Testimonials
Success Stories
Internet Management ServicesTexas ISP Cuts Overhead and Radically Streamlines ISP Management
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Osprey TechnologiesA New Beginning — This Time With Margin!
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Budget InternetBudget Internet Protects Future with visp.net’s ISP Software
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IMS Focuses Solely on Close Customer Contact
“The most important thing is that no customer just becomes a number.”
When Randy Meche opened the doors at Computer Solutions nearly a quarter century ago, the internet wasn’t much more than a fanciful idea. But the world quickly changed and Meche cautiously moved right along with it.
About 15 years ago, he launched Internet Management Services (IMS), a premium Internet service provider in Southeast Texas. Because the majority of his subscribers were already computer store customers – as well as friends — it was a natural match.
“We’re small enough that we never want to lose the personal touch,” said Meche, noting that IMS has about 550 subscribers. ”We’re not after the world. The most important thing is that no customer just becomes a number. We really want to know each and every one of them. And with more than 20 years in the computer retail and service industry, I have a clear vision of customer needs and solutions.”
Who to serve, customers or servers?
The journey to visp.net was imperative because managing the back office component of IMS was becoming increasingly complex. Up until three years ago, Meche practiced the homegrown method of providing Internet service to seven small cities, developing his own ISP from the ground level up, using retail store-built hardware and analog lines. From there he made the jump to providing dialup digital service. “We limped along, but we didn’t have elaborate service,” he said.
The problem was, his staff of only eight employees was putting more time into “serving servers” and managing the ISP back office tasks than serving customers and selling computers. “That was a big factor in our move to visp.net’s management software,” Meche said. ”The staff at visp.net immediately took over the heavy lifting. They’re incredible, knowledgeable, and focused.”
After a trouble-free migration to visp.net’s software, Meche and the IMS staff were able to concentrate exclusively on WISP services, dialup, DSL, e-mail, and web hosting services using digital, state-of-the-art equipment. ”The transition was smooth. Visp.net really takes care of business,” Meche said.
Of course, none of this would be possible without visp.net’s exclusive Billing and Management software for Internet Providers [now called Ultimate Back Office (UBO) Software™]. The turnkey solution gives IMS the tools they need to run a feature-rich, low-overhead service. IMS gets an easy-to-use, Java-based application that automates most of their ISP management including activating, managing, and billing their subscriber accounts.
”Visp.net software is the key thing we use,” said Meche, adding that they purchase wholesale DSL lines from another company. ”It’s a jewel. It allows me to step away from running the ISP and to delegate.”
Now, Meche has one non-technical employee charged with overseeing the back-end component of his ISP and his top-paid technical staff are doing much more important functions that generate revenue. With the user-friendly interface, some of Meche’s favorite features are:
- Easy payment tracking
The easy-to-configure ”Auto Actions” feature suspends past due subscribers automatically. Upon receipt of payment, service is automatically restored. A log of all actions is stored in the subscriber history. This eliminates freeloaders and ensures subscribers get what they pay for instantly.
- Automatic billing
Monthly billing is simplified for subscribers who choose to pay by credit card. Invoices can be sent by email or through a print-house with a single click, significantly reducing the time to bill subscribers each month.
- Mass e-mail
It’s a powerful, automated system for staying in touch with his subscribers. All that’s involved is selecting a pre-defined template, inserting copy, and clicking send.
- Time-saving reports
Visp.net’s powerful software generates reports such as compiling new users by three-digit Zip Code, monthly billing, late payment, and customer mailing list. This makes marketing and managing Meche’s subscribers easier.
- Simple, customizable invoicing
The visp.net solution automatically enters line items for services added to a subscriber. This increases revenue accountability, ensuring subscribers get billed for all the services he provides.
- Self-service option
Subscribers have the ability to manage their own account through an online portal, reducing calls and saving his staff time.
- Online payment
Subscribers can make payments online or set up recurring payments to their credit card on a monthly basis. This makes processing the bulk of his subscribers’ monthly payments a breeze.
- Spam protection
Spam filtering and antivirus tools are powerful yet easy for subscribers to use and configure from the self-service portal. This almost instantly cut virus and spam complaints from Meche’s users.
So what’s Meche do with all his free time? Whatever he wants: sales, marketing, and support. But sometimes having so much freedom isn’t easy. ”We have things in place that make life good,” he says. ”But I felt guilty at first because visp.net gave me the freedom I’d always been looking for, but had evaded me until now.”
