Mark Geyman articles - Crain's Cleveland, Plain Dealer, Smart Coast Journal

07/20/1998
MARK GEYMAN : CO-FOUNDER: NETFORCE DEVELOPMENT
By: Angela Y. Hardin
When Mark Geyman was growing up, he dreamed of one day becoming a television weatherman because he likes change, and, well, the weather is in a constant state of flux. So far, Mr. Geyman hasn't gotten around to forecasting the skies. But like a magnet to metal, he has been drawn to the ever-evolving technology of the Internet. ``The Internet is an area where there are things being developed every day," Mr. Geyman said. NetForce Development, which Mr. Geyman co-founded in May 1995, implements the latest technology in the development of web sites for corporate clients such as Parker Hannifin Corp. and Penton Inc. in Cleveland, Daewoo Equipment Corp. of South Korea and Inventure Place in Akron. NetForce also signed an agreement recently with Lockheed Martin of Bethesda, Md., to provide marketing, technical support and training for a web-based, interactive online learning program designed for use in the schools at 177 U.S. military bases, Mr. Geyman said. The product eventually will be offered to the nation's corporations and public and private schools. Mr. Geyman enjoys sharing his appreciation of technology by teaching others about the Internet and the electronic resources available in their backyard. That's one reason he created SitesOnline (www.sitesonline.com), a 21/2-year-old data base that links visitors to the web sites of organizations located throughout the northern third of Ohio. With 7,500 listings, the still-growing SitesOnline has two to three times the amount of information contained in the regional directory of the area compiled by Yahoo!, Mr. Geyman said. ``It gives people a place to go learn about Greater Cleveland, and it raises their level of awareness about what is available electronically," Mr. Geyman said. SitesOnline is a labor of love for Mr. Geyman. It has yet to yield a return on the time and money he has invested in it. For the last two years, he has taught two courses at Lakeland Community College in Kirtland introducing students to the Internet and how to use it as a research tool. ``He brings out what's current and what they (students) have to be prepared for," said Perry Tonni, a professor of information systems at the college. "He's always right therein the forefront (of Internet technology). On the technical side he's a very good technician, and he loves to teach."

12/21/98

COMPETITION BUILDS FOR LISTING PROPERTY ONLINE

By: JENNIFER BEAUPREZ

NetForce Development Inc. has a new strategy to put commercial property owners in touch with real estate shoppers on the Internet. But the middlemen knocked out of the picture in that strategy have their own plans to compete online.
        Beachwood will be the testing ground for NetForce Development's Internet-based commercial real estate directory. NetForce Development, a web developer in Woodmere Village, has teamed up with the Beachwood Chamber of Commerce to develop the online directory. It allows property owners to showcase their office and industrial space to interested tenants using interactive maps, photos and text.
        Once Beachwood's online directory is up and running by the middle of next year, NetForce Development plans to sell the software program to other suburban chambers. NetForce is banking significant growth next year on sales from the software, said Mark Geyman, marketing director for NetForce Development.
        Competition is on its way, however.
        The Ohio Association of Realtors is developing a similar Internet service program for real estate listings for industrial, office, retail, hotel and motel space, said Jon Lynch, the association's new president and a broker with Lynch & Co. in Cleveland. The program should be up and running by the middle of January, he said.
        Those plans came as a surprise last week to Mr. Geyman, but he said the competition won't change NetForce's plans.
        The eight-person NetForce Development wants to double its revenues to $3 million next year with sales fromt he new real estate software and from another Internet-based program for schools that would allow teachers and students to post assignments, teaching lessons and classwork on a private network.
        Mr. Geyman said the concept for the real estate directory grew out of a brainstorming session several months ago with Ron White, executive director of the Beachwood Chamber of Commerce. Mr. White was searching for ways to provide more services to chamber members and to market the area to outside companies that are looking to move.
        Web browsers will be able to log onto the Beachwood Chamber web site, www.beachwood.org, and browse listings for about 180 buildings. The web browsers can shop by clicking on an interactive map of Beachwood and calling up photos and leasing specifics about each property.
        ``It tells a story for anybody who is shopping for space in a very precise way," said Jeffrey Bilsky, vice president of Renaissance Management Inc., which owns three office buildings in Beachwood. He said he's willing to pay the one-time charge of $750 and the $450annual fee to have Renaissance Management's three buildings listed in the directory. Mr. Bilsky would be able to update leasing information himself.
        Although the Beachwood directory means Mr. Bilsky will bypass the fees ordinarily collected by a broker when a deal is struck with a tenant, he said that's not why he's interested in the online listing. He said the directory is just one more way to get exposure in the real estate market.
        ``I think more people are turning to mediums like that, including executives who are busy and real estate people as well," Mr. Bilsky said.
        The Ohio Real Estate Association is counting on that trend, Mr. Lynch said. The association's online directory should work similar to NetForce Development's but will include listings from throughout the state on its web site, www.ohiorealtors.com. Mr.Lynch said the directory will help real estate brokers keep up on what properties are available in the local market.
        The association's directory will be part of a national commercial real estate directory called LoopNet.com, which is run by Loop Ventures Inc. in Burlingame, Calif.
        Mr. Lynch said though property owners may increasingly list their vacancies on the Internet, commercial brokers will never become extinct.
        ``It's one thing to have tools," Mr. Lynch said. "It's another thing to have the tools and have someone that knows the business, can show the properties and that can negotiate and represent their clients -- whether they're buyers or sellers."

