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On-the-Net Is Gateway To Internet For Businesses

If you think technology has exploded during the past few years, just wait

until set-top boxes hit the market, allowing people to access the Internet

through a cable to their television set. To keep a competitive edge,

businesses of all sizes will want to be an established presence on the

Internet before that happens, according to Kristi Stone of Newtown, "cyber

architect" and a partner of On-the-Net.

"If people can imagine doing business without a telephone now, in the future

that is what it will be like if you are not on the Internet," said Ms Stone

whose company provides businesses with web construction, applications, expert

advice, and i-Depth service to add depth to an established web site. "The

Internet is an inexpensive way to distribute information, products, and

communications. We'll be doing virtual business-to-business, and virtual

employment."

Ms Stone was director of creative services for Inset, a graphics software

company that was sold to Quarterdeck. In 1994, she decided to apply her

marketing design expertise to another area.

"I decided to go off into the most viable business venture I could. The

Internet is the fastest growing industry," said Ms Stone. "And through the

Danbury Area Computer Society (DACS), I met my partner. People need to know

that those things work in bringing businesses together and getting people to

volunteer for the betterment of the local community. I'm on DACS' web

committee. I believe in volunteering."

Ms Stone's partner, Richard Roth has worked designing and using computer

systems and software for the past 20 years. His broad experience includes

having produced one of the first micro-computer word processors (WpDaisy), a

Xbase database synchronizer and UNIX CIS navigator, and working as vice

president of development and chief architect for Infosoft products (including

packages for Sony, Army Recruitment Joins System).

On-the-Net staff will create custom web sites and internet software for any

sized business. They also offer consulting services, provider services,

shareware, client list, and "webmaster administration tools."

The company's latest addition to its services is i-Depth, developed to provide

web page developers who don't have access to their servers or programmers with

the ability to add advanced web functions quickly and easily to their web

pages for a nominal charge by hooking up to the i-Depth server. The service

was designed so that even a novice in hypertext mark-up language (HTML) can

use it.

"i-Depth is inexpensive," said Ms Stone, explaining that a minimum monthly

membership fee of $10 would include three "light" functions such as an

advertising banner, forum, and counter. "If you tried to hire a programmer it

would cost thousands of dollars. This truly is at a fraction of the cost.

i-Depth turns limited web page makers into real webmasters."

The web functions currently available on the i-Depth Service are WebForm to

Mail (sends form contents via email as a readable message), Forums (a

discussion group between visitors to a web site), Hit Counters (a graphic

display of the number of times a page has been hit), Simple Text Search (a

search engine), Ad Banner (an image that changes for each visitor and when

clicked on, jumps to the web page matching the last banner displayed),

Guestbook (a web page that grows as visitors to a site add comments), and

Server Side Image Maps (live images that jump to a URL based on the position

of a click on the image).

Although some knowledge of the Internet language is required to be able to use

i-Depth, members are given step-by-step directions to adding a function to

their web sites. Eventually, On-the-Net hopes to make the service easy enough

so those totally unfamiliar with HTML can use it.

Ms Stone said the staff spends time "really listening to the Internet,"

identifying problems, and offering solutions. "The Internet is so infantile

that there are lots of problems that can be solved. i-Depth is one of the

Internet solutions," she said. "There are many more solutions to come. We have

many building blocks. We want to be able to provide tools for all levels of

Internet-saavy people [including Mom and Pop businesses].

"The Net allows you to do things inexpensively, to create marketing materials

and distribute them without printing and mailing costs," said Ms Stone. "Our

service can also help [the smaller businesses who] are going to do a little

bit more with their web site than what's handed to them [through AOL,

Compuserve, etc]. i-Depth is designed to make it easy."

On-the-Net's extensive client base includes First USA Bank and Thomas

Register. "There is nobody we know out there that does this on the level we

do; nobody that has the scope we do," said Ms Stone.

The company's programmers are now developing a classified system and "shopping

cart" system to add to the range of services available from On-the-Net. And in

a month, a resource area will be included at the site. On-the-Net offers free

e-mail technical support, and live phone support on a paid basis. ISP versions

and consultant or agency memberships are available. On-the-Net is part of many

Internet developer programs including AT&T, Netscape, Microsoft, Sun, Borland,

the HTML Guild, and W3.org.

The partners are also interested in hiring people who have experience in HTML,

web design, CGI, Pearl programming, and Web server administration. (Contact

Kristi Stone at e-mail address: kristi@on-the-net.com.)

The address for On-the-Net is http://www.on-the-net.com. For more information

on i-Depth, a service that allows web page creators to instantly add web

functions to their page, see http://www.add-depth.com.