Cbeyond today announced an enhanced Web-hosting service aimed at helping its small-business customers do more with their Web sites, including e-commerce. Geoff Cummings, product manager for Web-hosting at Cbeyond, spoke with Telephony Editor-in-Chief Carol Wilson about the new product.

On why Cbeyond expanded its service: We’ve been offering Web hosting for a long time, dating back to 2000. The purpose of what we had before was basic Web hosting with bitspace, bandwidth and control panel. What we wanted to do was bring in all the things our sales force has been asking for and others were asking for and modernize and revolutionize the product we offer. In talking to customers, we found that Web hosting is not only bitspace and bandwidth but also the availability of search-engine registration and optimization and documents and guides to help them make the most of their Web site and the best shopping cart we can so they can create that store and sell products.

On the new packages: We put together a new modified package that simplified our product line and turned our bitspace and bandwidth product industry-wide into an applications-tier product. In the process of modernizing Web hosting, we simplified and standardized across a few components. We offer entry-level Web hosting, but we put a design tool in it, which is the number-one thing customers ask for, and it is more robust. Then one step up is our Enhanced Marketing service, which offers everything in the entry-level product plus search-engine registration and optimization along with e-marketing guides so our customers can look through and learn how to market online more effectively. The third level, Enhanced Commerce, includes the things in the first two levels and an e-commerce Web site.

On how customers will use the service: As we make the products more useful for customers, it makes our customers more efficient. And it makes the services they use more useful to them, and that allows them to operate more efficiently. We want to focus on helping them run their business.