On top of everything, using the visp.net Billing and Management software is the fiscally responsible thing to do. ”To get these results without that software would be ridiculously expensive,” Meche said. ”To not be concerned with worrying about managing the monthly subscriber details is nice.”
Indeed.
Osprey Technologies
A New Beginning. This time with margin!
Midwest ISP Eliminates Fixed Costs
It wasn’t long ago that Osprey Network Technologies teetered on the brink of financial disaster. Gone were the go-go days of 30 easy signups a month. Major telcos now competed in the same arena as the small ISP. And the workdays? Wracked with worry about what could happen, Osprey owner Robert Lowery spent many sleepless nights worried that a server might go down.
But since migrating his subscribers throughout Kansas and Texas to visp.net, Lowery has begun to fight back, and targets 100% growth during the next year because he’s able to focus on marketing and aspects of the business that he’s passionate about, such as Wireless Internet and WiFi Hotspots.
“Visp.net is ideally equipped to manage an ISP’s back office much more effectively,” says Lowery. “Since they’re able to provide 24/7 customer care, I have time to do what I want, and increase my subscriber base.”
The Rocky Road of Being a Facilities-Based ISP
When Lowery and former partner David Morton started Osprey in 1998 it seemed that fate was with them. Customers from a previous ISP where they worked followed them into the new venture.
Using a total of 400 modems connected by Frame Relay in 10 towns, Osprey grew to 2,500 subscribers in 2003. Business was good. But then, things took a turn for the worse.
First the phone company began raising prices on its lines, reducing profit margins. However, the resourceful Lowery dodged that bullet by outsourcing his modems and buying low cost toll-free access. Profits rose by $13,000 a month.
That was until AT&T and Level3 turned off the toll-free numbers. Lowery lost 45 percent of his customer base in less than a month.
“I was shocked,” says Lowery, adding that AT&T helped pass legislation that effectively locked out toll-free numbers for data access. “I was ready to pack up the bags and lock the doors. If the phone companies can turn us off like this, we’re in trouble. There’s probably hundreds of ISPs that have been affected like this.”
Enter visp.net: The World’s Most Powerful Wholesale ISP Solution
Lowery was now bone tired of being “on” day and night for a declining business. And he was torn. He wanted to sell Osprey, yet he felt personally responsible to his loyal subscribers, many of whom had been with him since the beginning.
“Selling the business felt like I was abandoning my customers,” says Lowery of his dilemma. “That’s why I wanted the best solution for them. Part of the reason I decided on visp.net was that I was able to keep my customers.”
Nightmares such as these are nothing new to visp.net.
“Our virtual ISP technology and industry relationships help us solve ISP’s problems and keep operating costs low,” says visp.net CEO Todd Grannis. “We’re able to help ISPs deliver personal, world-class, service to their subscribers without world-class overhead.”
Lowery is well aware that the old ISP business model is a losing proposition. visp.net’s Pay-as-you-Go billing model provides ISPs with immediate profit margins by eliminating fixed costs. ISPs simply pay for what they use.
Osprey now enjoys visp.net’s powerful ISP in-a-box™ Management & Billing software [now UBO Billing and Management Software™]. “This is the best software for managing an ISP that I’ve seen,” says Lowery, adding that his customers also enjoy his new ISP Web Portal that integrates seamlessly with the Billing and Management software. “It’s a big improvement. visp.net is an all-in-one solution for us.”
Setting up subscribers and transferring domains has been easier than Lowery expected, too. “This has been the smoothest migration we’ve ever made,” he says, adding that the solution is ideal for facilities-based ISPs. “The few issues we’ve had have been addressed immediately by visp.net.”
Gone is the insanity of trying to manage a barrage of calls from frustrated subscribers while struggling to bring up a downed server.
Lowery now sleeps like a baby. “I no longer go home at night with the lingering concern that a server will go down,” he says. “I have my life back.”
Budget Internet
Protecting the future with visp.net’s ISP Management & Billing Software
Reducing System Administration Overhead Pays Off
It’s tough being a small internet provider – even if the engine is running on all eight cylinders. The weak link at Budget Internet was the internal system administration, which ran smoothly for years until Budget’s Senior System Administrator was offered a job from Microsoft at a salary that was impossible to match. When he politely turned in his two weeks notice, Budget Internet owner, Tony Javoric, found himself scrambling to come up with a long-term solution.
