Part 2 : Benefits, feedback, word of mouth, web presence and... the future!

What are the benefits to your company and to customers in hosting a website?
I don't believe we could have successfully launched our RPC technology without the use of the Web. Since rolling out RPC in 1998 we knew the Web would be instrumental in accessing and communicating with our customers. Our customers are Web savvy and overwhelmingly prefer to research and purchase our products via RPCnet rather than alternative communication tools such as the phone and fax.

Does your website encourage feedback from visitors and do you think it's important to have that on a site?
We really rely heavily on our customers to drive the content we are creating for them. Because of this we encourage comments and suggestions from all of our users. Our website contains multiple mail links designed to encourage customers to drop us notes. We receive a lot of feedback that goes into our pipeline immediately and influences our direction constantly.

Did you consult Web specialists in regard to design of your site? Did you have any problems starting out?
We did it all ourselves. We knew the types of sites we enjoyed visiting and tried to incorporate those aspects into our own site. We tried outsourcing the redesign and development of our latest web project but ended up having a terrible experience so we brought the project back in-house. If you want something done right...

How has your website saved you time in presenting your product to the would be client? And do you think testimonials are a must on most product-based websites?
We deliver product information to just under a thousand unique visitors each day. That's 24 hours a day - 7 days a week! I fret to think how many "customer service" representatives we'd have to hire and train to handle that load.

Word of mouth is our best weapon and our customers are the best spreaders of the gospel. We've been able to deliver a solution that many of our customers are passionate about and we enjoy sharing their enthusiasm with other visitors through testimonials and samples of their work throughout our website.

ArchVision is a company that has created some of the most advanced architectural and design software available to date... Can you tell us what are some new "technologies" in the works?
We're working now to expand RPC technology to work with a wider variety of content. We believe our next generation of solutions will provide for content realism and portability that hasn't been seen in the 3D world. Imagine a furniture manufacturer being able to publish a single 3D representation of a product that can be used by an architect or interior designer in a professional cad application, by an ad agency in the design of their next brochure, by a salesman on a laptop presentation, and on their website for 3D viewing. Oh, by the way, you could also drop it into a Playstation2 game! Today, they would need at least 5 different file formats and content types.

What do you foresee your Web presence generating ten years from now in terms of clients and income?
We believe our technology has more than a good chance of becoming a pervasive solution for 3D visualization and the Web will be one of the most important vehicles we use in helping to get there. In the end it's all about communication, and what more direct, efficient, powerful way of communicating than in real-time via the Web.

Ten years from now... I can barely think past ten months! Seriously, we see the Web continuing to be the primary means by which we deliver our solutions and facilitate transactions with our customers. I can foresee being able to provide a high level of customer service via the Web to hundreds of thousands if not millions of customers. The most amazing thing is, using the Web, it's conceivable that we could maintain that volume with our current staff!

Finally, what impact would it have on you personally if the Internet disappeared?
Funny you ask. I was having a conversation with some friends earlier this week about which they would miss most, the Internet or the telephone. Everyone voted for the Internet. I think it has become so pervasive that it is hard to imagine not having it.