Winning the coming war to be fought over high-speed communications services is going to take more than just a fast data pipe.
Communications companies are going to have to be as savvy about keeping customers happy as they are about building hyperfast networks.
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Kip McClanahan and Kenny Van Zant decided late last year they could supply a crucial piece of the puzzle in the emerging broadband communications market.
So the two friends quit their jobs at Cisco Systems Inc. in Austin and started their own software company, BroadJump Inc., in January.
Ten months later, some analysts say the Austin-based BroadJump may be pioneering a new software niche in a multibillion-dollar industry that is skyrocketing upward.
“Broadband providers need to have something to touch the customer,” said analyst Ron Westfall with Current Analysis of Sterling, Va. “The idea is to create a warmer and fuzzier relationship between providers and customers. BroadJump is addressing a real market need.”
Broadband communications service is a potential gold mine, but some experts say the service is inherently more complicated than delivering dial-tone to a phone customer or a cable signal to a television.
“No one in the communications industry is used to providing customer service as complex as this,” McClanahan said.
The company has won some early customers, including Time Warner Cable’s Roadrunner service in Austin and several other markets, and ZoomTown.com, the broadband service of Cincinnati Bell Inc.
Once Time Warner began using the software, it only had to send one technician to customers’ houses instead of two–one for the cable service and one for the computer installation.
The result was a money savings and happier customers, said Steve Farabee, director of Digital Online Services for Time Warner Cable in Austin.
“It’s allowed us to cut our installation costs by 50 percent,” Farabee said. “I had to let my PC contractors go.”
Now the company is out to create a higher profile.
Recently, McClanahan and Van Zant spent a week on the road telling their story to business and technology trade reporters and also briefed industry analysts across the country.
Other system sales are starting to roll in.
The company said it expects to ship enough of its basic customer service software to serve 100,000 broadband subscribers this year. It also provides specialized service applications that fit into its service framework.
If BroadJump can win over some major communications providers, it could make a lot of money. By some estimates, 26 million American homes will have a high-speed Internet connection by 2003, compared with an estimated 2 million by the end of this year.
If BroadJump’s software does the job, it will save communications companies big money in reduced service calls and faster service hookups. It also will help build more customer loyalty and brand awareness.
The software comes in two parts.
One is a “smart agent” that sits on the user’s computer desktop that enables him to monitor the service he is getting and perform basic troubleshooting when there is a problem.
The second part sits on a server computer at the communications company that enables the company to keep track of thousands of customers, spot potential service problems and fix them quickly when service is interrupted.