PSINet: Boxing In Every Weight Class

But few companies have a CEO like PSINet Inc.'s William Schrader, who, in these days of mega-connecti-vity vs. specialized applications, has carved a wide swath for his company as an Internet provider for all seasons.

"I guess you can say PSINet wants to box in every weight class," says Schrader. "PSINet is the connectivity supplier of choice for both smaller and midmarket companies on five continents, but we are also in the hosting center business and the ASP business.

"We are very comfortable with that channel conflict, because we are not out to put our competition out of business," he says. "We tend to take competitors in the ASP world,just like we do in the VAR world,and give them products at a discount so they can succeed."

With more than 79,900 business clients, operations in 23 countries and plans to expand its fiber optic network globally, the 10-year-old ISP has positioned itself to compete with any leading carrier. But unlike those that are branches of major telcos, PSINet focuses all of its efforts into being a corporate ISP.

"What it boils down to is that we worked with other companies that do a lot of business other than being an ISP, so you get the feeling that they are not focusing on you," says Don Eckrod, president of systems integration firm AAA Networks, Falls Church, Va. "With PSINet, being an ISP is all they do, so it shows through in their focus, targets and eventual outcome."

AAA Networks teamed with Sprint for its initial foray into Internet services, says Eckrod, "But it was geared more toward just wholesaling bandwidth, and it didn't have a real hands-on approach. We needed someone to show us the ropes and tell us what we were doing. PSINet was able to do that."

PSINet's customers include small and midsize businesses, a quarter of the Fortune 500, government agencies, educational institutions and information services firms.

Schrader says PSINet's independent, facilities-based network makes the ISP especially valuable to VARs looking to offer a global reach to their customers.

"If you're a VAR and your customer base is normally exporting their products outside of the city they are in, you'll want an ISP with a much broader area, because the Internet itself is global," says Schrader. "We come at the customer base of the VARs with our

entire package,global network, global hosting centers, global product delivery and a global provisioning system."

PSINet's add-on services include managed Internet security, e-commerce solutions, voice, fax, live audio and video, and Web and database hosting services. PSINet plans to expand its hosting capabilities by building 60 new hosting centers in top markets across the globe, all linked by its own dark fiber network, says Schrader.

PSINet's channel program offers reseller partners two options: The PSI-Net Integration Partner Program lets VARs offer the integrated solution using PSINet tools and services; the PSINet Agent Partner Program is aimed at companies that want to sell PSINet services but not be involved in the installation.

"The typical VAR model is going to be regionally based, so you'll have regional channel managers taking care of a certain segment," says Harry Brooks, PSINet's channel marketing manager. "Of course, national programs are being implemented on the local level, backed up by the infrastructure we set up."

Eckrod says PSINet's devotion to its VARs showed in a recent hosting deal that AAA Networks was trying to score. "PSINet came in and helped us close the deal. Much of the final work in getting it signed came through its rep."

Brooks shies away from discussing vendor partnerships, claiming PSINet engineers are trained to choose the best product or solution for a given situation.

"We use many products, and we will take the best-of-breed approach and tie it in with whatever works best," he says. "With Web hosting, if an engineer knows Product A will work better with Project B, then we will use it to meet the customer's needs."