NetObjects Matrix is a platform designed to be packaged with a
hosted service to provide SME users with a tool for building
professional-grade Web sites with online services.
NetObjects has established partnerships with several leading
companies, including IBM and Dell, and is now offering the Matrix
platform to service providers - for example, Internet Service
Providers (ISPs), Application Service Providers (ASPs) and
Telecommunication Companies (Telecoms) - as a route to participate
quickly and easily in the growing hosted online services market.
The Matrix platform integrates with the service provider's existing
infrastructure and is backed up by NetObjects Global Services
offering installation, customisation, and support.
The exponential growth in business Web sites has been one of the
defining features of the IT landscape over the last five years.
While many large organisations have expended considerable resources
on exploiting this channel, the democratic nature of the Internet,
at least as far as entry is concerned, has seen many SMEs taking up
the opportunity as well.
Establishing a Web presence is still in the early stages in the SME
sector. Some companies have taken the plunge and published a first
generation site, many are aware of the potential and are
considering setting up a site, while a few feel that it is not yet
of relevance to them. In terms of the typical product lifecycle
graph, we are poised at the start of the up-slope where rapid
growth ensues: this has been borne out by the experience of the US
market, which for the last three years has seen 100% annual growth
in SME Web site launches.
Although many SMEs
 | | The options range from a DIY
approach to paying a relatively large sum of money to a third-party
to create a site on your behalf. | | | | | |
| | Source: Butler Research | | |
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are aware of the potential benefits of a Web presence, the
practical aspects of creating a site are not always easy. The
options range from a DIY approach, to paying a relatively large sum
of money to a third party to create a site on your behalf. Even if
the requisite design skills are present, users opting for the first
route often end up using a wholly unsuitable tool to create a site,
simply because it was available on their PC, or perhaps recommended
by their service provider. In the second
| | NetObjects Matrix represents an
opportunity for service providers to achieve a rapid entry into the
online services marketplace. | | | | | |
|  | Source: Butler Research | | |
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case, the major problem is bridging the gap between the Web site
designer and the proprietor or manager who actually knows the
characteristics of the business.
A third route, which started life in the home computing space, is
to build a Web site online. With the projected growth in the
service provider market, this is set to offer a credible and
flexible alternative to the SME wanting to establish a Web
presence. NetObjects has addressed this opportunity with its Matrix
platform.
Site-building solutions
NetObjects has been involved
with this market since its inception in 1995, and is best known for
its NetObjects Fusion software, the first wysiwyg Web site creation
tool. NetObjects has licensed the distribution of over 10 million
copies of NetObjects Fusion, which is targeted firmly at the SME
market and has been used to construct over five million business
Web sites. Because of the sheer volume of SMEs that are potential
users, marketing the product is a complex task, so NetObjects has
developed a partnership approach, working with companies including
IBM, EarthLink, and most recently Dell, to bring its products to
the end-user.
The partnership with Dell will see the PC manufacturer bundling
NetObjects Fusion with all their mainstream desktop and portable
models. It is a specially tailored version, which allows users to
create and publish a Web site to the DellHost site that Dell offers
as a service provider to its customers.
NetObjects is now set to use this partnership model on a much wider
scale, following the release of the NetObjects Matrix platform.
NetObjects Matrix enables SMEs quickly and easily to establish and
market a professional-looking Web site and will be made available
to service providers that want to offer a site-building tool and
services to customers. NetObjects intends to integrate third-party
online services with both NetObjects Matrix and NetObjects Fusion
to offer SMEs Web site management and promotion services.
Service provider advantages
NetObjects Matrix
represents an opportunity for service providers to achieve a rapid
entry into the online services marketplace. It has a global
services division to specify and install the Matrix platform and
provide ongoing support, and where the installation follows a
standard path, NetObjects states that it can be carried out within
30 days.
One of the major benefits of the Matrix platform is that it
integrates easily into a service provider's existing
infrastructure, being built on industry-standard technologies. It
will also integrate with the provider's own services, such as
authentication and billing. For example, a user logging on to the
ISP could also be authenticated for the Matrix platform where
appropriate.
NetObjects has built on the reputation it established with Fusion,
making the product secure and reliable. The company is also able to
host the Matrix platform on behalf of a service provider, which
opens up the opportunity to smaller niche providers that want to
offer these services but do not have the required infrastructure in
place.
The Matrix platform
The Matrix site-building tools are
based on the proven designs and interface (such as the Online View)
of NetObjects Fusion 5.0, which offers a highly productive and
flexible environment for Web site development. NetObjects Fusion is
site-oriented rather than focused at page level, which means the
finished site is more likely to be coherent and professional
looking, rather than a collection of individual paragraphs and
images tacked together.
NetObjects Matrix offers a large number of templates to choose
from, and service providers can customise templates before they are
made available to end-users. So, a provider focusing on a
particular industry sector could offer templates tailored to that
environment.
