Long...
This thread started out with someone asking about recurring billing. I
responded that we use SRSEngine.com and that we like it, but I did not
really go into any detail about it. Now, with all of this talk about
Platypus and the direction it is going with development, I thought I might
give a more detailed note about SRSEngine. Also, I do not work for them.
When we first contacted SRSEngine.com about their recurring billing system,
I was concerned because it was a hosted solution. We went from hosting our
own system to their Linux hosted solution about 18 month ago and it has made
things dramatically simpler from a maintenance and support standpoint. We
would not even consider going back to a non hosted billing solution.
We started out with just the billing module for Domains, but have since
added their modules for DNS, Hosting, Blogware, Fraud Prevention, Messaging
& Notification and Help Desk. They have a couple of different DNS and
Hosting modules, depending on who you currently use for these services. They
are adding a new module for Hiding Whois info in the next month or so. Once
it is available, we will move to it as well.
Everything we bill for is on the same system and completely integrated so
that Users can view all products and services in a single account with a
single login. SRSEngine does anniversary and day of the month billing, so we
bill all of our Hosting accounts on the 10th of the month and bill Domains
on the anniversary date. This lets us chase down delinquent hosting accounts
in batches instead of one at a time. We can add, delete and suspend accounts
or individual products and services from within the system, and Users can
change their billing options and credit card info on their own. Product and
Services provisioning is done automatically, however, individual products
and services can be set to setup manually or with thresholds to combat
fraud.
All messaging for services and products goes through the Messaging &
Notification module. We were using the notices from OpenSRS for Domains, our
hosting companies messaging system for hosting, and DNS companies messaging
for DNS; now we send consistent renewal, expiration, welcome and receipt
notices regardless of the product or service.
We run 3 different sites with them and the SRSEngine Admin system lets us
see what is going on with all 3 at the same time. It is simple to filter by
site, but we also get a view of how we are doing as a whole. We are
currently designing a new web services site that will also use SRSEngine for
recurring billing. We will not be selling hosting, domains, blogs or DNS on
this site, but plugging in to SRSEngine will allow us to run all of our
businesses using the same system.
Austin
Domainmonger.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Fri Dec 31 2004 - 23:00:01 EST