01/29/1996
MAKING A RIGHT CONNECTION: ACCESS PROVIDER IS KEY INGREDIENT TO ANY SUCCESSFUL INTERNET ADVENTURE
By: LEE BATDORFF
Exploring and exploiting the powers of the Internet requires an electronic tour guide, the Internet access provider. Several Cleveland area Internet experts say that selecting an Internet access provider, or IAP, need not be difficult - provided prospective cybernauts have done their homework. The first step is basic. ``First, the customers need to determine how they are going to utilize the service,'' said Mark Geyman, vice president of business development at NetForce Development Inc., an Internet consulting and programming firm in Woodmere Village. ``Then they consider the package that best suits their needs.'' While such advice is elementary, it's also important. Because choosing the wrong access provider can make venturing onto the Internet complicated, confusing and costly. Many types of Internet access services and packages are available. The most popular are the big commercial online services, such as America Online and CompuServe, which now provide Internet access along with their other offerings. Under a basic service packages offered by the major online services, users get five hours a month on the Internet for about $10. Additional fees are charged for any time above the five-hour limit. The online services provide Internet access nationwide and from other countries. Often, online services provide connections to commercial database providers such as Dow Jones and Lexis-Nexis. However, the online services charge fees for such access and the bills can quickly grow. ``The online services have their customers trained to say they are getting five free hours on the Internet,'' said David Caris, a principal in Business Connects of Cleveland, an Internet consultant for small- and mid-size firms. ``When a person spends any amount of time on the Internet, the online services get expensive.'' Direct Internet access providers can be a less expensive alternative. As the name implies, such providers connect a customer's computer, via a modem, directly to the Internet. The number of such providers is explod-ing as a number of small local companies vie with national concerns to secure a niche in a rapidly evolving business. ``The IAP business is very competitive. It reminds me of when AT&T broke up and there was a rash of $5telephones. They were of terrible quality,'' Mr. Caris said. ``The same is happening here with individuals who have some technical skill and no business sense, providing a poor quality (IAP) service to businesses. And some businesses don't realize it because they are not yet well-versed enough and are making decisions on price alone.'' For about $20 a month, national IAPs such as Performance Systems International of Herndon, Va., and Netcom of San Jose, Calif., provide unlimited Internet access and offer customers the ability to connect via a local telephone call from most places in the United States. Also seeking business are regional IAPs such as OARnet of Columbus and Bright.net of Doylestown, Ohio. They provide access from multiple Ohio cities. The number of locally based IAPs changes frequently. The ranks include Access Link Communications, APK Net Ltd., Cybergate, Exchange Net, Globe-Link International Corp., Internet Ohio, Multiverse, North Coast Web, Pentek Internet and RMRC. Some of the local IAPs provide connectivity from several Northeast Ohio counties. ``I prefer regional or local IAPs because you can get to know their staff and they get to know your company and its needs,'' said Gail Junion-Metz, president of Information Age Consultants in University Heights. ``Most local and regional providers seem to go out of their way to give good services that the big guys can't really offer.'' Mr. Caris said he favors local IAPs because of higher service quality. ``There are people (at local IAPs) to deal with that we can get to know, and it offers better prices than the national or regional providers,'' he said. ``They are as good as, or better, in their technical knowledge than the bigger providers.'' Ms. Junion-Metz encouraged users to shop around ``and take into consideration paying a little extra for good service and technical support.'' Prices, though, have settled into a steady range, according to Mariamne Ingalls, an Internet consultant in Cleveland Heights. ``Competition between Internet providers has assured that prices are comparable for basic Internet accounts,'' she said. Most prices range from $15 to $20 a month for unlimited Internet access. Ms. Junion-Metz said the best IAPs for business ``work with your company, ask the right questions and then supply you with the best tools for your company's needs, size and at the level of computer savvy of your staff.'' It's critical, Mr. Caris said, to find an IAP that's easy to approach. ``In some cases, the staff at an Internet access provider are high-tech people and don't want to deal with people who aren't savvy,'' he said. ``Know how much support you want and whether you need someone who can talk in a language you understand.'' Added Ms. Junion-Metz: ``Willyour IAP let you talk with a `techie' if you want, or do you have to talk with a secretary who has to relay your message?'' She said users should make sure their IAP has two network connections to the Internet backbone in case one should fail temporarily. Carefully shopping for an IAP is important, because once on the Internet, it can be inconvenient to move from one access provider to another. Software that works with one IAP may not work with another, and a change in access provider usually means changing an electronic mail address. ``Folks need some diligence at the get-go to avoid a service that isn't going to work for them,'' Mr. Caris said. ``It is important not to change IAPs after choosing one. Once you get an e-mail address, and it's on your business card and letterhead, there it is.''

01/29/1996
AMERITECH EYES INTERNET FIELD
By: LEE BATDORFF
The already crowded field of Internet access providers is about to gain a very large player. Ameritech Corp., the dominant telecommunications services provider in Northeast Ohio, wants to get in the act of helping individuals and businesses connect their computers to the Internet. Ameritech expects to begin providing Internet access in select markets in its five-state region this year. The company serves Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin. Ameritech hasn't said when it plans to offer Internet access in Cleveland. Rich Maganini, a spokesman in Ameritech's Chicago headquarters, said the company expects to make an announcement by March on its plan to provide ``a full range of Internet services, including both access and content.'' He said Ameritech will target business and consumer markets. ``Not only will we be competing with the present IAPs, (but) MCI and AT&T are expected to move into the market soon, too,'' Mr. Maganini said. ``There will be a lot of competition.'' ``We see the Internet being used for electronic commerce, and we've resolved the security aspects,'' Mr. Maganini said. ``This is going to be a big year in the Internet.'' The arrival of telephone giants like Ameritech and AT&T into the market ``will further splinter the IAP market,'' said Mark Geyman of NetForce Development Inc. in Woodmere Village. ``In the long-run, I see only the strong players surviving, either by providing quality service or offering niche service,'' Mr. Geyman said. Mr. Geyman, a former cable television marketing executive, was cautious about the prospects for local IAPs. ``The independents will eventually consolidate to survive,'' he said. ``If not, they'll be absorbed by the big boys. I've observed this in the cable television industry.'' Other observers, however, aren't convinced bigger is better. ``I don't see what they are going to do to add to the mix,'' said Dave Caris, a principal in Business Connects, a Cleveland consulting firm. He predicted there would be ``some winnowing of the marketplace, but I think some strong local IAPs will survive.''

