Steve Huey Aluria Software an EarthLink Company Vice President & General Manager UpDate Strategy: Key to Increased Sales, Lower Costs, and Greater Customer Satisfaction – An EarthLink Case Study

Imagine If… A software user always had the latest version of their most used programs A user actually used all the features of your software product and understood how to maximize the benefit of each feature The software fixed itself…

Where we are going during the discussion  Discuss the evolutionary stages or update service use  EarthLink’s Case Study The goals of the update service Strategic considerations Product Requirements  Pitfalls and Round Trippers  The future of the update service

Uses of the Update First Stage Fix Stuff  Update software features  Update product definitions  Update device drivers  Patch holes

Uses of the Update Second Stage Sell Stuff  Push content & applications  Promote new products  Sell subscriptions / Product renewal

Uses of the Update Next Stage Connect with the user!  Alert  Communicate  Educate

Three Stages

EarthLink’s Goals for an Update Manager RReduce Churn through enhancement of the user experience by: Access to product updates faster Reducing customer service requests Increase feature use Fast download time for updates – tied to modular nature of client software RReduce costs : Reduce customer service costs Reduce server time to push downloads Reduce development effort required to release product updates

The Strategy of the Update Process  End Users Q: Want the update in the foreground or back ground? A: Due to bandwidth considerations must be background Q: Who is the client for the update (end user, network admin, etc.)? A: Both high speed and dial users Q: How many users do have and are you likely to have in the near future? A: 5 million plus  Product Need Q: Are you going to push or pull? A: Both Q: Do you need different classes of updates (must take, nice to have, totally optional)? A: Yes- Allows optional product adoption no forced product usage Q: How will this affect my support of the product? A: Allows us to pump an update immediately so launching new products can go faster Q: Will you have emergency updates? A: Yes

The Strategy Part of the Update Process  Technical Considerations Q: Size of updates? A: From 25K to 10Megs Q: How many updates per month? A: 1 to 30 (we no have the ability to pump one every 2 minutes) Q: will there be Forced updates? A: Yes – Scam definitions  The Industry Competition Q: Is there a standard for the industry? A: We were on the edge when we launched Q: What are my competitors doing? A: ???

Defining Update Product Requirements EarthLink’s Requirements  Modular  Works in the Background – “Friendly Bandwidth”  Hosting Neutral – (either by Earthlink or Outsourced 3 rd Party)  Supports Windows and Mac OS  Integrated download and installation  Byte Differencing  Intuitive User Interface or NOT  Reporting Requirements  Trend Analysis of product usage  User Authentication  Staggered Delivery  Targeted Updates  Intelligent Notification  Robust customer messaging

Defining Update Product Requirements EarthLink’s Requirements  Modular  Works in the Background – “Friendly Bandwidth”  Hosting Neutral – (either by Earthlink or Outsourced 3 rd Party)  Supports Windows and Mac OS  Integrated download and installation  Byte Differencing  Intuitive User Interface or NOT  Reporting Requirements  Trend Analysis of product usage  User Authentication  Staggered Delivery  Targeted Updates  Intelligent Notification  Robust customer messaging

After the Launch of the Update Service  Lessons Learned (Pitfalls) –too many updates –too few resources –engineers are not marketers –ship it and forgot it –return realized too easily

Benefits of EarthLink’s Update Service  Round Trippers –Reduced Churn –Reduced Costs –Changed the way we thought about software and software deployment –Made possible new products

Where Update Services are Heading  Increased automation – patching, fixing will be completed without fanfare  Self diagnostic and repair (this will rise from the techniques employed by spyware)  Over use of updates as a selling tool  Only a few companies will hit the Next Stage and connect with the user

Thank You! Steve Huey Aluria Software an EarthLink Company Vice President & General Manager