Hostopia.com works with United Nations in understanding and adopting Internet and Hosting Solutions.
By Anton James

The electronic commerce revolution has transformed the face of international business. So great is the global demand for information in this explosively growing industry, that the United Nations Electronic Commerce Commission for Europe recently convened a forum called “Electronic Commerce for Transition Economies in the Digital Age” held in Geneva, Switzerland.

The forum was a collaboration of public and private sectors seeking to maximize resources, knowledge and expertise. Dozens of companies, organizations and governments came together to analyze the state of Internet adoption in the transition economies of the world.

The commission selected Hostopia.com to represent a leading private-sector technology company within the Internet industry. Franc Nemanic, President and COO of Hostopia.com, and Anton James, Director of Marketing, actively participated in the conference. The company was chosen for its experience with developing a market presence and its track record of producing leading e-commerce solutions that are easy to use and adopt. Nemanic and James drew on experience in integrating Internet service providers, telephone companies, and other web presence providers to create a web-hosting solution that can be set up in days, without any investment in technical staffing or equipment.

Hostopia.com customers are able to side-step the typical shipping, installing, testing and software-debugging costs which are so challenging to new e-business start-ups. The company's web hosting, email and e-commerce solutions can be set up within hours for businesses of any size – from the smallest Internet service provider to large multi-national telephone companies. Hostopia.com allows its partners to implement their own privately-branded product, while Hostopia.com works quietly behind the scenes. Enhancements, upgrades, and new features are seamlessly introduced at the server level, increasing stability and functionality while avoiding costly down-time. The Hostopia.com concept of privately-branded, outsourced web hosting is a uniquely successful model. This “Internet success story” illustrates the kind of innovation and dedication to quality needed to move international e-commerce from the experimentation stage into the mainstream implementation.

“The appetite for acquiring these technologies from the leading providers is an economic imperative for transition economies,” said Alexander.Ntoko., senior level technology manager for the ITU (International Telecommunications Union). “Until now, the daunting task of developing world-class technology for web hosting, email and e-commerce has been placed well beyond the capability of most developing nations, including the Eastern European countries.” Hostopia.com has now established strong relationships with senior level government officials of these countries who are keenly interested in acquiring and implementing the Hostopia.com technology.

“We were eager to contribute our knowledge and provide guidance in the area of policy development for these rapidly developing countries,” says Franc Nemanic. “It was extremely rewarding to be such a significant contributor to a historic turning point in the development of Internet infrastructure for developing countries. We were overwhelmed with the show of goodwill that we received. Our willingness to share our technology with no up front costs was the opposite of the treatment expected from most Western companies. Being invited to take part in such an exciting and revolutionary forum was a humbling experience. One of our corporate goals is to make the world a better place. We feel that we can contribute to this goal by providing enabling technology that will allow developing countries to participate and succeed in the Internet revolution instead of being forced to sit on the sidelines.”

For more information, visit: www.hostopia.com