01/05/1998
BANNER DAYS AHEAD: FIRMS WEIGH WEB AD SPENDING
By: ANGELA Y. HARDIN
At the behest of some of the region's Internet-savvy ad agencies, local clients are beginning to change their standoffish attitude toward advertising their products and services on the World Wide Web. Spending on Internet advertising nationwide more than doubled in the first nine months of 1997 over the like period a year ago, according to a recent report from the Internet Advertising Bureau in New York. However, little of the $571 million spent on web ads came from Cleveland-area marketers. For example, at Liggett-Stashower Interactive, a unit of Liggett-Stashower Inc., clients are "just now budgeting and positioning" for Internet ads, said Jody Freshwater, manager of interactive multimedia. ``We did offer banner ads over a year ago, but our clients didn't want it," Ms. Freshwater said. Banner ads are placed on popular web sites, such as the search engine Yahoo!, and are meant to entice web surfers to visit the marketer's own web site. Mark Freeman, president of Mark Freeman Associates Inc., said his agency in the last year has placed web ads for20-year-old EGC Enterprises Inc., a small business that makes gaskets and seals in Chardon, and Cleveland-based Pioneer-Standard Electronics, a publicly traded, international distributor of electronic components and systems. ``We're selling it because it works," Mr. Freeman said. "If you miss the boat on this one, you've missed the boat big time." EGC Enterprises' banner ads on search engines such as Yahoo!, Excite and Lycos have generated results, said Robert Rutherford, president of EGC Enterprises. ``It benefits us especially in the global market and especially with companies in Third World countries like India and Pakistan," Mr. Rutherford said. Compared with advertising in a trade magazine, where 90% of the inquiries to EGC's ads come from North American businesses, Mr. Rutherford said about 90% of the electronic mail responses to the company's Internet ads come from overseas. Mr. Rutherford said some of the overseas leads admittedly are tough to follow up, but they nonetheless "are serious leads." While some local companies see value in advertising on the web, the desirability of Internet advertising isn't universally embraced even among people in the Cleveland marketing community. ``Smart media buyers aren't going to suggest advertisers should dilute their ad budget to get on the Net," said Mary Cangelosi, president of the media planning and buying firm Media Impressions in Lakewood. ``I would be surprised to see it (the Internet) become part and parcel of traditional media (advertising) outlets," Ms. Cangelosi said. "When you get right down to how many people are going to land on your page, nothing can touch mass media vehicles." That belief is why Royal Appliance Manufacturing Co., the maker of Dirt Devil vacuum cleaners, isn't interested in paying to advertise its products or its web site on the Internet. Royal Appliance is going to stick with television as its primary advertising outlet because of the mass audience it attracts, said Jim Holcomb, the company's vice president of marketing and strategic planning. ``If we could see the Internet evolve to where people could see something like a television commercial, we'd consider it," Mr. Holcomb said. "But I don't see that happening until beyond the millennium." Other marketers have found ways other than advertising to take advantage of the reach of the Internet. Among them is Fabri-Centers of America Inc., the cloth and crafts retailer based in Hudson. It wants to place more free links to its web site, www.joann.com, on non-commercial sites promoting crafts. ``We need to be really comfortable with our own site before considering advertising on the Net," said Michele Watkins, director of media services at Fabri-Centers. "We don't have a highly technical product and our customers were not the first to be on the web. They're mostly women." Men use the Internet more than women, Ms. Watkins said. While cloth and crafts may not lend themselves to the high-tech world of the Internet, some traditional consumer items are going electronic. American Greetings Corp. in Brooklyn Heights is one of a few locally based national marketers that has committed significant resources to web advertising and selling products over the Internet. Its Internet ads are geared toward enticing people to visit its extensive web site, at www. americangreetings.com, where customers can send greetings electronically. ``We are committed to make the site work," said Jill Froula, manager of marketing communication at the company's electronic marketing division. "We recognized (the site) needed to have as much exposure possible.... The more exposure you have, the more it is going to bring people to the site." American Greetings wouldn't disclose how the experiment is panning out or how much it has spent for its Internet advertisements. However, just two weeks ago, it expanded its offering of electronic greetings to include greetings with sound and animation. The cost of advertising on the web varies tremendously. To advertise on popular national web sites can cost anywhere from $20 to $50 for every 1,000 times an ad is displayed on a computer screen, according the information provided by Ad Resource, a web advertising, marketing and promotions information provider in Chicago. However, there are more economical ways for advertisers to go. For instance, Net Force Development Inc., a Woodmere Village Internet services company, charges $100 a month to place an ad on its SitesOnLine, which offers a directory of Ohio web sites, said Mark Geyman, vice president of business development. ``We don't feel that's unreasonable," Mr. Geyman said. Even so, Mr. Geyman said SitesOnLine only has had about six ads during the last three to four months, and some of those involved barter arrangements. That low number is due in part to conservative nature of companies in the Cleveland area, Mr. Geyman said. ``It's a technology follower, not a leader," Mr. Geyman said.

These local sites show everyone how it's done

Monday, December 20, 1999

By CHUCK MELVIN
PLAIN DEALER REPORTER

A couple of years ago, a business could legitimately wonder, "Do we need a Web site?"

No longer. Web sites are as much a part of doing business today as telephones and fax machines. Whether your customers are other businesses or mainstream consumers, they're sure to want to deal with you online from time to time.

Yet many businesses are still wrestling with the details, trying to figure out how best to make use of the new medium.

During the past few weeks, we have been looking at the Web sites of scores of northern Ohio companies. We chose 10 that are noteworthy for their design, their usefulness or both. We do not suggest the list represents a top 10 of some sort; rather, we have selected examples of good sites representing businesses in a variety of categories and sizes.

We profile five today; five more will appear next Monday.

American Greetings
http://www. americangreetings.com

Finding what you want on americangreetings.com is easy. Leaving is hard.

Plan on spending at least 15 minutes there and probably more, even if you just intend at first to browse. Before long, you'll be customizing and sending e-mail greetings, reading online comics, playing with the new create-and-print greeting cards and following links to the site's growing list of e-commerce partners, including Harry and David, KBkids, Reel.com and many others.

"Online greetings are just another extension of how people are keeping in touch today," spokeswoman Claire Wolfenden said. "We've designed the site to make it easy for people to communicate and keep their relationships alive."

The site's opening page manages to be busy and exciting without looking cluttered. A banner advertisement near the top of the screen integrates into the layout, so the site's main navigation tabs - offering quick access to online greetings, paper cards, "comix" and more - remain easy to see and click.

The gold-toned background is classy, and the entire page is small enough to fit into the default browser window for users who access the site through America Online.

"We're a subsidiary of American Greetings, and we have access to their90 years of experience," Wolfenden said. "We have a group of designers, and we draw from the talent of the parent company as well."

One of the site's best new features is the free create-and-print section -sorry, Macintosh users, it only works on Windows machines - where you can add your own text, including a variety of colors and fonts, to a range of card styles and then print them on your own color printer.

"That's exclusive to us," Wolfenden said. "None of the other greeting card sites are doing that yet."

Cleveland Indians
http://www.indians.com

Since its launch late in the magical 1995 season, the Cleveland Indians' Website has evolved into a destination that reflects the excitement the team has generated.

