Best Web-Based Services - 09 Sep 2002

APPLICATION SERVICE PROVIDER
In an extremely close vote, VIA NET.WORKS won the award for best Application Service Provider, but runners-up Emergent OnLine and EchoMail Relationship Management Operating System (RMOS) were only one and two points behind, respectively.

VIA Internet Portal (VIP) is VIA NET.WORKS USA's hosted solution that combines Microsoft's SharePoint Team Services with VIA USA's state-of-the-art infrastructure and Web hosting experience. SharePoint is a Web site solution designed to significantly improve the way your team manages information and activities.

Emergent OnLine's iPAD (Internet Packaged Application Deployment) services, enable clients to outsource the tasks of application deployment, hosting, monitoring, and management.

EchoMail RMOS is a holistic solution for managing inbound and outbound email, establishing the foundation for electronic dialogue. Clients using EchoMail RMOS can effectively manage email to create an electronic dialogue with customers, clients, and prospects.

WEB-BASED SECURITY SERVICES
Our readers selected Avatier Corporation's Password Station.NET as providing the best Web-based security service.

Password Station.NET enables the implementation of strong password security by providing a secure method for users to reset their forgotten passwords and unlock their accounts without assistance from the Help Desk. A powerful Web-based challenge response process verifies a user's identity and ensures access only to validated users, immediately alerting the security administrator when an account breech is attempted. Comprehensive monitoring of the self-service password reset process delivers continuous insight into both user activity and external probes.

WEB SITE ANALYSIS SERVICE
If you're concerned about the effectiveness of your company's Web site, our readers suggest you turn to Socratic Technologies, our winner in the category Best Web Site Analysis Service.

Socratic Site Diagnostic (SSD) technology produces a comprehensive measurement of a Web site's usability. SSD evaluates both the efficiency and effectiveness of a site visitor's experience. A suite of proprietary research tools captures live click-stream actions of users, along with their comments and ratings of a site's performance.

SSD technology runs completely on Socratic Technologies' servers and does not require that the test participant download any software or files to their computers. SSD is fully compatible with Socratic's other online surveying software, allowing research designers to move seamlessly between Web browsing tasks and survey questions.

The analytical output from an SSD can identify "navigational strategy" segmentations--groups of people who have similar ways of approaching a task. Analysts can also compare a site's performance to ratings for other, similar sites.

WEB SITE HOSTING SERVICE
The leading provider of Web site hosting services, according to our readers, is Dialtone Internet. The company provides managed hosting services and is part of the largest network of dedicated servers in the world.

Dialtone Internet offers a complete suite of managed hosting solutions backed by strong customer service. Thousands of small- and medium-size companies have choosen Dialtone Internet as their managed hosting provider. Dialtone Internet leverages the most reliable technologies from industry leaders such as Microsoft, IBM, RedHat, Cisco, Foundry Networks, and Sun. Using robust architectures coupled with resilient and redundant hardware produces an impressive service availability level for each of the company's solutions.