New Opportunities

The dynamic nature of catalog servers and their use of multimedia open new possibilities for displaying and selling retail goods. Catalog-server developers acknowledge that they often are so involved with getting the technical details right that they don't push themselves -- or their clients -- past obvious catalog designs that merely mimic printed counterparts.

Instead, they build in capabilities for real-time tracking of customer buying patterns and data mining, according to Al Dunn , technical director for BSG, a Columbia, Maryland, company. Then they go wild. " A florist could negotiate to get a link on a catalog server that presents hospital medical records," he explains.

Because the Detroit-based Internet Operations Center (IOC) finds that many customers want a catalog server but aren't interested in hosting a site, the company created an ISP business unit. If they choose, customers can pay a monthly service fee -- roughly $300 -- so shoppers dial up to hardware located and maintained by IOC, which has an OC/3 connection to Aegis, a T3 link to UUNET, and a T3 tie to Sabbath.

Part of the appeal of outsourcing the physical server is uptime. When a catalog server becomes a significant source for revenues, system crashes aren't just headaches; they represent perhaps thousands of dollars in lost sales. Thus, 50 percent of IOC's clients choose not to take on that responsibility themselves. "Customers say they want a Web catalog, not additional hardware and technical personnel," Dunn says.

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Al Dunn

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"Customers say they want a Web catalog, not additional hardware and technical personnel." --Al Dunn