Created and maintained by DigiKnow, a Cleveland digital marketing company, the site initially was targeted entirely at fans, an entertainment vehicle, but since has become an effective business tool as well.

"When we first did it, it was right before the postseason of 1995,"said Ian Verschuren, DigiKnow's director of information services. "We said, "Let's gear everything toward the fans.' That was the year the team had all those great finishes, so we put up audio clips of all those."

During succeeding years, the site added text updates during games, video highlights, audio broadcasts, games for kids and a subscription area with extra multimedia features.

Most recently, the site has become a conduit for ticket sales and other business matters, including job postings.

"We have a press area where the media can download high-resolution shots of everybody on the roster," Verschuren said. "This year we made a large, blatant push to promote next season: When are tickets available? Where can you do it? How can you do it? We had a pull-down menu on our site, so you could go directly to a particular game on the Ticketmaster site. In 2000, we're going to enhance some of that. The ticket office is going to use the site to communicate with season ticket holders."

PortSort
http://www.portsort.com

PortSort is a Web site that clearly understands its audience.

Created to link professional illustrators with the ad agencies, publishers and others who might use their work, the site provides an efficient sorting engine that anyone can understand immediately.

Looking for a watercolor illustration of an animal for your next corporate project? Choose "watercolors" and "animals" from the search menus, and PortSort produces a list of artists who can help.

Clicking on an artist's name then calls up a page of thumbnail versions of his work. If one of them fits the bill, click to see a larger image - big enough to evaluate, but not big enough to steal.

"I'm very happy with the results," said site creator Woody Coleman of Woody Coleman Presents Inc., who has been an agent for artists since the late1970s. "It's definitely changed the days when you had to spend $40,000 to$50,000 a year on printed creative source directories."

The site features the work of nearly 150 illustrators. Coleman gets a commission on each deal.

How much work is PortSort generating? A flier about the site sent to 18,000 art directors in June produced $250,000 worth of business for the site's artists, Coleman said.

SitesOnline
http://www.sitesonline.com

Calling SitesOnline "commercial" is probably a stretch, because it's not exactly a cash cow for creator Mark J. Geyman.

"It's more of a personal effort, a labor of love," said Geyman, vice president of marketing for NetForce Development Inc., a Web development company. "I've run some ads on it, with limited success."

SitesOnline began as Geyman's collection of bookmarks of Cleveland-area Websites. He put it online in 1995, originally including only sites based in the Cleveland area, then gradually expanding to the rest of the state.

Like its much larger counterpart, Yahoo, it's not much to look at - just a very handy collection of Ohio links arranged first by geographical area and then by category, such as education, travel and business services. It also provides a keyword search.

"I focus on businesses, organizations, community sites and education," Geyman said. "Right now, it lists a little over 10,000sites."

Cybrarian Mark Geyman

Through sheer doggedness, a modest webhound has grown what was once his personal bookmarks into arguably Ohio's leading web directory.

by John Ettorre

For years, it was something of a best-kept secret among cybersavvy local journalists and salespeople. The former found it a unique tool to browse for story ideas by industry sector and to effortlessly assemble company background information, while the latter employed it as a powerful weapon to narrow their scattershot cold calling from the comfort of their desktops. Simply by browsing through the regional web directory www.sitesonline.com, any user could get a quick overview of the online presence that hundreds and then thousands of businesses and organizations maintained.

And the man behind it all, 42-year-old Mark Geyman, isn't what one might expect. A web-development marketing VP by day, he has little of the brassiness one ordinarily associates with his trade. Instead, his self-effacing modesty calls to mind a career librarian.

Sitesonline traces its roots to 1995, when Geyman--a former executive recruiter and cable-TV marketing and sales guy who began tinkering with 1,200-baud modems and the revolutionary Cleveland Free Net in the late '80s--began piecing together what he then called Geyman's Northern Ohio Website Directory. It was a year after the industry-leading Yahoo had developed its general web directory, but perhaps a full year before the portal site began offering local directories. At its inception, Sitesonline was little more than Geyman's personal bookmarks of local sites.

By '96, the self-taught hacker had changed the name to SitesOnline.com, and he was spending several hours each week adding to the directory himself as an after-hours diversion. He began focusing on the Cleveland metro area, then the northern one-third of Ohio, and now tracks sites headquartered throughout the entire state of Ohio. The site receives between 8,000-10,000 unique visitors a month, many of which are repeat customers, says Geyman.

His doggedness in building the directory is legendary in certain circles. For years, you could be engaging Geyman in casual conversation while mentioning someone's URL, or web address. He'd immediately stop you, gently back up to your reference, and ask you about the site, making a mental note to later add it to his burgeoning directory. He was similarly obsessive in tracking down the source of unfamiliar e-mail addresses.

Today, his efforts have resulted in a directory that catalogues more than 11,000 sites, which dwarfs any other local or regional web directories. Geyman receives as many as 40-60 e-mails each week informing him of still more sites that would like to be added to the directory, and he religiously maintains the database, thus leaving surprisingly few dead links for a directory of its size. Still, he's not in any position to get cocky about his comprehensiveness, since he estimates the real number of meaningful (no personal sites, generally) Ohio-based sites at perhaps 200,000 to 300,000.

His latest plans, though, call for essentially cannibalizing SitesOnline, which he doesn't own outright. Several months ago, he secured the rights to www.ohiobiz.com, which the Ohio Department of Development controlled for years, and which thus has an estimated 300 other sites linked to it. He's slowly migrating much of the SitesOnline directory over to his new site-about 6,000 URLs at present--and plans to stop updating SitesOnline. While the former directory was built on a Yahoo-like portal model, his plans now call for OhioBiz to proceed more on Google.com's much-admired model of popularity-rated search engines.

With all the large web players buying out their smaller counterparts, he's asked, is he surprised that SitesOnline has never been on the receiving end of a firm buyout offer? "Maybe it hasn't had a high enough profile," he says with his characteristic bashfulness. "It's a good resource, but I haven't advertised it anywhere."

WebSource: Big Bandwidth
Shari M. Sweeney
01-NOV-99

To many businesspeople, the prospect of holding meetings entirely via the Internet seems about as likely as strapping on a personal jet-pack for the commute home.

But don't dismiss the idea entirely.