There was no room for error in terms of the huge, never-ending scope of work. A new system administrator would take months to train. What was previously a non-event outage could easily become a catastrophe in the wrong hands. So the 2,500-subscriber ISP migrated its facilities-based operation to visp.net’s next-generation virtual ISP services to eliminate the system administration department altogether.
“We didn’t want the challenges of hiring and training a new system administrator — that ISP business-model is obsolete,” said Javoric, president of Budget Internet. “Visp.net had the best ISP software and wholesale ISP services we’ve seen.”
The Road to visp.net
Started as a Bulletin Board Service in 1989, Budget Internet was one of the first ISPs in Oregon. In addition to providing subscribers with dial-up and DSL line access, Budget Internet provides computer repair services for the local Grants Pass community.
Though the company had abandoned the work of managing its own dial-up ports long ago, before it was a popular cost-cutting strategy for ISPs – they kept in-house the job of administering all other ISP-related servers, including web, mail, spam, radius, and more.
“We had six servers that were all operating 24/7,” said Javoric, who is assisted by five employees. “I wanted to offload that responsibility and save money. Visp.net has the resources and volume to turn our modest back-office services into a world-class operation for less than we were paying our system administration staff.”
Javoric had contemplated such a move before. He worked with visp.net to come up with a detailed plan to minimize subscriber losses during the migration to visp.net’s servers.
“We’re going to operate Budget Internet until the wings fall off,” said Javoric, referring to his ongoing commitment to his loyal customer base. “I needed a solution, and I wanted to make a change in a hurry without sacrificing subscribers.”
The visp.net Migration
Javoric quickly discovered that visp.net’s expansive broadband footprint would be immediately available to his subscriber base through the wholesale ISP’s network. The visp.net network infrastructure runs the gamut from over 60,000 local dialup numbers to one of the nation’s largest wholesale DSL footprints.
Visp.net’s exclusive ISP in-a-box™ virtual ISP software [now called Ultimate Back Office (UBO) Software™] is the proverbial straw that stirs the drink. The turnkey solution gives Budget Internet the tools they need to run a feature-rich, low-overhead service. Javoric gets an easy-to-use, Java-based application through which they can activate, manage, and bill their subscriber accounts.
“Visp.net’s approach and resolution to our company’s dilemma made perfect sense,” Javoric said. “They began with an analysis of our servers, and within a week they came up with a total solution.”
Javoric added that the migration to visp.net has been “great,” and the minor glitches have been handled immediately by visp.net’s technical support staff. The entire migration has taken several months to finish entirely, “but thanks to special migration tools created by visp.net, our customers have not had to make any changes to their computers,” he said. “We’ve had near 100% subscriber retention during the migration — that’s pretty phenomenal.”
Does Javoric have any regrets about outsourcing his system administration department? Not a one.
“If an Internet Provider has fewer than 3,000 subscribers, having an in-house system administrator department is not economically efficient,” he said, adding that the change has more than paid for itself. “Every Internet Provider that’s the size of Budget should consider moving to visp.net to increase back-office redundancy and save money.”
Our Partner ISPs’ Feedback
Read what people are saying about the advantages of choosing visp.net as your wholesale ISP.
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Thanks so much for your excellent customer service! |  |
| R. W. “Bob” Pensworth
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I actually catch myself when using your software saying “This is just ridiculous how good this software is!” I still love what you guys are doing for us. |  |
| Randy Meche
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By the way, it’s been great working with you. Your skill, patience and endurance [are] remarkable. | |
| Thank you, Jeffrey
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Thanks for your mail copy expertise — the mail copy run went really fast. | |
| John
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Very smooth…The good news just doesn’t stop coming… You’ve been hitting on all cylinders today. Great job | |
| Ned Schumann
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WOW !!!! I like it – GREAT JOB! | |
| Jason Marsland
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Keep up your great work. You have allowed us to focus on our core business and honestly give almost no thought to managing our subscriber base. You guys are awesome! | |
| Randy Meche
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I know you guys don’t hear this often enough, but the management system that VISP has developed has been one of the best things that has happened to our ISP. I wanted to let you and your staff know that we really do appreciate all of your hard work that has made this application a reality. | |
| Randy Meche
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I’m having a hard time adjusting to a vendor that is so focused on their customers and I appreciate that more than I can adequately express in e-mail. :) | |
| Mitch Dailey
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Aggressive, serious-minded people in helping small businesses survive in this big world. | |
| Walter Fayne
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I just wanted to say thank you. … I was extremely pleased to see that the tech that assisted my customer took the time to discover that the wrong type of ethernet cable was being used. …that level of support is commendable. | |
| Terry Bryson
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We’ve been in touch with tech support and they were great! Helped walk we computer-midget minds thru the process. Our thanks to them. | |
| Larry
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I want you guys to know that I have had nothing but good reports about the tech support for the last week. Considering that we had to deal with a two-day [local fiber cut] outage I think that is pretty remarkable. Please pass this on to whoever needs to know. | |
| Thanks, Bill Hibler |
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wow — that was a lot more than I expected | |
| Mitch Dailey
