martes, 19 de octubre de 2010

Meet the Resellers: Softcom

Meet the Resellers: Softcom


Meet the Resellers: Softcom

Posted: 18 Oct 2010 08:34 AM PDT

Through its myhosting.com and mail2web.com brands, Softcom, an OpenSRS Reseller since 2000, has established itself as a leading provider of web hosting and business communication services to small business and small to mid-sized enterprises in 140 countries around the world.

In addition to web hosting, Softcom provides messaging and collaboration services to more than 25,000 businesses worldwide, consisting of well over 2 million mailboxes.

Founded in 1997, Softcom has offices in Toronto, New York and Turkey.

Enterprise Email, Competitive Pricing, Personal Service: The Market for SMEs

In the early days of web and email hosting, Softcom realized that small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) were underserved by existing offerings in the marketplace.

There were many no-frills email services designed for consumers and small business, but rapidly growing businesses with 50-100 employees or more, looking for advanced mail solutions with enterprise features were either forced to build and manage their own mail infrastructure, or shoehorn themselves into a service that was not right for them.

Softcom knew why this market was under-served: SMEs have similar demands to large enterprises, but without the big IT -spend budgets, and they can be a difficult niche to support because of their unique requirements. To be successful in this niche, Softcom had to accommodate the uniqueness of each customer and do so as efficiently as possible.

Leveraging Trusted Partners

To keep its razor sharp focus, Softcom leverages the expertise of key partners such as OpenSRS.

“You can build a hosting provider yourself from the ground up, but you’ll have a very difficult time staying ahead in a game like that.” says Celal Ulgen, Softcom’s chief marketing officer. “We’ve partnered with the best vendors in the world when it comes to spam and anti-virus, data retention, control panel automation and domain registration management. When you have relationships with best-in-breed vendors, you don’t have to make excuses.”

Mr. Ulgen is proud of what his company has built. “By partnering with vendors like OpenSRS, we can focus on all the little details that are important to the small enterprise. For example: organizations might not need certain premium features for every employee in the company. We went to great lengths in our service to let customers design their own service plans based on their own unique needs. They pay only for the features they need.”

OpenSRS Reseller Since 2000

Prior to 2000, Softcom didn’t have a long term strategy for domain name registrations. Business either brought their own domains with them, or new domains were registered manually by Softcom’s team.

When it came time to talk about domain names, Softcom had some hefty requirements. They needed a partner that was going to be around for a long time, with experience in private label wholesale services and the same focus on customer service in which Softcom prides itself. They also needed a platform that could integrate easily with their existing platform and had batch management features to handle the many thousands of domain names Softcom would be managing.

“I’ve been in this business for a long time. When ICANN opened up the Registry to other registrars, OpenSRS became the first wholesale-only domain name provider in the world. We did look at some other options in the market, but in the end OpenSRS was the obvious choice thanks to their API and the sheer focus they place on the needs of their resellers. More than ten years later, it is one of the strongest partnerships we have.”

jueves, 14 de octubre de 2010

A new and improved .CA Registry. Now with EPP compliance!

A new and improved .CA Registry. Now with EPP compliance!


A new and improved .CA Registry. Now with EPP compliance!

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 10:15 AM PDT

Earlier this morning, the team over at the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) has confirmed a successful 24 hour maintenance with an upgrade that brings the .CA Registry to full EPP compliance.

We’re still doing some post maintenance diligence on our end but in the meantime, order provisioning of .CA domains has been re-enabled as of 9am this morning.

Congratulations to the team at CIRA for their efforts and accomplishment!

martes, 12 de octubre de 2010

CIRA Registry Transition is Underway

CIRA Registry Transition is Underway


CIRA Registry Transition is Underway

Posted: 12 Oct 2010 07:04 AM PDT

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) has begun the transition to its new registry platform as of this morning at 9am EDT. We’re keeping a close eye on things over at CIRA and we’re in regular communication with the registry throughout the transition.

The CIRA registry is unavailable throughout the 24 hour transition period. That means no new orders, or changes to existing .ca domain names. All .ca domains will continue to work at all times during the transition.

CIRA expects to be back up and live on the new platform tomorrow (Wednesday) at 9am EDT and we’ll resume taking .ca orders at that time.

In the meantime, you can stay up-to-date through OpenSRS System Status and here at the Reseller Blog. For a complete rundown of what’s changing, visit our CA Transition page.

You might also want to follow us on Twitter and CIRA also has a number of Twitter accounts that they use to pass along important information:

viernes, 8 de octubre de 2010

.CA Transition Update

.CA Transition Update


.CA Transition Update

Posted: 07 Oct 2010 10:31 AM PDT

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) is transitioning to a new Registry platform for .CA domains beginning on October 12, 2010. OpenSRS is ready to go, and we expect a successful transition to the new platform along with CIRA.

Test Environment Updated

Resellers with API integrations for .CA domains are encouraged to test them using the Horizon Test Environment which has been updated and is now connected to the new CIRA Registry Platform Test Bed.

The Reseller Web Interface (RWI) in the Horizon Test Environment has also been updated and now reflects what you will see after the Registry Transition takes place. Please familiarize yourself with the changes to how .CA domains are provisioned and managed.

For more information on timelines and to view a webinar held with CIRA about the changes, visit the CIRA Registry Platform Transition page we’ve setup to keep you informed.

