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The More Things Change, the More They
Stay a Pain
Even
the most unskilled businessperson knows instinctively the old
adage that it is "location, location, location" that is most
important when reaching one's target customer base. Why then, do
so many companies ignore this concept when building their
eBusiness? Fundamental business practices are strikingly similar
for both bricks-and-mortar and virtual storefronts. The only
difference is that an eBusiness exists on the virtual "lot" of a
Web host. Choosing the wrong host for your eBusiness can be as
damaging as attempting to open a baby-goods store next to a
brothel.
Much
has been written on the methodology of choosing the right Web host
for your business. But what happens when you want to move to
another - hopefully superior - hosting company? Just as a decline
in local income, a rising crime rate, or limited space in the face
of corporate expansion will cause a bricks-and-mortar business to
move to another location, an eBusiness will sometimes need to find
another virtual lot to set up shop in.
Why
would you want to make such a move? As always, it's an issue of
expansion of business or reduction of service. Perhaps your store
has outgrown the meager resources of that small, inexpensive
hosting company that was such a godsend when you were working out
of your basement. Or maybe a recent merger has caused the service
agreement to change in a detrimental way. The worst-case scenario
- your host is going out of business - will definitely necessitate
a move.
The
assumption is that many eCommerce professionals are too
complacent, and are unwilling to make such a large, fundamental
change to their business. However, this complacency is well
founded, as changing your Web hosting service can be a long and
complicated process. This is especially true for an e-tail site,
since the store's software, catalog, customer database and Web
commerce server needs to be moved as well - all without causing an
instant of disruption to the day-to-day transactions and sales of
the company.
In
general, however, you can make the process relatively effortless
as long as you take some preemptive steps:
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Make sure you've already secured the services of the new host.
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Ensure that you have access to your existing scripts and data.
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Resolve any issues that may surround your domain name with the
move.
While the temptation may be to rush through the change in order
to move and secure your site as quickly as possible, if you
don't take the time to choose the right provider, you could
experience similar problems down the road - which will
necessitate another move!
eCommerce sites in particular have some special issues to
address when choosing a new host:
- Ensure that the
eCommerce package your business is using is supported by the new
host, unless you wish to redo the entire architecture of your
storefront.
- If your store
runs on CGI scripts, you must find a host that supports these.
Even so, leave some extra time, as your scripts will probably
still have to be amended to reflect the new server environment.
- If your business
is running on a single-source eCommerce solution (such as Yahoo!
Store), then be prepared to leave time for a major overhaul, as
you will have to select and configure a new eCommerce package.
- The next major
hurdle is the transfer of data to your new host. Obviously, in
order to do this, you will need to have access to your current
data and scripts. Ideally, you will be able to download these
from your existing host, but issues of propriety, or your host
going out of business can make this problematic. The best
solution is to always maintain a local, updated copy of this
info, as your most valuable asset as an eBusiness is your
customer, sales, and product data.
The
issue of you domain should be the easiest step. Your new host
should be able to give you the nameserver information, which you
then pass on to your domain name authority. It's best to do this
on a Friday, as it will probably take about 72 hours to fully
direct your current traffic to your new nameserver.
One
obstacle you may encounter is that the naming authority will
only accept change requests from the person listed as the
administrative contact, so make sure your name is there and not
the host's, for if you host goes out of business, this person
might be impossible to track down.
Remember, the quality of your location will influence your
customer's opinion. If your eBusiness is stuck in a bad
neighborhood - it's time to move on!
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