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I just wanted to take a moment and tell you how pleased I am with my decision to choose Visp as my ISP partner. Every member of your staff is absolutely top notch. They treat every call as if I were there only customer it’s like having them on my staff. | |
| Thanks for everything, Terry Bryson |
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Shame on you! How do you expect your competitors to make a living? LOL… Thanks… If I haven’t told you this before, we appreciate all you have worked on with us… | |
| Ryan Mallory
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It looks like the first run of the invoices went perfect. I think I just witnessed a miracle. Great Job! – Fast implementation. | |
| Randy Meche
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Thank you so much… Our tech doesn’t rave very often, but she says you’re awesome. | |
| Kathryn Gordon
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AWESOME! THANK YOU!!!!!! Our “Thanks” to all your staff. Let them know we really appreciate it! | |
| Patricia Tulak
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…we love the system | |
| Randy Meche
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I am very impressed how you guys handle your business. I am very thankful for what you are doing… | |
| Randy Meche
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I would like to congratulate you and all your employees that I have come in contact with at visp.net. The professionalism, support systems and processes that your company has provided to us has been second to none! Truly “top shelf”! | |
| Warm Regards, Kirk Gee |
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Very happy with how it all turned out and the quick response we have been given when needed. | |
| Ryan Mallory
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The DNS and FTP tool is great!!! | |
| Terry Bryson
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I want you to know how much I appreciate Kameron helping us out last night. I caught him at 6:20 just as he was headed out the door.
We had two DSL customers who had been unable to connect for days since CenturyLink either changed their service or set up a new one… when it was over we had both customers working and happy. |
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| Thanks again, Bill Hibler |
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As usual you and your team have done an outstanding job responding and providing assistance, Thank you! | |
| Allan McLendon
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I would like to express my extreme satisfaction of how well the migration of our whole ISP went with the help of visp.net.
In the past I spent most of my time fighting with local carriers for bandwidth and dial-up dialtone service and billing issues. Then one day while cleaning my office, I stumbled upon one of visp.net’s letters (while waiting for one of 9 of my Verizon reps to call back on a 7 month long battle over billing). I took a chance and called the number and to my surprise someone answered the phone and took the time to explain the program. After crunching the numbers, I found it to be a viable solution for me or any other hard line ISP. The thing I liked the best was the per customer billing, so when other bandwidth and Telco providers were slamming my customer base switching them without warning, now I don’t have to worry about customer subscriptions having to be at a certain level for profitability for the amount of bandwidth, that I had to get into long contracts to buy. Now I know what the profit margin is on every customer and don’t have to worry about overloading my system, I can now put my effort into selling and not maintaining the high cost of servers and bandwidth contracts. This has freed up my time considerably. Every scenario possible was immediately addressed and solved flawlessly by the great team at visp.net, much to the amazement of my tech staff. The common phrase was “how did they do that?”. Well, the answer was simple: visp.net is the best at what they do. The dial-up switch was seamless and the DSL and email was even easier. The nights I spent worrying about the migration were in the end not necessary. Just let the pros at visp.net do what they do best and don’t worry. Now my ISP has never ran smoother and my subscribers love it and best of all they never knew what happened!! Thanks to all the people at visp.net for helping me in my time of frustration. |
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| Dave Pearcy
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Just wanted to say “Thanks!” for all your help with our first-of-the-month credit card batch. On behalf of all of us here we really appreciate you writing scripts to export all the CCs to be charged for the month so we can import into our CC software, and another to post all entries, so that’s a ton of time saved for us! | |
| Thanks again man! Tony Javoric |
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visp.net provided us with a turnkey real-time fast solution to become an ISP in the USA. Their constant support and help was a breath of relief for us. Being a UK based company, dealing with the US via e-mail and phone was made easy… | |
| Thanks, Jonathan Sklan-Willis |
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I want to take a moment to thank you and your team for the outstanding job you have done this week launching the Truth Services billing system and website! The rapid response we received…was very impressive. Please pass along our gratitude. | |
| Thanks, Allan McLendon |
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Wow, thanks for the dedication!!! It feels good to know we are a part of your team and vice-versa. I am really feeling great about this whole deal. | |
| Thanks!!! Albert Catanach |
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I want to take a moment to thank you all for the aggressive way you have taken this project on. I can’t express enough how impressed I am at the way you guys have taken this and ran with it in such short notice. Every member of your staff has been very professional and has done an outstanding job. I truly appreciate your effort!! | |
| Thanks, Allan McLendon |
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I saw that you had the portal up several hours ago and remain highly impressed with the courtesy, technical skills and desire to help that seems to emanate from every executive and employee I have had the pleasure to speak with. As you know we have offered access programs for almost 3 years now with problems too many to recall. After working with you on our special needs, I’m convinced that the norm for your company’s service is far above any other daring enough to call themselves your competitor.
