ServerPlus's wholesale dialup offering, which provides access to 15 networks nationwide, is strengthened by the company's outsourced technical support and VISP services.

by Jeff Goldman [February 4, 2004]

ServerPlus was founded in 2001 to provide call center services to ISPs. Layne Sisk, the company's CEO, was also running a retail ISP at the time, and soon discovered that he had negotiated particularly good deals for connectivity. "Other ISPs were very interested in that, so we started adding those ISPs to the deals we had negotiated," Sisk says.

The company sold its retail ISP in order to avoid causing concern to its ISP clients, but held onto the connectivity deals. "We felt like it was a conflict of interest to be selling a retail product at the same time we were wholesaling," Sisk says. "But the contracts that we had for connectivity were good enough that a lot of ISPs wanted to buy wholesale connectivity from us."

ServerPlus Voice: (866) 387-7587 info@serverplus.com

ServerPlus now offers wholesale dialup on 15 different networks, as well as technical support and VISP services, though Sisk says it's still a constant challenge to stand out in the marketplace. "It's very difficult to differentiate yourself in the connectivity arena, because it's a commodity—it's like buying milk," Sisk says. "So we had to figure out what we could do as a value add."

Additional services
Among the value adds that ServerPlus provides to ISPs is 24/7 network monitoring. "Because we have the call center here, if there's a problem, we'll know about it not only from the network monitoring, but also from the increased call volume," Sisk says. "And then we have 24/7 Tier 2 support for our connectivity-only customers, so they've got a number they can call 24 hours a day if they have a network issue."

The company also allows its clients to combine networks at will. "You're not stuck only on Qwest or only on Sprint," Sisk says. "Instead, you can use multiple networks, and it's all still one price. We don't charge a fee. A lot of people in the industry are doing that now, but when we started, we were one of the very first people to incorporate the idea."

Additional services include a portal solution, a back office system, and a dialup accelerator. "The back office does the RADIUS, the billing, and the email, and it has a web interface that allows the ISP to log in and see all the information specific to them," Sisk says. "The accelerator solution is competitively priced, and can be completely branded for the ISP."

Owning the customer
Pricing starts at four dollars per user per month, though specific arrangements are negotiated with each client. "Basically, we allow people to take a look at our phone book and say 'These are the numbers that I need, and based on these numbers, these are the networks that I want,'" Sisk says. "Then we'll put a price together. We can combine all 15 networks, or however many they need."

Regardless of the networks selected, the ISP always owns its customers. "There's a move out in the industry where people say they want to provide multiple networks, and in order to do that, they're taking the user and putting them on a generic realm that's owned by the aggregator," Sisk says. "That, in effect, takes the user away from the ISP and gives them to the aggregator."

Instead, ServerPlus puts each client on a realm that's specific to that ISP. "That provides brand recognition," Sisk says. "Also, although we hate to ever lose a customer, if somebody decides they want to leave and go somewhere else, they can do that because they own their customers, and they're on their own realm."

The personal touch
Fred Meczywor is the owner and CEO of the Massachusetts-based ISP, BCN. Meczywor started working with ServerPlus about a year ago in order to minimize the cost of providing dialup services. "We talked to other providers, and it seemed like ServerPlus cared to save us money," Meczywor says. "We weren't just a number to them."

The biggest selling point for ServerPlus, Meczywor says, was the personal connection he felt with Sisk and others at the company. "We're from a farm town up here, where you know your nextdoor neighbor," he says. "With the salespeople that we talked to from ServerPlus, there was no B.S. The others didn't care—they would promise you the world, but deliver you a pebble."

BCN currently works with ServerPlus only for wholesale dialup, but Meczywor says he's considering outsourcing his technical support to them as well. "You go to these big, big companies, and you're lost in the shuffle—and they don't care," he says. "ServerPlus is a good company; you don't get lost in the shuffle."

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Related articles:
	[Nov. 3, 2003]	Accurate Billing is a Value-Added Service
	[March 16, 2001]	Va-Va-VISP
	[Nov. 27, 2000]	How to Pick A Wholesale Access Provider

Online resource:
	Wholesale Dialup Directory