E-Business
Issue No. 3 - December/ 2001/january
Learning About Money
Netspot was founded as a website development company in 1995, within ITEC of the University of SA. Incorporated in 1998, the company specialised in education applications, with 50 per cent of its early work done for TAFE, government and university clients.
Education still makes up a major part of Netspot business. The company holds Australia’s only licence for the world—standard WebCT distance education software and provides extension services for training consultants, hosting and website customisation services.
But two years ago, Netspot’s routine web development business highlighted an e—commerce opportunity that was too clear to ignore.
“We found that the e—commerce systems current then were not good enough for our customers,” says Peta Allsop, Netspot’s marketing manager.
It was evident that customers needed a great deal more facility, so Netspot embarked on a program to build the system its clients wanted.“A $10,000—$15,000 customised solution was too much for business at the level we were working,” Peta says. “We decided that at $3,000 we would sell a lot more – and be able to add value such as website development, customised search facilities, browser design, login facility and loyalty program options.”
“What the clients are really excited about is the ability to handle creative situations themselves. They simply log on and fill out webforms.
“They don’t need a lot of computer kn...
