Verio Labs - Saas and Value-Add Applications

This is the biggest release of Signature ever, and we are proud to introduce a complete redesign of both the front end information architecture and the back end control panel infrastructure.

The improvements featured in Signature 4.0 are a direct result of customer feedback, internal testing and usage as well as “visioneering” from our Product Management and Engineering teams. We wanted to build you a platform that is flexible for your future growth.

We think the new and improved version is pretty cool, but more importantly, we believe we made changes that ultimately provide you with a more powerful platform to run your business.

We want you to have the ability to try this out firsthand, so we are offering every reseller a free preview account that can be used for customization and translation prior to our October launch. You will have the ability to give us feedback as well as customize and translate the control panel weeks in advance to a production launch. All the changes you make will be available for launch, so there will be no wasted effort.

We are limiting free preview accounts to current ViaVerio resellers and you will need your Backroom userid and password to authenticate. To request an account visit:

SECURE REGISTRATION FORM

You can read more about Signature 4.0 changes in upcoming posts on this site.  In the meantime, here are some of the highlights:

• A completely redesigned user interface.A new graphical control panel, drag-n-drop customization of the dashboard, consistent usability across the control panel, and an “auto-detect” design that optimizes the user interface depending on your browser.

• Simplified control panel layout. A new single-view dashboard organizes and presents features in a “one-click-away” layout making it easier for users to find what they want.

• CSS and XML based architecture. The real power of this release is the new behind-the-scenes CSS and XML architecture. This release takes advantage of this architecture. Future functionality will permit you to leverage these layers for unique customizations.

• Speed improvements. Selective Control Panel caching, strategically placed AJAX and Apache-based bandwidth compression provide a much-improved user experience.

• We speak your language. All changes are 100% internationalized. You have the ability to offer English or Japanese, or customize with a language of your choice.

• Other enhancements. Signature 4.0 includes a variety of features – such as a “What’s New” section and other system improvements.

• Labs.verio.net. Customer feedback has influenced this new version of Signature. We value this response and recently redesigned labs.verio.net as a result. We will be adding forums, polling and other interactivity to cultivate a Unix Shared Products community online.

Signature 4.0 will launch in October. Try it out. Let us know what you think. We can’t wait to release and develop this product with your support.

Thank You,

- The Unix Shared Web Hosting & Value Added Services Team

Filed under: News, Signature | 16 Comments »

Verio will be hosting a two Partner Summit September 20th and 21st at the Venetian in Las Vegas, Nevada.  

The Shared and Value-Added Team will be presenting the following topic:

Hosting and Beyond: Broaden your revenue base with new products from Verio.
See the new Signature 4.0 control panel and learn what’s new for your customers. Hear about the significant updates to the architecture, branding, performance and overall usability. This session will also highlight recently released products with margins as high as 45% and learn what is coming soon for resellers of Shared Unix, Windows and VPS/MPS! Topics include Verio’s new AJAX webmail client and collaboration suite, SSL certificates and PC Data Backup.

If you can make it, we’d love for you to stop by and say hello.   Please check out http://www.viaverio.com/partnersummit for more information and registration details.

Filed under: News, Signature | No Comments »

Resellers,

We are proud to present the all-new Signature 4.0 control panel. We have set up a special test just for you to preview and customize the new control panel several weeks before it’s official debut. This preview is available to all Signature resellers, but you’ll need to “apply” so we can properly authenticate you. We will carry over all your branding from Signature 3.x — and, any customizations you will make during the Signature 4.0 preview will not be removed. This means you can spend the time to customize the control panel and have it ready for launch weeks in advance.

More details on the features of Signature 4.0 will follow next week, but you can sign up for the Signature 4.0 preview accounts now.

Filed under: News, Signature | Comments Off

More coverage on our e-commerce plan relaunch in E-Commerce Guide’s recent article titled “Verio’s eStorefront Plans Prepare You for Profits.” This is in addition to the coverage we had previously on this same topic.

For your e-commerce and online catalog needs, you probably can’t go wrong with Verio as it offers a wide range of hosting services that rely on the comprehensive ShopSite shopping cart.
By Wayne Kawamoto, ECommerce-Guide.com

Filed under: News | 10 Comments »

Well, as some of you might, or might not know, there are some changes coming down the pike for our Shared Hosting customers here at Verio, and we’ve updated our Lab’s site to better communicate these changes to you, our valued customers.

As I’m sure you’ll notice, we’ve updated this site to reflect more of a blog format. This was done for two reasons really; The first was in order to place the most relevant and “fresh” content directly in front of you, while the second reason was to ensure that our loyal RSS subscribers were able to get ALL of the content in an easy to read stream.

I’m sure that some of you are asking “what” some of these changes might entail. Good question. A few months back we rolled out an upgraded website management control panel interface to our Autobahn account customers. That’s a mouth full. In essence the upgrade addressed two issues:

1. A new and improved interface utilizing up-to-date CSS and XML markup and configuration techniques.
2. An improved manner in which to “brand” the interface for those interested in such endeavors.

Now, what does the past have to do with the current Lab changes you might ask? Well it just so happens that we’re not content resting on our laurels. No, we’ve decided (after many conversations with our customers I might add) that the idea of applying the CSS/XML model across our shared hosting control panels would offer numerous benefits. Namely, upgrading the whole underpinnings of the control panel to better reflect current standardized methodologies, as well as creating a model upon which we can build tools that make your life easier. Tools such as, a branding system for the control panel that is much more intuitive and encompassing, a way in which to “hide” content items from sub-users, or how about something like a skin chooser?