As more companies jump into the Internet fray adding online ordering capability or using the Internet to connect to telecommuting employees demand for bandwidth has skyrocketed. As a result, smaller Internet service providers have surfaced across the country, offering services comparable to Sprint and AT&T but at lower prices.

This market is evolving very quickly, says Jim Ducay, senior director of interactive marketing for Ameritech in Chicago. We're [constantly] looking at things that are different, trying to stay in front of the curve.

For the uninitiated, bandwidth refers to the amount of data that can be sent through an Internet connection. Think of it as a pipe: The skinny pipe from the bathroom sink to the basement can't handle as much water as a sewer connection. To move more water (data) requires a bigger pipe (bandwidth). The larger pipes available now range from built-in 56K modems to the behemoth bandwidths of a T3 line, equal to about 800 56K modems.

The problem is that with more choices in connect speed and in providers offering high-speed services, a growing company can easily become overwhelmed and consequently pay for technology it doesn't need or understand.

It's like the telephone industry; choosing a long-distance service and trying to understand that, explains Rick Kerestesy, president of HyperText Communication Inc., a network-integration firm in Eastlake. There are different flavors, but businesses aren't always sure what they're buying. It's not like anyone is cheating them, but there are two different grades of [Internet connection] in a sense. It's hard for the businessperson to make apples-to-apples comparisons.

It helps, Kerestesy says, to first learn the terminology.

Among commercially available options, there exist two primary types of Internet connections: a leased line or an integrated services digital network (ISDN). Each offers several choices in connect speeds.

A leased line provides continuous Internet connection. Speeds start at 56,600 bits per second (56.6K) and extend to a T1's 1,544,000 bps (1.54Mbps) or higher. An ISDN connection moves more data (up to 128K) over existing phone lines. ISDN provides small but growing businesses with telecommuting capabilities, remote office connections and LAN-to-LAN communications.

In Northeast Ohio, commercial ISDN accounts are metered, meaning that you pay the local phone company a specified rate for each minute you are using the line, Kerestesy says. Keep in mind, he adds, that ISDNs are sometimes less reliable than leased lines because they share phone lines rather than use their own dedicated connections.

T1 and T3 are types of leased lines and are required for super high-speed data connections. T1 can handle 1.54Mbps (the 28.8K modem in your home PC carries only 28,800 bps). While a T1 is adequate to support video, a T3 line packs in an amazing 45Mbps, about four times the bandwidth required for full-screen, full-motion video.

Even as businesses struggle to determine how much bandwidth they need now, they face even more choices. Cable companies are developing Internet products, which may take some time. Cable-modem connections will require cable carriers to boost their own bandwidth to support both television and telecommunications, then run new lines into business districts. Most current cable TV lines run through residential areas.

And the next big thing just introduced in this region is the digital subscriber line (DSL), less expensive than leased lines and faster than regular ISDN connections. DSL uses the same type of wires used for phone service, though its circuits are configured differently. A common arrangement offers upload speeds of up to 128 kilobits per second. DSL promises as much as 8Mbps of bandwidth.

Everything is going to change when DSL starts coming to the forefront, says John Frees of Columbus-based Fiber Network Solutions Inc., which offers DSL here in partnership with Northpoint Communications. Now you can use a phone line to get T1 speeds. Smaller and medium-sized businesses will then be able to take advantage of the connectivity that only large companies have enjoyed.

The Need for Speed

All this raises the question of what a typical business really needs in connect speed.

Much depends on a company's size and needs, experts say. Often, a 56K leased line will work fine; it allows a company to host its own email and provides a constant Internet connection. But if growth necessitates more bandwidth perhaps you need online ordering to compete jumping to a more powerful connection like DSL or functional T1 makes more sense. (Functional means the subscriber only pays for the capacity it needs.)

Ameritech, like other large Internet service providers, offers several levels of commitment when it comes to access and speed. First is a dial-up service for about $30 a month, which includes high-speed ADSL where available. Next comes T1 service for companies that integrate more sophisticated email communications with suppliers and clients via a Web site.

The third area is electronic business: Web hosting and the capability to take an order and process it online, says Ducay.

But he notes that his sales staff
doesn't talk about leased lines, routers or bandwidth when first meeting a new client. We talk about their business, he says. If you go down the technology path, the customer gets confused and probably ends up with something they don't need.

There is a clear path; start small and continue to build up, Ducay says. You might have a dial-up service [first], expanding all the way to Internet/ extranet, connections to suppliers, customers and traveling salespeople. There's a natural adoption path. Even the largest businesses out there started with a basic Web site.

That's rule number one: Figure out what the business wants to accomplish before considering any increase in connect speed. Often, Ducay says, businesses just getting into the bandwidth battle need to start small and add speed as the need arises, rather than drop a pile of money on a Cadillac service it won't be able to use for months or years.

Case in point: Mark Geyman's Beachwood-based Web-site design company, NetForce Development, operated for years with a dial-up connection before speeding up with a fractional T1 line, through which a subscriber buys only the amount of bandwidth needed.

Some of our modems were 56K, and some were 36K, says Geyman, vice president of marketing. Eventually, it was clear that the growing business needed more bandwidth on which to store, test and transmit complex Web sites for large corporations. So Geyman is in the process of graduating from fractional T1 to burstable T1, with more bandwidth and speedier connect times. He is even having his home wired for a DSL to connect him to the office at speeds up to 200K.

Remember, though, that even fractional T1 requires installation of expensive T1 equipment.

Most [sites] we develop on our server, and once it's approved we FTP [file transfer protocol] to their server, Geyman says. The client will test it out and put it on their production server. For those types of applications, the bandwidth has to be there, and the quality and reliability is important.

(Interestingly, NetForce was developing ecommerce sites four years ago. The frustrating part was that the market
wasn't ready, Geyman says. We ran up against a wall.)

So why not go all the way with a T3 line? Geyman doesn't see a need for that kind of speed for at least another year and doesn't want to pay the higher fees until he truly needs it. To upgrade from fractional to burstable T1, he says, may cost several hundred dollars a month, but T3 would mean several thousand dollars.

Untangling the Lines

Installation and service fees for leased-line products vary widely depending on the provider and area of the country: Installation might be as low as $60 per connection or as much as $350, and monthly fees range from less than $60 to $100. A regular analog phone line (the classic dial-up modem) costs about $30 per month. DSL modems cost as much as $500, with monthly connection fees at least twice as high as ISDN.