God Bless and keep up the great work! |
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| Chance Harker
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I just can’t get over how awesome you guys have been to work with. Every time I call or email you guys are right there on top of it and totally helpfull! The level of service and competency you present is a rarity among the companies I have been dealing with! | |
| Thank you tons!!! Micah Owens |
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I have personally used over 10 different client tracking software programs and this is the BEST that I have ever used. It is much easier to modify and adapt to OUR way of doing business that it almost seems to have been custom built for us! | |
| Ken Richins
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Within the first couple of years running a small ISP, the most time-consuming job quickly became the unending battle with spam. That job kept growing and easily consumed 40-50 hours of my time each week.
I searched for solutions to my problem, and came across Postini shortly after they started their service… As time went by, their price of service to us increased to the point where I started to look for other options… It was looking pretty bleak….until I encountered “Spaminator”, operated by visp.net. We have been using the ‘open-source’ Spaminator Solution for only a short while, but, so far, the experience has exceeded all of my expectations. Visp.net has been incredibly helpful and responsive to my needs. I would not hesitate recommending the Spaminator Solution to any firm needing to deal with Viruses and Spam. |
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| Carl Gnadinger Jr.
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I wanted to drop you a line and tell you of the excellent support your guys are giving us.
I appreciate the expedience in answers to questions, their depth of knowledge and patience, as well as the answers which in some cases, tip the balance of a business decision. – The difference in getting the client – or not. |
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| Thank you for taking our success seriously! Darren M. Thompson, Sr. |
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Re: DSL Migration to visp.net
I wish to express my appreciation to you and your staff for helping us migrate our DSL client base to your VISP program. I appreciate the practical and effective advice you have given us throughout the process. Your team’s competence, flexibility and imagination have made this the smoothest service migration we have made in our 10+ years as internet providers. We now have a chance to continue to grow our DSL base. I look forward to continuing our business relationship with visp.net. |
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| Sincerely, Jacques R. LeComte |
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I want to take a moment to thank you and your staff for the excellent work visp.net has done in managing the transition of over 1,200 members to your network.
As you know, we have worked with other Virtual ISP Providers and have first-hand experience managing and evaluating such relationships. Visp.net offers the best combination of services we have found in the marketplace: an extensive network of connection numbers, an outstanding customer service ethic, comprehensive reporting and engaged leadership. JPR has been extremely satisfied with the work visp.net has done for us in making JPR a service that meets and exceeds our standards for quality service to our constituents. I unequivocally can recommend visp.net for any organization seeking Virtual ISP services and welcome an opportunity to talk with local organizations who are considering partnering with your company. |
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| Paul Westhelle
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Thanks to all of you who worked so hard to make this transition. I know it was a lot of work and didn’t go quite as smoothly as imagined by “management” (that would be the non-technical among us :-)), but the transition has been much smoother than I expected.
I really appreciate all you have done over the last month. Kudos to all of you. |
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| Tom Stein
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This is awesome. I really thought I had gone to the wrong page for a minute. THANKS so very much. The Log in stats are much needed, much improved and just plain AWESOME! | |
| Dorothy Richens
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| Responses from our ISPs when asked in routine surveys: Please tell us how we can better serve you. |
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| Responses from our ISPs when asked in routine surveys: What do you like most about visp.net and UBO Software? |
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ISP Subscribers’ Feedback
The proof of the pudding is in the eating — read what our partner ISPs’ subscribers say about the excellent internet experience they receive!