Some of these things are just ideas on the drawing board, while others are quickly becoming reality. Which ones? Well, you’ll have to stay tuned in order to find out! And this is why we’ve changed the format of the Lab’s site, we’re excited about the imminent control panel changes and we wanted the Lab’s site to reflect this excitement.

Welcome to a change…

Filed under: News, Signature | No Comments »

Are you currently using one of Verio’s Shared Unix hosting plans? If you are, and you are planning to attend HostingCon 2007 in Chicago, our Product Managers would love to meet with you? Have a great idea? Want to recommend a feature or improvement? Let us know in person.

Please e-mail kenmaier@verio.net if you are attending and interested in a 1:1 visit with us!

Ken Maier
Director, Shared Hosting Products
Verio, Inc. an NTT Communications Company
5050 Conference Way N
Boca Raton, FL 33431

Phone: 561-999-8319
Fax: 561-989-8784
http://www.verio.com

Filed under: News | No Comments »

The Domain List page on our Autobahn product’s shared hosting control panel is in the process of being redesigned, and therefore, we would like to collect user feedback in order to “do it right”.

(*NOTE: This does NOT apply to our Reseller market. *)

Currently, a user is able to see the following information while viewing the Domain List page within the control panel.

• Domain Name
• Expiration Date
• Product Type
• Actions (as a drop down list - select box)

What we would like to do is make it a little easier for the user to figure out what features are enabled and disabled at a glance while looking at the Domain List page. Currently all features and actions are located in the select box under “Actions”, and it is difficult to determine exactly what has been enabled on a domain name with out going to a different page / view.

The question we would like answered is two-fold: (click on image at right for visual representation)

1. What information would you find most valuable on the Domain List Page?
2. If you could surface only ‘3′ of ‘X’ attributes in the initial view (at first glance) on the page, what would they be?
   Example: If you had Domain Name, Expiration Date, Product Type, Enabled Features, Available Features and Actions as attributes of the domain name, besides the Domain Name itself, what other two attributes would you surface? Please see the image for further clarification.

In the image example the attributes surfaced within the initial view (with out having to click to expand the view) would be Domain Name, Expiration and Product Type.

Please leave your feedback and comments below. Thank you!

Filed under: Autobahn, Survey | No Comments »

We’re in the process of updating the default home (index) page on a newly purchased Shared Hosting Account for Verio Retail Only (Reseller customers retain their original default page). This page is quite likely the first thing that a new account customer will see and, as such, can be a wonderfully informative tool. The question is:

What information would be most helpful to a new account customer?

A few suggestions might be:

• Domain Name
• Link to “Getting Started” documentation
• Link to your “Control Panel”
• Link to generalized “Customer Support” documentation
• Link to “Customer Support” contact information
• Link to possible “Account Upgrades”
• Link to various “Tools” (e.g. Domain Name Registration)

In general there are four questions that we would like your feedback on:

1. Would this information be of use on a new customer’s “home page”?
2. Can you think of anything more that might be of help in this scenario?
3. What task(s) should this page accomplish?
4. Is this page suitable as the default page for a new hosting account?

Please leave your feedback and comments below. Thank you!

Filed under: Signature, Survey | 10 Comments »

We are interested in your opinion and constructive feedback on a new communication tool we hope to add to Signature — a changelog to keep you apprised of the improvements/changes we are making the control panel with each major release.

The highlights:

• A page within the control panel outlining the major changes in each release
• Updates written in non-technical speak for clarity
• The ability to see what release you are currently running
• Previous history for other releases in case you need to catch up on changes

Where we need your feedback:

• Is this feature useful? Any suggestions for improvement?
• The example data is real, do you think what is written is easy to understand and useful?
• Which do you think is a better label for this, “Changelog” or “Version History”?
• If you are a reseller, would you want this functionality exposed to your end users?

Any suggestions for improvements? Comments? Please leave your feedback below.

Filed under: Signature, Survey | 15 Comments »

Flexibility. Control. Customization. Those are some of the phrases you have been emphasizing when we’ve asked for feedback on the Signature control panel — and we’ve heard you! We have some significant changes in mind for Signature that update the “foundational framework” so customers will have more control over the interface long term. The first exciting step is the introduction of a CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) layer for page customization. The goal : To provide you with a way to make easy presentation changes to look-and-feel of the control panel.

This new test is one of the most complex we’ve offered so far, but is one of the most critical ones we need your help on. We’ve spent time rebuilding the HTML mark-up in the control panel pages and creating a common CSS that is used to control both presentation and page-layout. Internally, we’ve launched a new redesign on Autobahn with this new framework, but before taking the next step and putting it on Signature, we want to get your help to make sure we did a good job.

So what’s the test? We’ve provided a sample CSS file and related images for you to download and tinker with. (Click here to read more about the test and download the file)

We are interested in knowing as much as you want to tell us, but specifically:

• Did you run into any difficultly using what we provided to create your own control panel page design?
• Do you have any suggestions for us on how to make the layout either easier or more flexible?
• What are the common things you would want to change in a CSS layer?

Give us your feedback by e-mailing us (see instructions in the test) or by leaving a comment below. We look forward to hearing what you have to say.

Filed under: News | No Comments »