| |
|
Choosing the
right ISP for your business will the one of the most important
decisions your business will have to make when it comes to the
Internet. Today there are literally hundreds of ISP's to
choose from all offering differing services for both business and
home use, so it is important you choose the right ISP to suit your
business needs.
No Business
Allowed
Before
you install ISP software onto your machine, you must ensure that
the ISP you are signing up to will allow you to conduct
business. If you neglect this important element you could
end up wasting quite a lot of money reestablishing your business
online again. Therefore before you sign up:
Read
the ISP's terms of business, and more importantly, if the
ISP does allow business ensure they will be able to cope with the
level of traffic you have estimated.
Monthly Charges,
fees and tariffs
If
you have already been looking at the services and options open to
you when looking for the right ISP then you will have been overwhelmed
by the differences in charges, tariffs and fees set by individual
ISP:
- Many ISP charge a
set up fee and one set monthly fee. The advantage being you
can use a free phone service and accrue no telephone charges
for using the service.
- Some offer no set
up fee and no monthly online charges, but you accrue telephone
charges for using the service.
- Some ISP's charge
a standard monthly fee with accrued telephone charges.
There
are many more combinations than the three mentioned above, and by
instinct you will probably look at the cheapest option for you
business. However, the cheapest option might not be right
for your business needs. Many of the ISP's offering the
cheaper or free services are really targeting the home leisure
users and not business user, and whilst they may welcome
you at first, if they feel you are slowing their service down by
the amount of traffic you are attracting, or you are online too much,
they may decide to terminate their service with you!
The
moral of the story here is for you NOT to look at the charges too
much, but to examine the level of service you will be offered by
your ISP which will suit your business needs. If this means
paying for it then SO BE IT! It could save you a lot
of wasted time and ultimately money in the long term.
|
|
Web space
Facilities
Most
ISP's vary the amount of web space they offer their customers.
Before you sign up to an ISP work out how much web space you
require. If you are not at all sure, take some advice from a web
development company. You also need to consider the web facilities you will
need and whether your ISP will cater for your needs, e.g. do you intend to
run a shopping cart? Do your web site require secured server
facilities? Do you require forms to run from your ISP (you will need CGI
facilities for this)
< More details ...>
Email accounts
In
addition to web space, your company will want to make use of email.
As with web space, the ISP will offer a varying amount of email accounts
from 1 to unlimited. You must therefore judge, on the basis of all the
other service elements, which is right for your business. If you only have
a very small family business one to five email accounts may be suffice.
Branding or creating your
own company identity
Creating
your brand or company identity on the Internet is an important part of
good online business. To do this, your company need a domain name i.e.
www.mycompany.co.uk. However, many ISP's do not offer this
facility or may charge a over the odds for the privilege of setting such a
facility up for you. Whether you are looking for multiple domain names or
just one, before you sign up with an ISP, you must ensure they can cater
to your domain requirements.
< More info coming soon ... >
Slow or busy line
If you want to use the
Internet for business purposes, then you need to ensure that you will be
able to use it what ever time of day (or night) without receiving an engaged
tone each time you dial in. It is important to gauge the popularity
of your chosen Internet Service Provider. Therefore, the more
popular a ISP, the more likely it is to be engaged or very slow when you
come to use it. This is more the case with the ISP who is targeting
the home user.
Before you sign up to your
chosen ISP check the popularity of the server. Ask other businesses
who they use, and how they find connection time and speed.
<<
Use this
check list to help >>
|
|