The Matrix platform offers a number of commonly used page
structures, such as: FAQ (frequently asked questions); About Us
(describing the company); Links; News; and Contact Us. It is the
use of this integrated approach to creating pages that helps the
user to achieve a consistent look across the site.
It is also easy to change the style of the whole site by selecting
a new look from a menu. Individual components can be tailored using
context-sensitive menus that pop up when the user clicks on the
object in question. No knowledge of HTML is required to create a
professional-looking site. Once the site design has been completed,
the publishing process is straightforward - the user does not need
to worry about File Transfer Protocol (FTP) or addresses, as a
"Publish" button at the top of the screen automates the whole
process.
At this point, the Web site tools and services can be used to add
value to the basic design. These fall into three main categories:
tracking and monitoring, promotion and advertising, and
functionality and interactivity. Tracking and monitoring tools
include site traffic analysis, site performance analysis, hit
counters, and site status monitors - all aimed at ensuring the site
achieves maximum availability, and provides feedback to the owner.
Promotion and advertising allow the user to include adverts and
banners on their site, either to encourage traffic or to provide a
revenue stream. Functionality and interactivity cover items such as
site-searching facilities, guest books and message boards. The
whole Matrix offering is fronted by a dashboard, personalised to
the individual user, which gives access to the various online
services, and which can also be customised to include the service
provider's own functionality and information.
The technology required to host the Matrix platform has been
designed to integrate with a standard service provider environment.
The Matrix Application Servers run on Sun Solaris or Red Hat Linux,
and use the Apache Web Server and a JRun Java Application Server.
An Oracle database is used to hold details of the members' sites
and service subscriptions. The Matrix software uses Java servlets
and JavaServer pages and does not require any client-side Java or
browser plug-ins. This means that the client-side requirements are
simply a current browser - Netscape 4.06 or later, or Internet
Explorer 4.01 or later.
Route to market
Following similar lines to the
partnership established with Dell, NetObjects feels it has the
product offering, services organisation and support capability to
work with the largest service providers in each geographical
territory. Revenue generation will be based on a monthly
subscription model, with end-users paying a recurring subscription
fee for the site-building and hosting capabilities, and for each of
the additional services to which they subscribe. The service
provider will pay NetObejcts a percentage of this subscription fee,
plus a charge for installation, customisation, and support of the
Matrix platform.
When embarking on a Matrix project, NetObjects personnel will
initially undertake a scoping exercise with the service provider to
establish the likely market potential and to decide upon the system
requirements. The Matrix platform is highly scalable, using
clustering software to balance the load across multiple application
servers as the demand increases.
NetObjects will then agree on a project specification with the
client, including details of which services the provider wishes to
offer, and any customisation that is required. If none is
necessary, installation of the Matrix platform will take about a
month. NetObjects would expect to train up the service provider's
own personnel to provide first and second-line support to
end-users, and would itself provide round-the-clock ongoing support
to the service provider.
Conclusions
The Matrix platform offers existing ASPs,
ISPs, and telcos wishing to increase their application service
offerings, an opportunity to participate in a rapidly growing
market. It also has potential for virtual service providers in a
niche market to offer Web site-creation facilities to their
customers, with the infrastructure being hosted by NetObjects or
another third-party.
The recurring subscription model is certainly attractive to the
service provider, and gives the end-user the option of trying a Web
presence without spending a large sum of money up front. Most
service providers offering site-hosting charge customers a monthly
or annual fee, so adding the site-creation and services fees to
this offers a consistent pricing model.
From the end-user's viewpoint, one area not directly covered by the
Matrix platform is the provision of e-commerce facilities, such as
product catalogues, online stores and online payment facilities. It
is possible for service providers to integrate their own e-commerce
services with the Matrix platform. This would be an important
requirement for many SMEs, and is a component that NetObjects is
considering adding to future versions of the product.
Another issue SMEs must consider when creating a Web site using
this method is that the ability to transfer the resulting pages to
their own Web server, or switch to an alternative service provider,
is entirely dependent on the current provider. Practically
speaking, users are locked in via the log-in and password to site
services from their provider and would need to rely on the host
allowing FTP access to the final published site, if they wanted to
switch to using a different tool for building and maintenance.
This would be a factor if an SME expected to scale up its Web
presence in the near future, but is probably not a major drawback
for most small companies. From the service provider's point of
view, it presents a marketing opportunity to move customers up to a
dedicated hosting service and to offer other more robust building
tools and online services to meet their growing needs and
confidence.
Vendor profile
With its headquarters in Redwood City,
California, NetObjects was founded in 1995 to provide Web
site-creation tools for the SME market. NetObjects has now sold
some 10 million NetObjects Fusion licences. In 1998, the company
launched an Enterprise division, offering content-management tools
to corporate Web site-builders. The company went public in 1999 and
trades on NASDAQ with the symbol NETO.
The past year has seen the company move towards a partner-based
distribution model, culminating in the launch of the NetObjects
Matrix platform. The company now has almost 100 employees and has
offices in the US, Germany and the UK.
Contact details
NetObjects:
www.netobjects.com;
www.netobjects.co.uk