Backed by its founder's many years of experience running an ISP, IntraISP provides an integrated solution that reaches far beyond billing to support all aspects of ISP management.

by Jeff Goldman [April 7, 2004]

The billing software provider IntraISP is a subsidiary of the St. Louis-based River City Internet Group. The group also owns and operates Primary Network, an ISP serving St. Louis and Kansas City, as well as Hostirian, a hosting, colocation, and disaster recovery company.

In the process of running Primary Network, the company developed its own proprietary back-end software. "That's really where IntraISP was born," says Doug Reineri, the company's Senior Vice President of Business Development. "It was managing the sales side of our business, it was doing customer relations management, and it was our operational support system."

IntraISP (888) 474-3144 sales@intraisp.com

In 2001, River City Internet Group began rewriting that software for release as IntraISP. "We thought if we went out to the ISP industry, having run and operated our own ISPs and hosting companies for years, this thing would have some value for other ISPs who might have a billing system, a network management system, and maybe they've got a different system that manages their sales," Reineri says.

Instead, IntraISP offers all of the above integrated into a single system that's been designed and built specifically for ISPs. "We spent about a year and a half completely rewriting the system and adding new modules and features," Reineri says.

One of the company's biggest successes thus far has been a deal with America Online to manage its Netscape-branded dialup offering. "They needed a billing and business management system, an e-mail solution, and dialers and toolbars," Reineri says. "So we got an RFP, we responded, and they loved the application. We put it in play and have been doing a variety of customizations for them ever since."

Beyond billing
Reineri says IntraISP is best for people who are looking for much more than just a billing solution. "The clients that really get it are the ones that have been in the ISP business for a long time," he says. "They've got Great Plains or Peachtree or QuickBooks running their accounting, their sales team's using GoldMine or ACT! or Outlook, they're using a third party to do billing, and a fourth to do network management and provisioning."

For those ISPs, IntraISP can make things much simpler. "We're able to approach them and say, well, we've got all of those functionalities in a single, fully web-based, 100 percent web-based utility that doesn't require you to build and install an Oracle database—or even use Microsoft, for that matter," Reineri says. "And you can manage your entire business with this one application."

Granting that billing, per se, isn't that complicated to do, Reineri says, it's the integration of all systems that makes IntraISP stand out. "When you look at how an organization tries to manage their business, they look for customer relations management software, and they look for operating systems and support systems as well," he says. "What we've done is to bring all of those together."

Among the software's standout features is online customer self-care. "We've got a utility that allows our clients' customers to come in and manage their own services, add new services, modify services, pay their balances online, and open a trouble ticket if they've got an issue," Reineri says. "That functionality comes with the core product."

Another is a provisioning system that ties the sales module directly into the billing system. "You begin at the prospect level, so the sales team logs into the system to create prospects," Reineri says. "Then when the prospect says, 'I'm ready to go,' the system has a unique close-of-sale process which immediately takes the prospect information and creates the billing account—so there's no need for dual entry."

Reports and pricing
Over 30 ready-made reports are available, along with a custom report writer. "We've got a very robust reporting mechanism, and all of our reports are downloadable and exportable in a delimited format, so they can be easily moved over to other applications," Reineri says. "Having managed ISPs for years, reporting is a big thing for us."

Pricing for the software is based on the number of active customer records. The lowest available pricing is $7,500 for up to 500 customers, with significant discounts for larger licenses. An annual maintenance fee of 20 percent of the license fee provides access to 24/7 support, as well as quarterly enhancements and upgrades.

The 0–500-customer license, Reineri says, is targeted at growing wireless providers. "If a wireless guy's in the game to get in, get a couple hundred customers, and then sell his company, he doesn't need my product," he says. "If he's in the business to really grow, then he absolutely wants this application, because it will allow him to manage that business across multiple regions in multiple business units."

Peter O'Conor is Director of Customer Service for BlazeNet, a Pennsylvania-based ISP founded in 1996. Just over a year ago, BlazeNet began looking for a billing solution that would help them integrate their billing with their other back-end systems. "We looked at over a dozen vendors," O'Conor says. "What made IntraISP stand out was that it was built specifically for the ISP business."

According to O'Conor, IntraISP was particularly helpful during the data migration process, and has been flexible and supportive since then. "They've been very willing to meet our requirements," he says. "They understand our business. Their package combines our billing, our ticketing systems, and our customer database systems all into one."

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