Each company's IT needs are unique. To accommodate this, the Carroll-Net ASP service is customized for each customer. To give prospective customers an idea of the breadth and depth of our offering, we have included a list of our services below.

Carroll-Net begins each client engagement with a business process analysis. The goal being to identify all a customer's departments and staff functions. It's critical that we have a clear understanding of our customer's business to help plan technology systems in support of this business.

Included in the business analysis is a technical review. The goal of the review is to identify all current technology and understand it's use. This information will be used when planning the customer's integration into an ASP environment.

Both the business process analysis and technical review take place as interviews. First round interviews are scheduled with senior management; CEO, VP Marketing, VP Finance, CIO and senior managers. Second round interviews are scheduled with select staff members. To complete the picture of daily operations, it is sometimes necessary to schedule a set of on-site job shadowing sessions.

After the interviews are completed, the Carroll-Net review team begins to analyze and test the data collected. During this phase, there may be the need for additional interviews or requests for supporting documents.

Finally, Carroll-Net will meet with the prospective client to review the deliverable; the IS/Should document. The 'IS' component documents our understanding of the current company organization. This document will serve as the baseline for process improvement measurements. 

The 'Should' component documents the process improvement, and technical modifications discovered during the interviews. The 'Should' is derived from the suggestions and comments made by management and staff, combined with our knowledge of how to implement the improvements.

An E-Business system delivers your company the latest Internet technology to give you the edge over competitors. It will improve staff productivity, increase revenue and cut costs. It's also more interoperable due to its open systems architecture. This removes your ties to proprietary systems, and ensures future scalability.

These systems can be broadly classified into three categories; Intranet, Internet or Extranet. An Intranet is a solution designed to service internal staff. An Internet is designed to service clients not directly tied into your business (new accounts, or small customers). An Extranet will connect your business system with your client's or your vendor's systems.

An Intranet is an e-commerce system designed to service internal staff. An example of this is a web system tied into your existing business system. Your sales people, customer service staff and operations people can all access information real-time. 

A benefit to this type of solution is the range of freedom it offers your staff. They can access the same information whether sitting at their desk at the office, on the road or from home. The only requirement is they have access to a computer with a web browser.

Using web technology for internal services reduces staff training. Application enhancements require less training as staff are now familiar with Internet services. This makes hiring functions easier.

An Internet is commonly referred to as a web site. It can have many possible purposes; offer clients a catalog, provide customer service, educate, entertain or inform. Your Internet can be a static brochure site, or a fully interactive application that accepts client orders.

There are many benefits to having an Internet site. It raises market awareness, provides a place for you to tell your story, and allow you to position your company in the marketplace.

Your marketing and sales staff will receive monthly updates about who is accessing your E-Business system, and where they are spending the most time. This information can be used to coordinate marketing efforts and profile potential prospects. These reports are created using WebTrends, the Industry leader in eBusiness Intelligence.

An Extranet is a link between your company's business system and your clients. It allows your customers to directly access information in your system from directly within their own system. Your system will accept orders from them and even arrange electronic payment.

An Extranet could link you directly to a key vendor's business system. Using rules processing, your business system could automatically place a vendor order when inventory levels run low. You could also view your invoices online without the need to call your vendors support staff.

Carroll-Net Web Services designers and programmers will create a solution customized to your business needs. Your solution, which is based on information learned during the Process Analysis Phase, will have one or more of the possible web categories. Please be sure to surf to our web group (CBWS) to learn more about our E-Business services.

An important feature of our ASP services is Carroll-Net Messaging. The core of our messaging functions is email. All customer email is stored in a secure, high availability central mail store. Customer's will have access to all of their current and archived messages. These messages can be searched, sorted and organized into an unlimited number of folders. 

Using a flexible subscription system, customers can share mailboxes with other staff in their firm. This sharing creates a powerful mechanism for handling sales leads and customer service inquiries.

