Ten Steps to Help Select an ISP

by Bill H.

The choice of an ISP is critical to the success of your store and once made is difficult to change without suffering considerable disruption.

Here are ten steps to help you make your selection:

  1. Plan First – Too many Web store merchants choose their ISP and then start to think about how they are going to implement their store. Instead, prepare an outline plan for your store – number of items, desired features, payment methods etc. – and then select an ISP who will commit to supporting your plan.
  2. Seek Recommendations – There are currently about 2000 ISP’s in the US and about 200 in the UK. It is obviously not possible to review every ISP’s capabilities, so draw up a list of up to ten candidates based on advice from business associates or post to newsletters and newsgroups and ask for recommendations.
  3. Submit Your Requirements – Forward your outline store plan to your selected ISPs and ask for a written response (with a deadline) detailing how they can meet your requirements.
  4. Analyze Responses – This is where you can separate the wheat from the chaff. Many won’t respond within the time scales you set and some of those who do will submit incomplete replies. Remember that at this time ISPs are pitching for your business and should be trying hard to impress. If their service is poor now it will only get worse after you sign up.  From these responses you should be able to prepare a shortlist of two to three ISPs for further evaluation.
  5. Look for Experience – Hosting web stores is a lot more complex than providing dial-up accounts with free Web space for personal homepages. Look for an ISP who can demonstrate experience in hosting web stores. And ask for names of current merchants whom you can contact for references.
  6. Support – Straightforward dial-up accounts are set up with minimal contact between an ISP and a customer. However, setting up a Web store will involve considerable interaction between you and your ISP so make sure the ISP has round-the-clock support in place preferably by e-mail and ‘phone. Send a few e-mails to the support desks of each ISP on your shortlist and note how quickly and completely they respond.
  7. Guaranteed Availability – Whilst it’s no big deal if your personal homepage is unavailable for a few hours a week, your Web storefront needs to be permanently available or you will lose out on orders. Ask each of your shortlisted ISPs to give a written guarantee on availability and to explain how they intend to achieve this figure. Stay clear of ISPs who do not have a clear strategy in place to achieve their downtime targets. A few dollars refunded from your monthly fees as a downtime penalty can not make up for lost sales.
  8. Connection Speed – Not only must your store always be available, your customers must be able to access it quickly. Choose an ISP that is multi-homed, that is, they have Internet connections through more than one backbone carrier. That way, if one backbone carrier is down they have an alternate route to send your data over. Multi-homed set-ups are also better because the ISP’s router is able to watch each link and decide which one to use to get your data to its destination the fastest.
  9. Unrestricted Administration Access – Some ISP’s limit the number of site updates or restrict the hours during which you can access your site to update it. Choose a provider that allows unrestricted access to your store.
  10. Trust Your Instincts – Finally, don’t ignore your gut feeling. Your choice of an ISP is critical to the success of your business. You will need to work with them very closely over the coming months, so make sure you feel comfortable with them and are confident you can build a good business relationship.
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