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Questions
- Why is Tucows buying Boardtown?
- How will this benefit Tucows Resellers?
- How will this benefit Boardtown customers?
- Is Tucows discontinuing any Boardtown products or services?
- Whom do I contact to get support for my Boardtown software?
- Is Tucows planning on increasing the number of software products it produces?
- Will Tucows continue to develop and maintain the Platypus software?
- Will Tucows honor my Platypus maintenance contract?
- Do you have to be a Tucows Reseller to buy Boardtown software and services in the future?
- Why do you believe Platypus is the leading billing and provisioning software?
- How will this affect Boardtown staff?
- How much revenue does Tucows expect to earn from this purchase?
- Is Tucows changing its strategy from Wholesale Internet services supplier to software developer and vendor?
- Who is Tucows?
- Who is Boardtown?
- What does this acquisition mean for Tucows' investors?
- Is this a change in Tucows' business strategy?
Answers
- Why is Tucows buying Boardtown?
This is a market that is highly fragmented, with many, small suppliers and built-it-ourselves systems. Boardtown has eight years experience producing software that automates backoffice functions for providers of Internet services. We believe their suite of software has proven itself to be an excellent backoffice platform that can become the leading solution for this industry.
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- How will this benefit Tucows Resellers?
Tucows will use its knowledge of the needs of its resellers to ensure the future development of Platypus best meets the needs service providers, including easier integration with wholesale service including those provisioned through Tucows OpenSRS and webhosting control panels.
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- How will this benefit Boardtown customers?
Tucows has an established reputation for providing useful services and excellent customer support to providers of Internet services. We will be combining our resources and expertise of the Boardtown team to ensure ongoing development of their backoffice solutions.
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- Is Tucows discontinuing any Boardtown products or services?
All existing commitments to Boardtown customers will be honored and the company is not planning to discontinue any Boardtown products or services as a result of the acquisition.
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- Who do I contact to get support for my Boardtown software?
Software customers should continue to contact the Mississippi office for support.
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- Is Tucows planning on increasing the number of software products it produces?
At this time Tucows plans to concentrate on ensuring the existing suite of back office solutions continues to develop to meet the needs of the wider market of service providers, including webhosting firms.
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- Will Tucows continue to develop and maintain the Platypus software?
Tucows plans to concentrate on developing the functionality of the suite of software to meet the needs of the wider market of service providers, including webhosting firms.
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- Will Tucows honor my Platypus maintenance contract?
All existing contracts will be honored.
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- Do you have to be a Tucows Reseller to buy Boardtown software and services in the future?
Service providers may choose to buy all or some of Tucows services, including the suite of backend software.
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- Why do you believe Platypus is the leading billing and provisioning software?
The short answer is they have large base of installed users. Platypus is a full-featured, mature system and Boardtown has an excellent reputation for customer support.
The longer answer is billing is critical to providers of Internet services. It encompasses a range of backoffice functions that includes: provisioning, invoicing, reporting and customer care. We built our business on listening to this industry and building solutions to meet their needs.
Platypus is currently in release version 4.0. It has advance troubleticketing features, supports multiple service types, and supports multiple billing frequencies. The high quality user interfaces make it easy to learn and efficient to use.
Using low-priced software, a manual process or generic software, not optimized for this industry, is inefficient and may result in lost revenue opportunities. We believe the Platypus Billing System provides excellent value to service providers.
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- How will this affect Boardtown staff?
It is not anticipated that this acquisition will have any significant impact on Boardtown staff.
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- How much revenue does Tucows expect to earn from this purchase?
Tucows expects the results of this acquisition to be cash flow positive in the first year post acquisition.
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- Is Tucows changing its strategy from Wholesale Internet services supplier to software developer and vendor?
The addition of billing and other backoffice functionality is a natural compliment to our role as the leading wholesaler of Internet services to our resellers. Having access to excellent billing, provisioning and customer care functionality enables our resellers to maximize the value of their relationship with Tucows.
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- Who is Tucows?
Tucows Inc. is a leading wholesaler of Internet services to a global network of more than 6,000 resellers such as ISPs and web hosting companies. Tucows provides a range of outsourced Internet services and products, including: domain name registration and management, digital certificates, managed DNS, and email services. The company is the largest ICANN-accredited wholesale domain name registrar. Tucows also distributes software and other digital content through its global network of affiliates offering more than 40,000 software titles. For more information, please visit: http://www.tucowsinc.com.
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- Who is Boardtown?
Boardtown Corporation is a proven leader in billing and customer care solutions. We first introduced Platypus Billing System, software that automates billing and provisioning, in 1996. Hundreds of Internet service providers in more than 40 countries have come to rely on the uncommonly good support provided by our knowledgeable technical support team. Our product line includes a suite of software for backoffice functions and outsourced bill printing and fulfillment.
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- What does this acquisition mean for Tucows' investors?
Tucows believes its overall business will benefit from: cross-selling, deeper reseller relationships and efficient adoption of wholesale services.
Cross-selling
We can sell to our resellers a complete billing, provisioning and customer care solution (Platypus Billing System). And, we can cross-sell Tucows wholesale services to the more than 700 Boardtown customers.
Deeper Reseller Relationships
Resellers who purchase these new solutions are likely to receive increased value from their relationship with Tucows and buy more services from Tucows. This should increase the longevity of our relationship with them.
Efficient Adoption of Wholesale Services.
It is not unusual in the service provider industry, for a reseller's historic billing, customer care and provisioning capabilities to now inhibit their ability to add new service offerings. Resellers who purchase the new billing and customer care solution will be better able to efficiently adopt additional wholesale services and effectively support their customers.
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- Is this a change in Tucows' business strategy?
No. The target customers for Boardtown and for Tucows' reseller channel overlap. Boardtown has more than 700 active customers who are primarily Internet Service Providers, Application Service Providers and Wireless Service Providers. Tucows reseller channel includes 6,000 service providers who are Internet Service Providers, Webhosting Firms and other Internet related companies.
The addition of customer management solutions to the established service line of wholesale services is complimentary. Boardtown's Platypus Billing System has been designed to support the type of business model used by many of our resellers.
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