It's a well-known problem for ISPs: if you're security's so good that your customers are never threatened, they'll think they can leave for a cheaper, less safe provider. One company offers a solution to the problem.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [March 1, 2007]

Milford, Conn.-based Perimeter eSecurity today is announcing an updated customer portal. The company has had a provisioning portal for over five years, but the current update focuses on helping ISPs sell security products to small business customers.

"Small businesses are under attack on the internet, and often don't know it," explains Clark Easterling, Perimeter eSecurity vice president of marketing.

A Perimeter eSecurity customer confirms the problem. Clint McDonald, product manager at Richmond, Va.-based Cavalier Telecom, says, "when a customer gets infected, they notice that their connection seems slower, so they call us up and ask us what's wrong with our network."

You need to pitch customers your product all the time. The Perimeter portal allows a customer to sign up for a new security product online and immediately see what that product is doing for them. In addition, the portal highlights the products that the user has not selected, and shows the user what their security level is (green, yellow, or red, from MIN to MAX).

That way, Easterling notes, if a customer has an issue with a dangerous website after failing to sign up for the appropriate service, the ISP can point out that an additional monthly fee could easily solve the problem.

The site features detailed reports of each service, prefaced by a FAQ that describes the service. Easterling says that small business owners may not know what their connection's being used for. Reports can flag problems. For example, if a local law office is sending a significant amount of internet traffic to Taiwan, it should check its network for infection.

The portal features a small space for a banner ad. Cavalier is featuring a free vulnerability scan. McDonald says that small businesses need to be aware of vulnerabilities and to fix them.

In the past, says Easterling, the top Fortune companies were the targets, but now, with bot attacks, every small business is a target.

McDonald adds that the portal helps his own sales people, who are often less knowledgeable than the people they are selling to. Instead of describing the offering verbally, they can call up the service and click through it. "When we released this in testing, about a month ago, I saw an immediate increase in orders."

Cavalier is a key partner for Perimeter. Last year (see Two Partner to Provide Security to Small Business) the two companies began the process of offering security services to small businesses. That process continues, with more and better services planned for the future. Hinted at in the demo we saw was online backup, which is an important part of any data security plan.

It's no longer enough to deliver a service, because everyone can do that. ISPs need to monitor the service themselves and also be able to show their customers how well that service is performing. The Perimeter eSecurity portal is one solution to this key problem.

If you're interested in this, get the company to show you the portal. Of course I can try to describe it, but it was built precisely because it is easier shown through a demo than explained with words.

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