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canuk wisp
join:2005-05-30
London, ON | Re: What do you do on a average day running your WISP? intralink... what things did you do to automate and stabilize your network??
curious what things one should do to make your day to day operations run "smoother"
just curious. | |
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IntraLink
Premium,MVM
join:2002-08-14
Utah Valley
| Re: What do you do on a average day running your WISP? This is where we are heading:
Sales handled mostly by answering service.
Installs handled mostly by contractors.
Billing handled mostly by part time accountant.
Tech support handled mostly by answering service.
Marketing handled mostly by contractors, mailers.
Infrastructure mostly handled by me.
I'm not a fan of the regular business stuff, so I've tried to automate or deligate most of that to someone else for as cheap as possible and still get good results.
I do like to add cool new features and speed/reliability to the network myself. I do like planning and implementing server changes, tower installations and backhauls.
Recently we've made several changes that have gone a long ways towards helping our customers and ourselves get the most of our system.
1. Get a real billing system. We've selected Platypus as our billing system, but there are many others out there. Platypus is powerful in that it can do just about anything you can dream up; if you are technically inclined. Ours costs us around $200 a month.
2. Get an answering service. The one we are with right now is not technical, but they are inexpensive and can direct customers to follow guidelines in the FAQ's before escalating issues. They are also trainable on sales calls. Ours costs around $200 a month. If you want technically savey people that can fix common networking/windows issues plan on paying around $1.95 per customer per month.
3. Get a part time accountant and train them on your accounting system. If you plan everything right you can get everything done on about 10 hours a month, or around $150-$200 a month.
4. Get a team of trained installers to work flexible schedules part time. This runs us around $29-$60 an install. At the moment this requires someone to manage the team and schedule. However that could also be automated with a little web design, creative email system or robust ticketing/scheduling system (we use Wombat).
5. Give incentives for customers to refer people to your network and for contractors to promote your business so they get installation work.
I think my biggest goals have been to smooth out the Sales to Installation scenarios. Tracking information can get to be a real hassle at around 10 customers per week. That's one of the reasons we chose a billing/ticketing system that works together and is SQL based. If I want the system can notify me of any event that occurs and program up email addresses, redirect non paying accounts and re-connect them all automatically. Because it's all SQL based I can choose to give my customers as much information about their account as I want including billing options, bandwidth usage etc. | |
| | snowpro2000
join:2004-06-13
Canada | Re: What do you do on a average day running your WISP? 29 to 60 dollars an install? Wow... do any of them want to live in Canada?
Could you describe a typical installation for 29 bucks?
Sounds like a deal to me. What do these guys eat!
Paul | |
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superdog
I Need A Drink
Premium,MVM
join:2001-07-13
Lebanon, PA
| Re: What do you do on a average day running your W I start out by gettin' coffee, hitting Korys and this website, and then tearing into what ever has to be done. We are not very aggressive right now for customers, so installs are at a minimal. I return phone calls for the first hour or so and check emails at the same time. Since we have an insurance brokerage and apartment buildings, I have no clue as to what happens next on an average day. Last week, I was painting a building with a sprayer, and then climbing a tower 2 hrs later because I thought a radio had worked its way loose. Sometimes I am on the phone answering both insurance and WISP calls and programming a radio at the same time. I have on average 3 computers running at the same time on my desk, mostly because of all the different types of software that we use(Citrix, Brilan etc..)and the hassles that go along with firewalls and passwords. I also have 2 phones with 3 separate lines. This can be fun doing technical support and dealing with all of the sales people. This is just the tip of the ole' iceberg!:)
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korym
Go Wisp's
ExMod 1999-03
join:1999-12-23
Richmond, VA
clubs:
| Re: What do you do on a average day running your W said by superdog  :I start out by gettin' coffee, hitting Korys and this website, and then tearing into what ever has to be done. :: blushing ::
Thx Tim! | |
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