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By Sarah Mason
from WebHostPad.com

Forrester Research estimates that network-based business-to- business transactions will total $186 billion by 2001, more than 10 times the projected retail transaction volume of $18.3 billion. Companies that provide hosting services can get in on the $186 billion generated by business-to-business transactions by providing clients a secure platform to conduct e-business.

Michael S. Shiff, vice president of marketing, sales and business development at Data Return, a Microsoft hosting partner, explains: "The average company, even the average ISP, simply doesn’t have the resources to pull everything together to offer clients a total commerce solution by themselves." Which is why an all-inclusive commerce-hosting package makes sense for hosts looking to offer e- commerce solutions to their clients.

Microsoft, out to compete with IBM’s total e-business solution and Netscape’s hardware-only e-commerce product, has created an all- inclusive package, called Complete Commerce, designed to enable service providers to offer clients a complete electronic commerce solution. The Complete Commerce package gives hosts the tools and training needed to provide clients with e-commerce consulting, Web development, order processing and delivery.

"Becoming single-contact points for integrated hardware, software and services, service providers can combine their unique operations skills with application expertise to securely manage, monitor, scale and expand their customers’ commerce sites," explains Thomas Koll, vice president of the Internet customer unit at Microsoft.

Offering all-in-one commerce services positions service providers to capitalize on a growing trend among corporations to outsource complex Internet projects. Companies are realizing they don’t have the internal resources to create and maintain commerce-driven Web sites -- these companies are looking outside of their organizations for help. According to Forrester Research, there is an emerging market for outsourcing Internet-related services -- one that is expected to blossom to a $21.1 billion business by 2001.

"There’s a lot of work involved in setting up and managing a business- class Web site," explains Sunny Vanderbeck, chief executive officer at Data Return, "and these tasks are not to be taken lightly. Companies need to see a return on their investment from their Internet efforts; and given the level of staffing and expertise required to manage a business-critical Web site, it’s very hard to see that ROI if you have to do it yourself. By outsourcing, a company can get a business-class Web site up and running in two days rather than two months. That enables companies to see an ROI on the horizon -- and that horizon is a lot closer than it would have been if they were doing it themselves."

According to Microsoft, the company’s goal is to lease out the Complete Commerce package on a monthly basis to host providers. "This way the customer gets a better return on investment by outsourcing their entire site," Microsoft’s marketing manager for Web commerce and hosting, David Ostroff, told Sm@rt Reseller -- and the host will end up with more ongoing work for more money. "We’re just trying to make this affordable for the hosting provider," states Ostroff.

Prices for the Complete Commerce package start at $50,000 and scale upwards, depending on the number of clients a host plans to service. For that, the service provider gets their own dedicated server, hardware and telecom lines, all of which can scale as needed. But, according to Ostroff, Microsoft has yet to have a host provider lease the package on a monthly basis; instead, service providers are making the $50,000 investment to purchase the Complete Commerce package.

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