Still confused by the options, terms, acronyms and fee schedules? You're not alone. Fiber Network's Frees says that even casual comparison shopping can be harrowing, simply because it is so hard to keep everything straight.

So rule number two is to make sure you know what you're paying for.

Businesses have to make sure they understand what they're buying, Frees says. Understand the terms, and make sure you get plenty of different bids, then try to match them up. It's a very confusing marketplace. It's easy for a salesperson to come in and tell you that you need something, and you think you understand it until you start getting bills that don't reflect what the salesperson said you'd get.

These kinds of checks are especially important as more carriers aggressively market directly to small and midsized businesses. And always remember that all the bandwidth in the world won't make a difference if your system goes down.

Sheila Blackwell, director of corporate communications for service provider Teligent Inc., advises shoppers to ask many specific questions about service and maintenance. Find out if service lines are staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week or just a few specific hours. How many people staff the service desk at any one time? What is their training? If your system goes down at 3 a.m. on a Monday morning, will service have it running by sunrise?

Ask what's included and, more importantly, what's not, Ducay says. Does the price quoted include service or just the hook-up itself? How much will the equipment cost? Is there an extra charge for installation?

And beware smaller providers that might cut corners, oversubscribe their lines, or forget to mention the extra charges for equipment. An oversubscribed line alone too many different streams trying to squeeze through the same pipe can negate the advantages that higher bandwidth promises.

A salesperson might say, OK, I'll offer you T1 for $1,000 a month, Frees says. And you think that sounds great. But he's talking about the port charge only, not purchase or leasing of equipment. There are all these things that need to be added after the fact.

Some providers focus entirely on small businesses, while Sprint and AT&T might offer more integrated products for the burgeoning midsized market.

Teligent Inc., based just outside Washington, D.C., with an office in Cleveland, is one of an increasing number of national companies that offer businesses the kind of service and discounts 20 percent, 30 percent or more savings on monthly fees they could not afford just five years ago.

We take a consultative approach, Blackwell says. What is it you want to do? What are your prices now? And what is it that you need in two or three years to keep you competitive?

CyberBiz
Sarah K. Riehl
01-MAR-97

Expect to see companies start to reassess their Web sites and demand that they be more efficient and logically organized, says Michael Kister, marketing director for Meldrum & Fewsmith Interactive, the interactive division of Meldrum & Fewsmith Communications. This will start to pare down Web-design providers, starting with the independent midsized ones. But as those operations close or join other companies, low-end, cut-rate ventures will survive. The reason? There's always going to be a market for bad Web sites, Kister says.

It started off as NetForce Development vice president Mark Geyman's collection of personal bookmarks. But in keeping with the phenomenal growth rate of the Internet, www.sitesonline.com is now a massive index of more than 3,000 Northern Ohio Web sites. Geyman actively searches for new sites and takes new URLs from local ISPs for the Web site, which he updates daily. Most people like to do things that are in their own back yard, he says. They want information they can access readily. And what subjects do Northern Ohioans click into the most? Business services and organizations, local news, entertainment and fun, computers and the Internet and sports and recreation.

Charles Stack, founder of Parallax MicroSystems, which designs computer systems for legal and corporate clients, has created Parallax Ventures. The division will act as an incubator for new Internet businesses, supplying standard services to support fledgling entrepreneurial ventures. One of the first products of this arrangement is test.com, a site where employers place tests on-line that prospective employees can access, take and have scored instantly.

Even the Internet book publishing industry moves quickly. Nikki DiFilippo, director of marketing and sales for XA.com, a division of Parallax MicroSystems, had two weeks notice to submit a chapter for the forthcoming book Web Commerce Unleashed, published by sams.net, a division of Macmillan Publishing. In her contribution, DiFilippo recounted the success of XA.com's Book Stacks Unlimited (books.com), the first site in this area to have the ability to do sales transactions on-line. (Conglomerate CUC International purchased the site five months ago.)

In a move that, according to vice president and CIO Dan DeSantis, will bring a whole new perspective to the services we can offer, Stratos Internet Group has embarked on a joint venture with Rocky River ad agency Ashby Dillon and Cleveland computer retailer North Coast Computers. No money has changed hands in either arrangement, but Ashby Dillon will offer Stratos-provided Internet technology and services to its clients as another marketing venue. And should potential Stratos customers not have the equipment to support Internet access, Stratos will be able to outfit them with technology from North Coast Computers. We didn't want to put all our eggs in the dial-up basket, says DeSantis, whose company has become known for its $9.95 a month Internet access fee. We have to be thinking of our future, which with the Internet will be here as early as the next couple of months.

Cleveland-based Copfer & Associates recently debuted a prototype demonstration for Microsoft Corp.'s Internet development tool NetShow, which synchronizes pictures and text with an audio voice-over track. Working with client Culter-Hammer, Copfer & Associates created a corporate training program that Microsoft featured at its booth at the Internet World Conference in New York City.

CyberBiz tracks the goings-on within Cleveland's Internet community. Any information for the column should be forwarded to Cleveland Magazine, c/o CyberBiz, 1422 Euclid Ave., Cleveland; 781-6318 (fax); [email protected].

CyberBiz
Sarah K. Riehl
01-JAN-98

bright.net Internet Providers recently debuted technology that will provide businesses with the ability to connect to the Internet at high speeds for what the company says will be up to 75 percent less than it commonly costs to hook up to the Web. For the price of a conventional 56K line, the technology, called Express-LAN, can provide almost seven times the speed to a company's computer network. The key is a dedicated full-duplex xDSL circuit, which allows for simultaneous high-speed uploading and downloading. Routing occurs at Bright.net, which also keeps costs down. The only things on-site are the phone line and the modem, says Bright.net's Marshall Christy.

The NetMaster Co. in Beachwood has begun redesigning First Federal of Lakewood's Web site, according to managing partner Frank Cirino. Bank officials wanted a site that would further its community-friendly reputation. This site will fit around their community-relations programs, Cirino says. It'll be another way for them to get their message out. The site doesn't have a URL yet, but according to Cirino, communitybank.com is under consideration.

Interesting news about how people are using the Web came our way from the public relations firm Mark Freeman Associates, whose MFA NetWorks division provides Web-site development. The results of a new study by Price Waterhouse indicate that people use the Web at the expense of traditional media. One-third of home Web users surveyed said Web use had displaced television viewing; for just under one-third, Web use has replaced reading a book, newspaper or magazine.

