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Dellhost Interview
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HOSTSEARCH: Thank you for an interview opportunity. Todd, can you please tell HostSearch readers about yourself and your day-to-day role with DellHost.com TODD: Sure, my name is Todd Brannon. I'm the Market Development Group Manager for DellHost. I manage the team that develops DellHost's go-to-market strategy and conducts day-to-day marketing operations. I spent 5 years in Dell prior to joining DellHost in 2000. I held positions in product development, online marketing and spent 2 years in Japan launching the PowerEdge and PowerVault product lines. HOSTSEARCH: Can you give us a brief detail of the involvements of Sprint and Dell to DellHost? TODD: DellHost essentially brings Dell hardware and Sprint datacenter and network management together to deliver hosting solutions for SOHO through Enterprise. I won't detail the business relationship between the corporations but what's important for our customers is the commitment DellHost represents to deliver a high quality hosting service to customers at a competitive price. HOSTSEARCH: How do you differentiate your company and products in a highly competitive industry? TODD: Internet hosting, especially in the low end of the market, is quickly becoming a commodity. To differentiate there you have to develop economies of scale to deliver best value for money - we accomplish that by using Dell hardware and Sprint data transport, both of which enjoy tremendous scale in their respective markets. Quality of service is another component we use to differentiate. There are a lot of cheaper options for customers but not many that have developed out of a lineage of award winning service and support. In the segments we serve with our complex Custom hosting offers we differentiate by integrating our services into broader IT solutions that Dell and Sprint deliver to Medium and Enterprise customers. Another differentiator for us is the strong brand we bring to the fray: customers clearly value working with a partner they know will be there tomorrow. HOSTSEARCH: Who do you see as your major competitors? TODD: In the high-volume space it's the usual suspects: Interland, Hostway, Rackspace, Verio. In complex and fully managed it's IBM, Inflow, EDS, and some of the telcos - SBC for instance... HOSTSEARCH: What is the best selling product of your company, shared hosting, dedicated hosting, or reseller? TODD: The unit volume is always in shared but as a business we're very well balanced in our dedicated and complex hosting. I would say that our packaged dedicated is our best selling product as we have a very strong PowerEdge-based service in market - available for customers to order online 24x7. HOSTSEARCH: Is DellHost going to enter into a low cost hosting market? What do you think about this section of the industry? TODD: We'll continue to price in a way that allows us to provide the quality of service that our customers require. We target businesses that are interested in a reliable, high performance internet presence and we're confident that the price points we have today represent a tremendous value in those respects. We believe the price savings between our entry $17.95 a month product and the legions of sub-$10 products that are out there isn't worth the risk to most small businesses who want to stay online. Having said that, as the components of our offer continue to commoditize our pricing will follow. We've been very aggressive in our Dedicated hosting offers and I think caused some pain for our competitors there. We adhere to the philosophy on passing cost savings directly to customers in a very competitive fashion. HOSTSEARCH: What marketing channels are you currently using? TODD: We market our product within the Dell and Sprint sales channels. We have also developed partner channels including Affiliate and Reseller programs. Additionally, DellHost recently launched a Refer a Friend and Refer a Client program. Underneath all of those we maintain a presence in internet and other forms of advertising to reach our target audiences. HOSTSEARCH: In your view, which five characteristics turn a good hosting company into a great one? TODD: Customer service excellence, Service delivery excellence, Ease of use, Breadth/depth of service offering, "more for less" pricing. HOSTSEARCH: Which of these characteristics do you see as DellHost.com's main strength? TODD: I think the first three I listed are very much intertwined and our strengths lie there. The last two - portfolio and price are really just the tickets to consideration with customers. The first three elements that comprise the customer experience are what you have to focus on to make your customers successful online - and be successful as a hosting provider as a result. All customer service touch points must be carefully architected to allow our customers to get what they need when they need it. There's nothing fanatical about it - it needs to be process driven, deliberate, comprehensive and closely managed by the executive team. Service delivery is the hosting itself - having a platform built on enterprise- class infrastructure and managed by professionals. We are located on the backbone in a Sprint datacenter built to Telco POP specs, we use Dell, EMC, Cisco gear. Many on our staff are the same people that built Dell.com - a pioneer of online business. If you check out the performance rankings for hosting providers on NetCraft you will consistently find us at the top end of the list and that's no accident. Ease of use encompasses all of the tools the customers use to order and manage their hosting service. These service elements are all interrelated and are the focus of our management team. HOSTSEARCH: Where do you see DellHost.com and the industry as a whole in five years time? TODD: The trend is clearly toward scale and automation as the industry consolidates and matures. Providers that open up additional revenue through services beyond the hosting will be the ones to thrive, but picking the services that customers find value in and avoiding clutter is what will separate the winners from the losers. We'll work to be a winner. HOSTSEARCH: Thanks again for the interview opportunity. TODD: Absolutely. Thank you. |
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