RatePoint Starts Reseller Program for Consumer-Generated Quality Assurance Program

[NewsDesk]

Program creates new opportunities for web hosters and technology providers to generate revenue - in a market five times the size of SSL - with low integration

RatePoint, Inc., a company founded by the former executive team of GeoTrust, today announced a reseller program specifically designed to offer web hosting and technology providers a highly automated, scaleable service that can be sold to businesses with little or no integration effort. Offered as a fully-hosted service, the RatePoint Consumer Approval Program gives web hosters and technology providers, a new and effective way to leverage their existing e-commerce and business customer base to increase business margins. RatePoint is offering unlimited Consumer Approval Program licenses - to sell or give away to customers - through August 31, 2007.

In anticipation of the RatePoint Reseller Program launch, more than 15 companies have committed to being resellers of the RatePoint Consumer Approval Program including AmbironTrustWave (see press release), Hard Hat Hosting and Brainus Networks. These resellers alone reach a combined base of more than 100,000 businesses.

The RatePoint Consumer Approval Program takes advantage of Web 2.0 trends by providing an easy and efficient method for consumers to interact with each other while providing businesses with a customer feedback platform that is displayed on their website in the form of an online badge. Consumers access the online platform to submit reviews, which are authenticated, then passed along to the business, which in turn, manages the reviews. In the case of a negative review, the system opens up the line of communication between the business and the consumer, providing the business with an opportunity to resolve consumer issues and turn a negative experience into a positive one. The program is intended to be a more affordable and efficient alternative to the Better Business Bureau.

For an organization to receive a dynamically generated ?RatePoint Consumer Approval? badge on their website, they must carry a positive overall RatePoint rating, as well as pass a fraud check. In addition, all program members will be listed in RatePoint?s Merchant Directory, which will be connected to RatePoint?s rapidly growing online rating service.

?As a third-party medium that sorts out the differences between businesses and their customers, the RatePoint Consumer Approval Program helps level the playing field for online businesses by validating who they are,? said Ken Fox, president and CEO of Windy City Web Solutions, a Chicago-based company with over 11 years experience in web hosting and e-commerce. ?For Windy City Web Solutions, the RatePoint Consumer Approval Program provides us with another way of differentiating ourselves on support and added service. We plan to offer it as a complement to our existing ecommerce offerings, such as secure certificates, domain accounts and merchant accounts.?

Getting Started with the RatePoint Reseller Program

RatePoint will kick off its reseller program by offering an Application Program Interface (API) for partners that makes the RatePoint Consumer Approval Program simple for both web hosters and businesses to implement.

Key benefits of the program include:

• Business approval and set up completion in minutes
• International support for 11 languages; enabling a wide reach into potential markets
• Product marketing materials to facilitate sales
• Access to a management portal where resellers can manage accounts and receive the latest program information to optimize sales
• Low price tag and implementation makes it easy to bundle RatePoint service with a variety of hosting packages and is an excellent complementary product to e-commerce technologies such as PCI-Compliance and Shopping Carts
• Direct interaction with a team of experienced providers of value-added hosting services

RatePoint, Inc., was co-founded by CEO Neal Creighton, EVP of Business Development Chris Bailey, CTO Mike Rowan and VP of R&D Kefeng Chen. Prior to founding RatePoint, all four executives co-founded and held key positions at GeoTrust, the leading provider of intelligent infrastructure services for Internet and telecommunications networks, which was acquired by Verisign for $125 million in September 2006.

?The former GeoTrust executive team has reunited at RatePoint with the goal of repeating its success in transforming e-commerce for hundreds of thousands of Internet businesses,? said RatePoint CEO Neal Creighton. ?Instead of bringing them greater security, we?re back with a customer relationship management offering that promises to increase ISP margins per customer by addressing a market that is five times larger than that for SSLs.?

Pricing and discounts

Web hosters can take advantage of the RatePoint Consumer Approval Program channel launch at no risk to themselves and sell or give away an unlimited number of licenses to their customers through August 31st, 2007. After that, resellers are free to offer the program at cost as a value-add to their customers or sell it at the list price of $49.95 and take the difference as profit. Since the service is an annuity with a simple yearly renewal process, resellers realize yearly revenue. Payment options include a pay-as-you-go program or bulk purchases. With the first option, web hosters pay for each membership as it is issued with no upfront costs, and all payments are made by credit card, which is charged after each order. For bulk advance purchases of up to 100,000 badges, RatePoint provides its partners with significant discounts.

About RatePoint
Founded in 2006, RatePoint, Inc., offers a powerful, quality-assurance certification and customer feedback platform for today?s growing businesses. Leveraging the latest in Web 2.0 trends, web content authentication and consumer ratings systems, RatePoint, Inc., is revolutionizing the way businesses and consumers define, identify and monitor quality. RatePoint, Inc., was founded by the founders of GeoTrust and is venture backed by Prism VentureWorks and .406 Ventures. For more information about RatePoint, Inc., please visit www.ratepoint.com.