ASP-One Betters Its Business

One of the most well-known non-profit consumer protection organizations has become a victim of its own success, so to speak.

The Council of Better Business Bureaus (BBB), a network of 150 local bureaus and its national headquarters, already has established a successful presence on the Internet. The problem lies in maintaining Web site efficiency.

Stauffer: ASP-One likely will host the BBB's Intranet and groupware software.

With a system in dire need of an overhaul, the BBB,an independent organization that seeks to resolve disputes between businesses and consumers, in addition to providing both with information,enlisted the help of solution provider ASP-One.

The BBB council's site gets 30,000 hits per day, with about 1,000 online complaints filed against businesses each day. All complaints then are redirected to local bureaus.

The increasing traffic was costing the council $125,000 a year for ISP service alone,and that didn't include the cost of essential improvements to the sites. In addition, its Web staff of one full-time employee and one part-time employee was insufficient for handling improvements.

"The problem is [that] we're an association, and non-profit, and trying to keep the site fresh on an association budget," says Stephen Rose, CIO of the BBB, Arlington, Va.

The bureaus have the same strengths and weaknesses as brick-and-mortar businesses with Web sites. They keep tabs on businesses within their regions and maintain a local presence.

But the Internet's ability to disseminate information to anywhere from anywhere created a unique problem for the bureaus.

Host sites and builds search engine to automate complaints for customer protection organization.

About 20 percent of the complaints filed online weren't going to the correct bureau.

The goal is to automate the complaints so they go to the right bureau the first time, Rose says.

That is where ASP-One entered the picture. Ken Stauffer, president of Stauffer Technologies, a unit of ASP-One, already had experience working with a Cleveland BBB. Stauffer helped install Unix systems, as well as a voice-automated response system for retrieving reports over the phone.

ASP-One, Chicago, bought solution provider Stauffer Technologies the past September.

"They've had a number of interesting challenges," Stauffer says of the BBB council. "They've become one of the largest sites in the world. No one was prepared for the coordination between the bureaus."

The BBB council negotiated a sponsorship with ASP-One to host Web sites for some of the bureaus,meaning it hosts for free. The hosting arrangement led to additional projects, Stauffer says. The council now is paying for the more work-intensive complaint management handling system that ASP-One will provide.

ASP-One is building a search engine to assist in automating the complaints, Stauffer says. Most of the bureaus have databases, but finding the right company within the right bureau is often a problem. ASP-One will create a unique identifier within each database to send the right complaint to the proper bureau.

In addition, ASP-One likely will host the BBB's intranet and groupware software during the two-year contract, Stauffer says. ASP-One is migrating the BBB council to a server farm, with many local bureaus to follow during the year.

"Our specialty isn't so much having unique products as [it is] the approach," Stauffer says. "In general, we create a custom solution for each customer."

Of course, working for the very organization that seeks out shoddy work among businesses across the country could be intimidating. "The BBBs are very demanding people," Stauffer says. "We make them happy most of the time."