Status Updates During the Transition

During, and after the transition, Resellers can get updates through OpenSRS System Status. You can subscribe to realtime status updates via email by visiting the System Status Subscription Centre.

jueves, 7 de octubre de 2010

Holiday Hours for Canadian Thanksgiving, October 11 plus 1 more

Holiday Hours for Canadian Thanksgiving, October 11 plus 1 more


Holiday Hours for Canadian Thanksgiving, October 11

Posted: 07 Oct 2010 06:08 AM PDT

Thanksgiving scene with dog, cat and squishy cows

Monday, October 11th is Canadian Thanksgiving, which means that our headquarters in Toronto will be operating on holiday hours. Here’s a schedule showing which departments will be open:

Here’s our hours by department for Monday, October 11th, 2010:

Department Hours
Technical Support Regular hours
Payments Closed
Compliance Closed

Our normal hours will resume on Tuesday, October 12. Have a safe and enjoyable holiday!

Introducing OpenSRS Trust Service

Posted: 06 Oct 2010 10:53 AM PDT

Today we're very excited to announce that OpenSRS is rolling out a brand new Trust Service that incorporates the first phase of the long-awaited new control panels for the OpenSRS platform and that we're adding SSL certificates and other trust products and services into the OpenSRS API.

If you haven't yet tapped into the opportunities that selling SSL and Trust products offer, then this represents a great time to look into how you can integrate SSL and trust into your existing offering.

Here's what is happening today:

  • We're changing the name of our SSL Service to OpenSRS Trust Service to better reflect a broadening of the product line from just SSL Certificates to things like malware scanning products and enhanced trust seals.
  • OpenSRS Trust Service is now part of the OpenSRS API and the current TPP API for SSL and DNS is being deprecated to allow for easier integration of Trust Services using a single OpenSRS API.
  • We're rolling out a brand new control panel for the Trust Service with enhanced usability and function. We'll be moving the Domain Service and Email Service to this new single control panel over the next little bit.

New VeriSign Malware Scanning and Trust Seal, and GeoTrust Unlimited Server Licenses

We're also adding a couple of new products and services to the Trust Service. As of today, all VeriSign SSL certificates purchased through the Trust Service will now include malware scanning and a new Trust Seal that will give further assurance to site visitors that they can trust the security of the website they are using. The malware scanning and trust seal are included at no additional cost. We’re also bringing unlimited server licenses to all GeoTrust SSL products – one GeoTrust SSL certificate can now be installed on as many servers as required.

More Information

We have lots more information available about both the Trust Service, and also the changes to the OpenSRS API.

martes, 28 de septiembre de 2010

OpenSRS in New York for Web 2.0 Expo

OpenSRS in New York for Web 2.0 Expo


OpenSRS in New York for Web 2.0 Expo

Posted: 27 Sep 2010 06:46 PM PDT

IMG_0614A bunch of us OpenSRS’ers are in the Big Apple this week for the New York edition of the Web 2.0 Expo.

We’re bringing the OpenSRS story to New York over the next couple of days. Drop by and say ‘hi’ if you are in the sponsor pavilion – we’re in booth 210. You can’t miss us – just look for the friendly Service Guy banners and smiling faces.

Learn about a proven revenue stream!

Drop by for a chat – we’d love to tell you about OpenSRS, how our approach to wholesale domain registrations, SSL certificates and hosted email is different, and how we can help your business with a proven revenue stream.

This is our first time sponsoring the NYC version of Web 2.0. We had a great time at Web 2.0 Expo San Francisco in the spring, and met tons of great people and introduced a bunch of them to OpenSRS for the first time.

If your already a reseller, make sure you stop in as well – we’re always happy to meet our customers face-to-face and to find out how we’re doing and, of course, how you’re doing!

domingo, 26 de septiembre de 2010

Refunds for misspelled domain names, because that’s how we roll.

Refunds for misspelled domain names, because that’s how we roll.


Refunds for misspelled domain names, because that’s how we roll.

Posted: 25 Sep 2010 03:27 PM PDT

As human beings, we all make mistakes, some are bigger than others. But when it comes to misspelling a domain name, should your end users be stuck with anything other than a perfect representation of their brand? At OpenSRS, we don’t think so. That’s why we have a five day window during which time a registered domain can be deleted, where the TLD Registry permits, for a nominal fee.

We know what it’s like to search for that perfect domain name. Countless lookups and various spellings. Heck, a typo in a domain name is bound to happen every once in a while. Or maybe your customer simply thinks of a better, more appropriate name after the registration process has been completed.

Spelling mistakes aside, there’s another big advantage to dealing with OpenSRS for domain registrations:

If you’re company is an online service provider say, a webhosting company for example, you’ve probably also felt the sting of some unscrupulous fraudster registering a website with your company and a domain name to go with it.

Sure you can cancel the website services with little cost to your company, but will your domain registrar be as unforgiving? Or do they have an ALL SALES ARE FINAL policy?

We understand that as a reseller, these things can happen We’re not going to hold you, or your customers to those mistakes for the sake of a few extra bucks in our pockets. Having a five day grace period during which time a new domain registration can be canceled is another advantage OpenSRS has over other registrars such as eNom.

Want to learn more about our reseller-friendly practices?

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