To prevent the threat of receiving or passing on virus, Carroll-Net employs strong virus scanning technology which automatically scans all incoming and outgoing messages for rogue programs. If found, they are stripped from the message before delivery. This system is updated regularly with the latest virus pattern-matching code.

Carroll-Net email is also available over the web for when your staff are at home or traveling. The only requirement is a web browser (available in many hotels and airports). Access is protected using encryption technology to ensure privacy when reading or composing messages.

ASP service always includes high speed Internet access for your office, branch offices or warehouse. Each location is provided the equipment and phone service needed for high performance, reliable access. Carroll-Net will handle every aspect of provisioning, ordering, installing and maintaining this service.

Due to the mission critical nature of your Internet service, Carroll-Net will install and maintain a backup connection at your office. In the event your primary line fails due to equipment or Telephone company outage, the backup connection will automatically be enabled. This will provide access while Carroll-Net manages the repair process.

Besides the equipment to connect you to the Internet, Carroll-Net will also provide you with a firewall to prevent unauthorized access to your office systems. The system employed provides state-of-the art protection from intruders, hackers and thieves. (Note: Our security policy prevents us from publishing the details of our protection, on our web site. Please contact us to learn more).

If your like most companies, your business system is the heart of your activities. It maintains your financials, tracks what clients owe you and handles paying your vendors on time. You've probably invested more in this system than any other in your organization. The trouble is, it's susceptible to a large list of potential problems.

Carroll-Net will resolve these issues by relocating your Business System to our secure datacenter. You will gain the immediate benefit of having your system hosted in an environmentally controlled area, protected by a diesel powered generator with uninterruptible power supplies and connected to a high speed fiber optic network.

Your system will be backed up nightly by our skilled System's Administrators. On a regular schedule (usually weekly), copies of your files will be sent to your office. This will provide you with the piece of mind to know your information is safe.

As your Business System vendor provides software updates, these refreshments will be applied. This will keep you always current with the latest software revisions. In the event your vendor releases code incompatible with your customized system, Carroll-Net will maintain you at the last stable version and work with the system vendor to resolve their issues.

One benefit to centrally locating your business system, is your branch offices, remote locations even overseas divisions will all have access to the same information as your headquarters. Sales reps and telecommuting employees will be able to securely access critical information to perform their functions as if they were sitting in your office.

In addition, your Business System will be installed behind a firewall that blocks all unauthorized access from the outside world. Only your staff and trusted partners will be able to access your information, and then only see what you decide is appropriate.

Carroll-Net will provide your staff with access to the award winning Corel Office 2000. Its a "Best-of-Breed" office suite built on a tradition of powerful features, effortless compatibility and time saving innovations which will match the way you work. Office 2000 includes three feature rich products, WordPerfect, Quattro Pro and Corel Presentations.

WordPerfect is leading-edge word-processing technology. You'll create professional-looking documents and easily add graphics, charts and tables. It provides extensive control over document formatting using Reveal Codes and RealTime Preview. For compatibility in communicating with others, WordPerfect provides simple robust mechanisms for easily exchanging files with a large list of 3rd party word processors, including Lotus Ami Pro®, Microsoft® Word and XyWrite (to name a few). You can also use WordPerfect to create and edit HTML files suitable for direct web publishing.

Quattro Pro is a versatile spreadsheet system that will organize, analyze, report and share data with others. With it, you can store spreadsheets with up to 1 million cells, perform dynamic cross tab reports and link data with Internet sources. Quattro Pro will also import and export Lotus® 1-2-3 and Microsoft® Excel files.

With Corel Presentations, your staff will create captivating, high quality slide shows and drawings that create a lasting impression. Users can also create interactive demonstrations and multimedia presentations. Their creations can then be directly published to the Internet, converted into 35-mm slides, or stored as content suitable for large screen or portable screen displays. Users can also import Lotus Freelance® or import and export Microsoft® PowerPoint® slide shows.

All customer files, email messages, and web site content is stored in Carroll-Net's data storage cluster. The cluster is a robust, field-proven high availability solutions (>99.99% data availability) for consolidating data, and simplifying data management.

