UpDate Strategy: Key to Increased Sales,
Lower Costs, and Greater Customer
Satisfaction – An EarthLink Case Study
Steve Huey
Aluria Software an EarthLink Company
Vice President & General Manager
Imagine If…
A software user always
had the latest version of
their most used programs
A user actually used all the
features of your software product
and understood how to maximize
the benefit of each feature
The software fixed itself…
Where we are going during the discussion
 Discuss the evolutionary stages or update
service use
 EarthLink’s Case Study
• The goals of the update service
• Strategic considerations
• Product Requirements
 Pitfalls and Round Trippers
 The future of the update service
Uses of the Update
Fix Stuff
 Update software features
 Update product definitions
 Update device drivers
 Patch holes
First Stage
Uses of the Update
Second Stage
Sell Stuff
 Push content & applications
 Promote new products
 Sell subscriptions / Product renewal
Uses of the Update
Next Stage
Connect with the user!
 Alert
 Communicate
 Educate
Three Stages
EarthLink’s Goals for an Update Manager
 Reduce Churn through enhancement of the user
experience by:
• Access to product updates faster
• Reducing customer service requests
• Increase feature use
• Fast download time for updates – tied to modular nature of
client software
 Reduce costs:
• Reduce customer service costs
• Reduce server time to push downloads
• Reduce development effort required to release product updates
The Strategy of the Update Process

End Users
Q: Want the update in the foreground or back ground?
A: Due to bandwidth considerations must be background
Q: Who is the client for the update (end user, network admin, etc.)?
A: Both high speed and dial users
Q: How many users do have and are you likely to have in the near future?
A: 5 million plus

Product Need
Q: Are you going to push or pull?
A: Both
Q: Do you need different classes of updates (must take, nice to have,
totally optional)?
A: Yes- Allows optional product adoption no forced product usage
Q: How will this affect my support of the product?
A: Allows us to pump an update immediately so launching new
products can go faster
Q: Will you have emergency updates?
A: Yes
The Strategy Part of the Update Process

Technical Considerations
Q: Size of updates?
A: From 25K to 10Megs
Q: How many updates per month?
A: 1 to 30 (we no have the ability to pump one every 2 minutes)
Q: will there be Forced updates?
A: Yes – Scam definitions

The Industry Competition
Q: Is there a standard for the industry?
A: We were on the edge when we launched
Q: What are my competitors doing?
A: ???
Defining Update Product Requirements
EarthLink’s Requirements














Modular
Works in the Background – “Friendly Bandwidth”
Hosting Neutral – (either by Earthlink or Outsourced 3rd Party)
Supports Windows and Mac OS
Integrated download and installation
Byte Differencing
Intuitive User Interface or NOT
Reporting Requirements
Trend Analysis of product usage
User Authentication
Staggered Delivery
Targeted Updates
Intelligent Notification
Robust customer messaging
Defining Update Product Requirements
EarthLink’s Requirements

Modular

Works in the Background – “Friendly Bandwidth”



Hosting Neutral – (either by Earthlink or Outsourced 3rd Party)
Supports Windows and Mac OS
Integrated download and installation


Byte Differencing
Intuitive User Interface or NOT





Reporting Requirements
Trend Analysis of product usage
User Authentication
Staggered Delivery
Targeted Updates


Intelligent Notification
Robust customer messaging
After the Launch of the Update Service
 Lessons Learned (Pitfalls)
– too many updates
– too few resources
– engineers are not marketers
– ship it and forgot it
– return realized too easily
Benefits of EarthLink’s Update Service
 Round Trippers
– Reduced Churn
– Reduced Costs
– Changed the way we thought about
software and software deployment
– Made possible new products
Where Update Services are Heading
 Increased automation – patching, fixing will
be completed without fanfare
 Self diagnostic and repair (this will rise
from the techniques employed by spyware)
 Over use of updates as a selling tool
 Only a few companies will hit the Next
Stage and connect with the user
Thank You!
Steve Huey
Aluria Software an EarthLink Company
Vice President & General Manager