. Please give us your help again to challenge for their Host of the Month award. Click on the link and follow the brief instructions to vote for UKFast. Many thanks.

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Brokering a great online deal

If you’re not sold on e-commerce yet, here’s a client who could very easily persuade you. Caunce O’Hara has always been ahead of the pack in the world of Insurance. Years back, when everyone else was discovering personalised on-hold messages, they looked for something different to keep potential clients on the line and opted for stand-up comedy, courtesy of Peter Kay.

Now www.caunceohara.co.uk is a step ahead again, and broking director John Batty is thrilled with the response. "As a Top 100 Independent Insurance Broker we need to deliver a full e-commerce solution for our freelance professional’s scheme whilst offering a first class website that our larger clientele will find informative and useful in their day to day operations"

The new website, which has been live since summer, allows freelance professionals to obtain quotations and if happy they can apply and purchase the Policies in one easy transaction. Once purchased the customer gains access to a password protected area of the site to view and print policy documents, therefore delivering a full e-commerce transaction in minutes.

"Since launching, our freelance professionals policies have hit record highs with over 1500 policies sold in the first 8 weeks,” says John

It's not only John that loves the site, the British Insurance Brokers Association (BIBA) are to run an article in the upcoming edition of trade magazine ‘The Broker.’ The article will recommend that all brokers aspire to deliver a website the standard of Caunce O'Hara's. As part of their extensive research BIBA regard it as a "Model of Excellence"

It just goes to show that every service industry can revolutionise their business by looking at their online presence. If you need a policy or know someone who does, you’d be well advised to check out www.caunceohara.co.uk.

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Convergence – the Internet’s big catalyst

You’re in a client’s office and suddenly the plasma screen on the wall informs you that your train is running 15 minutes late. You whip out your PDA, which has already begun composing an email to a client you’re visiting in Nottingham this afternoon, explaining that you’re likely to be arriving a little later than expected.

Is this a normal day at work? It could be. Tom Cheesewright, technology industry consultant, believes that Convergence and the Semantic Net are a very likely future. The Semantic Net is all about technologies working intelligently, anticipating and understanding our needs and convergence of technological devices makes this more and more achievable.

If your Outlook diary stores the details of your meetings, your PDA your travel information and your laptop the ability to check the rail network online, then why shouldn’t these devices talk to each other and locate the plasma screen three meters away from your PDA in the meeting room as the best place to flash up the information.

Many of you already work within the area of convergence. WAP services are an early example of this, linking the net with mobile devices, so too are mp3 players now that they are moving in a wi-fi direction. The .mobi domain name is also a clear message that people administering the net are preparing for the multitude of delivery methods.

In addition, YouTube has escalated the desire for video online in such a fashion that the TV is now widely acknowledged as just one place to view filmed information.

The semantic net has been around in theory since Tivo started anticipating viewing habits. The haphazard nature of this no doubt prompted Sky Plus to relinquish more control back to the user. But now things have moved on a pace and as we begin to let technology organise us in all areas of our lives, does it make sense to allow it to make a few decisions for us also?

I’d love to know people’s opinions on how comfortable they are with the semantic net. How far should it be allowed to go? What areas of life would it benefit most? And, who will have access to our information if it is being shared across technologies and devices?

If you would like more information on this issue please get in touch with me.

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Best wishes,

Jonathan