The storage cluster is fully scalable, allowing Carroll-Net to increase client storage as the need arises. In addition, the architecture is speed optimized to deliver fast response to multiple user requests simultaneously.

Each member of your staff will have storage available for their use. The company will also have an aggregate storage allocation. Staff can share their allocations to have the best use of the organizations resources. If the organization requires more storage, more storage may be added to the monthly allocation.

All data is backed up nightly. At the end of each week, a copy of the backup is mailed to the customer. Customers therefore always have a recent copy of their information. Carroll-Net can also customize the backup and or mailing frequency on a per client basis.

Carroll-Net will replace all customer PC's with network computers. Network computers are thin- client systems that act as "graphical dumb-terminals", providing a familiar window based look- and-feel. Network computers display information running on servers in the Carroll-Net datacenter.

The thin-client architecture means there are no upgrades or maintenance required at the desktop level. All upgrades and hardware refreshments occur at the Carroll-Net datacenter, thereby reducing interruptions to our client's work environments.

Since network computers store no information, they are not "chained" to a specific user. All settings and screen layouts are downloaded off the network when the users login. If today one of your staff is working at another location (another desk, or another branch office), all their information is available to them wherever they are.

Carroll-Net's core strength has always been customer service. We pride ourselves on leading the industry with shortest response and resolution to customer inquiries. To assist our customer's, we have created several different means for customers to get help or ask questions.

Each customer has access to a protected area of the Carroll-Net website. This area has online support in the form of a "Best Practices" document and our "Known Issues" tickets.

"Best Practices" describes the means to achieve the highest level of efficiency using the Carroll-Net ASP services. It includes an ever increasing list of tips, tricks, FAQ's, protocols and procedures.

The "Known Issues" tickets list current issues being worked on by our support engineers. Customers can login and read over the list to stay up-to-date. Using an online form, customers can also post updates to provide more details.

Each customer has a private forum available for their staff. Staff can share thoughts, useful tips and make suggestions. Members can also use the forum as an online bulletin board for posting messages of interest to the entire company.

Installed on each user's desktop is a copy of the Office Suite help files. These help files are context linked to the user's activity. By pressing F1 while working on a document, help related to the current activity will be displayed.

Carroll-Net will provide each customer with printed copies of the Office Suite documentation. The documentation is both tutorial and reference in nature.

Carroll-Net establishes a special email address for each customer. Messages sent to this address are routed to the Carroll-Net customer service representative assigned to that account. This way, customers receive support from someone trained on the particulars of their company's setup.

Carroll-Net phone support is available through a toll-free number. Customer's can use this at their discretion for support requiring immediate attention.

In the event that a problem cannot be resolved remotely, a Carroll-Net representative will come on-site to provide support. In addition, from time-to-time, Carroll-Net will come on- site to provide follow-up training, and site assistance.

A key metric of success to examine after implementing ASP services is the increase in employee productivity. To ensure rapid enterprise adoption, the entire organization needs to be trained how to use an ASP to reduce workload and improve workflow.

Carroll-Net provides staff training in two parts. The first, pre-conversion training is done immediately before the customer's office will be converted. Staff are given a chance to see and use the new environment. Specific attention is given to legacy processes that can be improved (or eliminated) with the use of state-of-the-art technology.

The second part of staff training is done post-conversion. The first business week after conversion, Carroll-Net staff are onsite providing support and assistance to the entire organization. This is followed-up with periodic onsite "strolling" visits, where Carroll-Net staff will move
through the office actively seeking opportunities to offer assistance.

Carroll-Net offers regular ASP refresher training at our offices.
Customers can attend these classes to learn ways to increase
proficiency and improve their productivity. Often these classes are offered after normal business hours to help busy professional resolve potential scheduling conflicts.

Carroll-Net, Inc.
905 Main Street
Hackensack, New Jersey 07601
(201) 488-1332, (201) 488-1093
Email our staff info@carroll.com