Every business needs it, and every Internet Service Provider (ISP) wants to sell it. The question, then, is what tricks do the various ISPs have up their sleeves to entice small- and medium-size businesses to subscribe to their services?

We spoke with various ISPs as well as an independent analyst to see what they have to offer and how they market those services.

Rogers regional general manager Matt Gervais said the answer is a simple one: Make it fast, inexpensive and provide a wide spectrum of services via cable Internet.

"We pride ourselves on being the alternative. We're the only one that offers cable Internet access. The others all go through the telephone.

"Our focus for business is that we can leverage the network and wrap it all up in a single package for them. We offer a cable modem full of features, including a higher bandwidth of eight megabits per second. Not long ago that was unheard of. Now we can do it for $100 a month. We're the fastest and the cheapest because we provide cable Internet for the price of dial up."

Eliminating as many phone lines as possible lowers costs accordingly, he added. And for retail customers, verifying large numbers of credit cards can take too much time. Mr. Gervais said Rogers speeds things up significantly.

"We're all about business/Internet efficiency. For the retail customer with point-of-sale, we can help their terminal embrace the Internet and they can verify credit cards through the Internet instead of dialing. It's 100 per cent faster and 18 per cent more reliable.

"You can also fax through the Internet. You can do this for a third of the cost of a fax line and there's no paper or cartridges to pay for. It works and it's easy."

As well, Rogers offers real tech support when installing the system and hosting a website.

"We can also host a website for you for less and we send a tech person for every installation instead of getting a kit and an 800 number."

Magma chief operating officer A.J. Byers listed three main features he says are turning the heads of business leaders. He, too, boasted that his company offers the personal touch.

"Magma offers three main benefits. Our customer service is much higher than Tier 1 companies can offer because we're smaller. Businesspeople don't have the time to sit on the phone and wait for support.

"We're also very scalable. You can start off small, but as you grow we can grow with you. A lot of times, a small business won't have a tech person on staff, so we can set up firewalls and a lot more for them. We can service a business from infancy to enterprise."

Along with those services, Magma is all things to all people, according to Mr. Byers.

"We have a full service side of products. A lot of the time businesses have to deal with a number of different companies, but we do it all. We host websites, e-mail, and now with Primus we offer voice over Internet protocol."

Not to be outdone, Telecom Ottawa's COO Jacques Taillefer countered that his company has made significant inroads thanks to unique products and services that cut Telecom Ottawa from the herd.

"Most ISP companies offer basic Internet access like web hosting, e-mail and services like that. But it's a highly competitive niche. We needed to come up with something different. Our VoIP suite includes secure, unified messaging systems and file sharing at a significant savings over long distance and conference calling. We go well beyond the traditional phone line and what other ISPs in the area are offering.

"Our VoIP also provides worker collaboration. One phone line can be answered anywhere. We call this Find Me, Follow Me. A call on a single line is routed wherever you are."

Services like that help businesses grow, but Mr. Tailllefer said something else he offers can actually save companies from disaster.

"Something very important is data backup and recovery. When your computer is idle, every file that you want to have backed up is being backed up and filed. If your computer crashes, you can access it remotely. I've talked about this to some people and I was told that 60 per cent of corporate data is on the desktop. If you use a laptop and it's stolen you lose all that. I read a statistic that said 90 per cent of businesses that lose data are out of business in two years, so for $10 a month per user, it's a very good deal."

When it comes right down to what customers really want, Carrie MacGillivray, an analyst at Yankee Group, said the two most important concerns for small- and medium-size businesses are affordability and simplicity. "They need simplicity and solutions priced within their means. Small businesses usually don't have an IT department or anyone with any real expertise in that area. IT plays a crucial role in any business so they need simplicity."

By Scott Taylor

scott.taylor@transcontinental.ca