The Interliant deal is something of a landmark in that it will see Trellix supplant IBM's venerable HomePage Creator tool, built in-house in Java as a browser-based tool and originally launched in October 1997. Interliant, which now provides IBM's small business hosting on a private-label basis, has already started working on phasing in Trellix to replace HomePage Creator. Other Interliant customers for whom it expects to roll out the Trellix solution include Dell and Sprint (see Interliant, Trellix Team to Reach Small Businesses.

Smooth as ICE
The flexibility of the Trellix architecture is a special boon for companies such as Interliant and Inquent, who serve many different private-label clients of their own. It is designed to allow each private-label client to have their own preferred permutation of Trellix and third-party features, which they can configure and tune using the Integrated Configuration Environment (ICE), a Web-based administration console.

"ICE is critical because it gives a facility for Interliant to brand its service uniquely for each of its private label customers," Bulens explained. A built-in version management framework allows each client to implement new versions and features as they wish, rather than being forced to upgrade as soon as new features are added to the system. "There's no one in our market that provides the version management and enterprise control that we provide as a tool to our partners," he said.

The ICE architecture includes a set of interfaces for integrating external services. Trellix already supplements its own feature set with a portfolio of services from a range of third parties such as MapQuest, Moreover and Groove Networks. Customers are free to integrate their own features too, or to add further third-party services, using the same interface set.

Around half its customers, such as Domain Direct, opt to have Trellix host the service on their behalf, although still under the customer's brand name. Trellix confines itself to hosting and managing the software, leaving all end user billing and support in the hands of its customers.

Offering the intuitive and easy-to-use Trellix solution to an existing small business customer base is a combination that eliminates two of the most costly overheads taht others have faced when attacking the small business sector — those of customer acquisition and end-user support.

"The cost of acquiring and maintaining a relationship with a small business often cannot support the sort of pricing that's been prevalent in the market," said Bulens. With subscription rates generating just a handful of dollars a month from each customer, support is an extra burden to be avoided at all costs. "If they take one phone call, that eradicates months of revenue, let along months of margin," he said. Across its customer base, a meager 2 percent to 5 percent of active Trellix users require support.

While others have begun to shift their attentions upmarket in an effort to capture higher revenues per customer, Trellix is determined to continue focusing on delivering the best platform for its private-label partners into the sub-20 employee company sector.

"We believe the small business market is one of the hidden gems worldwide today," said Bulens. "The adoption of Web sites is very much active and will grow for the next few years. We believe the scale opportunity will be turning to targeting trusted relationships. We intend to be the dominant private-label provider of Web services to those customers."