MFA NetWorks announced the debut of
its latest Web site for legal heavy-hitter Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue. Instead of a site anchored around a single home page, www.jonesday.com offers 20 different home page possibilities one comes up randomly each time you visit the site showcasing each of its offices around the world. The site is divided into seven sections: About Jones Day, Practices, Locations, Recruiting, Publications, Lawyer Biographies and What's New.

Vantage One recently named Brian Powers chief operating officer and general manager. He will manage the day-to-day operations of the company and, according to Vantage One partner Dan Rose, will be responsible for identifying new business opportunities and overseeing the firm's daily operations. Powers brings experience as an attorney at McDonald, Hopkins, Burke & Haber and as president and general counsel of Small Business News.

Mark Geyman, who is vice president, business development of NetForce Development and also maintains SitesOnline, a Web page catalog of Northern Ohio Web sites (www.sitesonline.com), reports that as of December 1997 he had indexed more than 6,000 sites. He is revamping SitesOnline's organization by almost tripling the number of index categories, which should make it more user-friendly and reduce some of the lengthy lists of sites under certain categories. In the 2 1/2 years that Geyman has maintained SitesOnline, he says that the Web sites he sees going up these days definitely are different from those of 1995. They're going beyond marketing brochures, he says. People are looking for functionality and interactivity. They're definitely putting more thought into their Web sites.

Cleveland's Impact Communications won a Gold Award, Best New Media at WorldFest 97/The Charleston International Film Festival in Charleston, S.C., for its interactive exhibit Mr. Mumbles. The exhibit, which explains the many uses of ores and minerals, debuted last November as part of the PLANET e exhibit hall in the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

CyberBiz tracks the goings-on within Cleveland's Internet community. Any information for the column should be forwarded to CyberBiz, c/o Inside Business, 1422 Euclid Ave., Cleveland; 781-6318 (fax); editorial @inside-business.com

WebSource: Global Web
Shari M. Sweeney
01-MAY-98

While surfing the Internet one afternoon, you come across the home page of a well-known manufacturer of outdoor recreation equipment. There's a neat-looking backpack, just the thing for your upcoming trek along the Appalachian Trail. But the price is listed only in British pounds. Or the product description is written in French. Or the catalog is dated March 1995.

At this very instant, somewhere in the world, similar scenarios are playing out. Larry Wise knows this; it is exactly the sort of thing he tries to avoid.

It's hard to criticize a guy in Taiwan for speaking broken English when you don't speak Chinese, Wise notes.

Wise owns Logis, a Northeast Ohio company that hooks buyers and sellers of excess industrial bearings. (The company's Web site is called Industry Mart.) He is one of a growing number of American businesspeople who recognize the wisdom of globalizing Web sites making corporate and product information available to overseas markets via the Internet.

It sounds great and seems simple enough, but experts warn that globalization is a tad more complex than simply slapping together a Spanish-language version of the corporate home page. Cultural differences, technological considerations and language barriers should be addressed before one even considers the relative unavailability of commercial online services in other parts of the world.

It's very easy to get access to the Internet in America, says Rob Sarnovsky, senior consultant for Cleveland-based XL Connect Solutions Inc. Our entrepreneurial attitude here is to make business out of technology, so people are creating all these Internet service-providers. But you don't necessarily have that in other countries.

According to the July 1997 issue of Marketing Tools, the United Kingdom, Germany and France are fast emerging as major foreign markets for American companies. That's not to say, though, that Web use or even computer access in those countries is on par with the United States.

On the other hand, Wise says he does more business internationally especially in Third World countries because they lack other information resources. The thing I began to realize is that, particularly in the Third World ... they just don't have the resources we have in America. They don't have a Harris Registry or Yellow Pages, so for these people, the Internet has become a whole information resource that is totally new to them.

But remember that most commercial online services are American and have been slow to establish themselves in other countries, to say nothing of the hundreds of smaller Internet service-providers available throughout the United States but not, for instance, in South America. So one should consider virtual traffic jams before deciding on an overseas Web strategy.

If you imagine the Internet as a local area network, the more people you have on that network, the worse the traffic is going to be, Sarnovsky says. You are at the mercy of the bandwidth of the Internet.

XL Connect managing director David Fazekas says some companies opt not to link directly to other sites. Instead, U.S. home pages will list only an address for a European Web site and require surfers to reach that alternative page manually. Doing so is roughly equivalent to a telephone voice-mail message instructing callers to hang up and dial a different phone number. It requires more work on the user's part, but it eliminates the potential for long waits on hold or online.

No one wants to go to a Web site that crawls, Fazekas says. You can go through the Internet to link, but then you're at the mercy of the connection. You want fast response time. You don't want a customer clicking on a [button] about European operations and then just sitting there.

And you definitely don't want them sitting there to be rewarded with a link in a language they don't understand.

Europeans are understandably irritated by the American arrogance that assumes everyone understands English and that everyone buys and sells products on the foreign market using only U.S. dollars. Companies that know this and do something about it by, for instance, including a currency converter on their site have a clear edge.

Industry Mart maneuvers around this obstacle by relying on current exchanges for its sales, Wise explains. This is not necessarily the most cost-effective method because of bank transaction charges, but we're not trading in futures here. When somebody says I want to buy, we say OK. You're in Germany and it's in Australia; we've got to try to equate the German market to the Australian dollar.

Experts also note that many Europeans find it annoying when U.S.-based Web sites fail to provide home information, such as a European contact or lists of stores outside North America. Ask yourself how useful a site would be to you if catalog ordering hours were listed only in the Pacific time zone, or if product prices were strictly in deutsch marks.

Mark Geyman of NetForce Development Inc., a Cleveland-based company that develops domestic and international sites for, among other companies, Parker Hannifin and the Swedish sewing-machine manufacturer Husqvarna-Viking, says smart overseas marketers consider cultural issues at the same time they tackle translation. With any translation you have to watch how things are interpreted.

Wise circumvents the language barrier by doing most business via e-mail. Because his company is small and young, he says it hasn't yet been feasible to translate information into many different languages, and Wise is distrustful of translation software. By communicating via e-mail, clients are saved the embarrassment of haltingly verbalizing their needs to a real person.

Right now, [translation] is not where our priorities lie, Wise admits. Eventually, we'll have to get a linguist in. That certainly would make it more appealing to non-American buyers.

