One of the main problems facing any small Internet Service provider as they grow in size, is the management of user accounts. There are a number of products available to perform this function but the majority of them are either very expensive at greater than £10K or only cover a small part of the overall management picture (i.e. they JUST perform adding/deleting users or billing.)

Lan Systems, the Leicester based Goldmine Solution Provider, have worked very closely with local ISP WebLeicester to develop a system that gives them a complete ISP management suite, fully built around Microsoft Small Business Server and Goldmine 4.

What none of the currently available 'User Management Programs' do is to assist in the sales-cycle which is something WebLeicester desperately needed. Therefore it was decided to use Goldmine to perform this function and to integrate it with their existing authentication system.

With the ability to host Goldmine 4 data on an MS-SQL Server, WebLeicester have been able to produce a complete solution with the minimum of additional programming to interface directly with their Radius Database (Authentication Server) which uses MS-SQL to perform all authentication and accounting functions.

In addition to this WebLeicester are able to produce reports and view all users connection information via simple world-wide-web pages.

By using SQL Triggers on the MS-SQL Server WebLeicester are able to capture any updates of the Goldmine fields pertaining to user accounts and transfer the data immediately into their authentication tables, which means that any changes to a users account take effect immediately without the traditional need for a periodic 'BATCH' process. This enables them to provide a much better level of service to their customers.

Upon the creation of new accounts, with another SQL Trigger WebLeicester are able to automatically send the user an email (using the xp_sendmail extended procedure) to welcome the user to WebLeicester and to inform them of any special offers etc, the contents of this message are modifiable within Goldmine.

Whenever any requests for sales information are submitted via their web pages the information is immediately imported into Goldmine (via the web import feature) and scheduled for a member of the sales staff to respond. The same is true for web submitted support requests and in addition to this all support questions are also eMailed to a folder within the MS Exchange server which all support personnel (and other authorised parties) have access to.

If the request has come from an existing customer, Goldmine already knows the individuals e-mail address, so all enquiries are linked to the users contact record allowing a full history of all contact with the user.

WebLeicester certainly feel that there are considerable benefits to using Goldmine 4 and MS SBS as it has enabled them to deploy what is essentially a bespoke application using standard packages with nothing more than T_SQL Scripts to perform the actual management tasks. An operation that would have historically been performed by a bespoke 'add-on' program.

Using SBS has also enabled them to build a good solid cost effective database infrastructure, that with the inherent scaleability of MS-SQL will allow future expansion as needed.