Business bait MCI beckons with Internet and intranet programs

Moving forward on its Internet 2000 plan, MCI has released two new services to help corporate customers take advantage of Internet technology.

The carrier announced its Concert Global Web Hosting and networkMCI Intranet Services targeting the needs of the business Internet market earlier this month.

"MCI is doing a good job of focusing on corporate customers," said Johna Johnson, senior research analyst at the Meta Group, a Boston-based market research firm. "These two announcements are pieces of the puzzle that MCI needs to assemble to keep pace in this market.

The main players in this market include Sprint, UUNet and BBN Planet, along with a few other "traditional" Internet service providers, but the winners in the business market are likely to be those with "carrier connections," said Johnson. "The advantage there is one of cash-since the Internet is still a low-margin business-and, at this moment, customer channels.

"Typically, business customers get their feet wet with an ISP and then see what applications they'll need to use the Internet for," she said.

The Concert Global Web Hosting service, offered by MCI and alliance partner BT, provides hosting services for international users, while the networkMCI service targets companies seeking to install internal information networks.

Initially, the Global Web Hosting service will include two products. Concert Premium Hosting offers customers a flexible Web hosting solution on a shared server, with the ability to increase memory and bandwidth as the customer's Web site grows. Concert Custom Hosting uses a dedicated server to meet the demand for accessing heavy-traffic Web sites or to ensure the security of Web sites integrated with corporate databases.

Concert's offering of a single point of contact for all technical support and customer service questions will attract customers, said John Scarborough, director of Internet marketing at MCI.

"By the end of next year, international user growth will supercede the traffic in the U.S." he said. "It's important that we give these users a one-stop shop for operational support and technical services.

MCI's intranet services branch will target "mid-market" businesses as well as division and branch offices of larger companies, said Michael Mael, director of marketing for MCI's intranet initiative.

Along with partners Microsoft and Digital Equipment Corp., MCI will create a standard premises-based, preconfigured solution for customers.

Rollin' down the highway Continental Cablevision will use Sun Microsystems' Ultra Enterprise and Netra servers for the rollout of its Highway1 high-speed Internet access service. The high performance servers will provide the cable company's customers with quick response time, faster data downloads, and audio and video streaming over its cable networks.

Claremont foots the bill Microsoft's Commercial Internet System will employ Claremont Technology Group's Premost system to provide billing to e-commerce customers. The object-oriented system, comprising seven integrated software engines, serves as a core operations support system for Internet service providers.