Even when marketing to another English-speaking country, you should have a native look over your site before opening it to an entire island of Irish consumers. Additionally, companies may want to have a professional ensure that no errors or inconsistencies occur in translated pages. (What do people in that country call the first floor of a building? Does traffic travel on the right- or left-hand side of the road? What are the typical store hours there?)

Do this for every language in which you plan to do business and for every country, because while Mexicans and Spaniards speak the same language, they do not necessarily do business the same way.

Geyman says it's possible to translate Web-page content automatically using a variety of software programs, a process considerably less expensive than hiring a real person to translate.

Sarnovsky also suggests investigating online, individualized translation. That way, a German calling up an American company's site can click a button and in a few seconds see the same page in German. An added bonus: Headquarters knows it has a potential customer in Germany. Eventually, that data might justify setting up a separate Web site.

Assuming you have developed a marketing strategy that includes other countries, investigated translators and currency converters, and made sure you won't offend anyone with your widget line's name, what technological considerations are left?

The first big decision, Fazekas says, is whether to have one site or several. Literally.

Let's say we're headquartered here in Cleveland, Ohio, and we have sites in Europe and South America, he says. Our strategies are, basically, to set up three Web sites or to set up one. There are limitations. Some companies can link to these other Web sites through their internal wide-area networks, but that way, you get the performance and speed of whatever network you're on.

Some companies opt for a single site administered by a central Webmaster responsible for updating all content. This is a good way, Fazekas notes, to test international waters by providing only select information in other languages, or for larger companies to keep close control over online data dissemination and maintenance.

Other companies set up entirely different sites internationally, using separate service providers and in many cases another team of Web developers, Webmasters and translators. This can be a good choice for companies with overseas offices and sales operations. It's easier for a client to access and use a site (and obtain product information) if it originates from one's own country.

Instead of having corporate keep up the European Web site, Fazekas offers, Europe can keep up its own Web site and there can be a link to the U.S. site.

Another advantage to this approach, particularly when it comes to electronic buying and selling, is that each market controls its own inventory in its own country and in its native tongue and currency.

You want to have information out there about your company, Fazekas says, and the standard old way of doing that is that your company had a Webmaster, who put everything about your company out there. But how do I update that information from the field? How do I get it to that Webmaster? Companies say, We'll just have a Web site for each of our [office] locations. But how do you connect all those Web sites together?

The simplest analogy might be catalog sales. Accessing an outdated, inaccurate Web site through which to order goods and services would be like trying to order from a catalog that includes no order form, no toll-free phone number and salespeople who speak English only well enough to tell you that the item you're requesting is no longer available.

You want to make sure your customers are using information right now, Fazekas says. By having the right intranet strategy, they can point and click to what they need.

Larry Wise and indeed, many industry pundits envision a future in which English becomes the dominant Web language for business, industry and commerce, not unlike the way international air-traffic controllers communicate. Which is not to say that American companies that are thinking globally can toss good marketing strategies out the window.

It's an international two-way street, Wise says. We have kind of a global garage sale going on all the time.

CyberBiz
Sarah K. Riehl
01-DEC-98

Among the cyber events that rolled through town in recent months were the Cyberstate Symposium, presented by Ameritech and Forbes at the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel, and the Information Technology Exposition & Conference (ITEC), which convened at the I-X Center.

The former kicked off with a dinner at the Great Lakes Science Center. Remarks by Forbes COO Timothy Forbes, Ameritech Ohio president and CEO Jackie Woods and Ohio Department of Development director Joseph Robertson opened the evening; it culminated in a rather free-form address by John Perry Barlow, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, whose mission is to preserve freedom of speech and protect privacy on the Internet.

Barlow covered a range of topics, including that of the Year 2000 bug. Community, he contended, arises out of shared difficulties such as those that will occur on Jan. 1, 2000. He recounted what he'd witnessed in the aftermath of the 1989 earthquake that rocked the San Francisco Bay area. Where the disaster cut power in the city, he told the audience, homeless people emerged to direct traffic, some of them around the clock. Barlow likened the Year 2000 situation to that earthquake. A lot of people are going to find a purpose on New Year's Eve, he said.

The symposium the next day focused on e-commerce. Speakers from national companies and consulting firms weighed in on such topics as the potential of a connected economy, security and the development of future technologies. The comments of author and MIT Media Lab founder and director Nicholas Negroponte concluded the event.

This year's ITEC attracted more than 119 exhibitors. We checked in with a few to see what was new.

ExchangeNet COO Kate Krause explained that the ISP had recently introduced burstable T-1 technology, which allows customers to pay for 128K bandwidth but to spike up to T-1 service during those periods when they need it. ExchangeNet also debuted local dialup service in Canton.

Alex Desberg of Bright.net Internet Providers reported that the company has expanded its Express-LAN DSL service. It's now accessible to businesses in downtown Cleveland, University Circle, Beachwood, Akron, Canton, Youngstown, Medina, Lorain, Elyria, Ashland, Orrville and Wooster. Express-LAN DSL utilizes a special circuit to deliver partial T-1 performance for a lower cost over a regular phone line.

3D Web Services recently introduced 1-800 Internet access, according to technical administrator Reno Buca. Thirty percent of the U.S. population can't access the Internet via a local phone number, he explained. By working with several large Internet backbone and telephone companies, 3D and other ISPs nationwide are able to offer this service to rural Web customers. Buca said he expected that within six months the 1-800 access option would have 1 million users. 3D also rolled out Guardian Net, a pornography blocker and profanity filter. Although Buca admitted that the service is roughly comparable to blocking software that users can purchase on their own, he said it was an option he expected most ISPs would decide was necessary to offer customers.

APK Net has extended its tech-support hours, manager Marvin Richardson said, and added Doug Hayden to its tech-support staff and Darlene Modlik as a project manager. The company also debuted SkyCast, which uses a satellite dish to feed constant updates of the most popular Web pages into storage on a server, allowing users to access those pages faster and reducing the ISP's network traffic.

Outside the trade-show scene: The Lakewood graphic-design studio Yurich Design Group launched its Web site, www.en.com/user/ ygroup. Visitors can choose to view either a standard HTML version of the site or one created in Macromedia Flash and compare the two.

And finally, Mark Geyman of NetForce Development Inc. and SitesOnline (www.sitesonline.com) reported that he's recently expanded the 3-year-old Web-site index to cover the entire state in the areas of business, organizations and education.

Ohio Business Resources

Mark Geyman - past articles