ISPs accused of failing large firms

ISPs are failing to meet the needs of large companies, according to a study out today by Rhetorik.

The research house surveyed 300 companies with between 50 to 500 employees. It found that 27.1 per cent are unhappy or indifferent with the service they are getting from ISPs. This is creating a high level of upheaval in the industry - up to 15 per cent have changed their ISP at least once in the last year.

Richard Forkett believes it is no coincidence that these companies are also opting to host their Web sites internally. "Hosting its own Web site gives a company greater flexibility - it means it can change ISP fairly easily if it is unhappy with the service. Another reason for bringing Web hosting inhouse is because companies are nervous about security," Forkett argued.

Network availability, security and support were all found to be critical reasons for a company's dissatisfaction. According to Forkett, the unease is greater amongst the larger companies because their Internet connection is more integral to their business.

"The smaller companies are a soft targets for ISPs because they are not using the Internet for business transactions. But if a company is doing all its business on the Internet, then availability, support and security become more important issues," he said.

Other interesting results that emerged from the Rhetorik survey were that only 11 per cent of companies have an extranet with their suppliers or customers. In addition, only 15 per cent of companies currently have a transactional Web site - although that is set to rise to 60 per cent in the next year.