Since 2005, MamboFive has been using LeaseWeb's dedicated server hosting as an integrated part of the MamboFive Commerce Suite™, the e-commerce platform of choice for the Internet stores of companies like Vodafone, KPN and Debitel. “In three years' time we have only had to call LeaseWeb's support staff seven times. It is a very stable hosting provider.”

THE ORGANIZATION

MamboFive is a software company specializing in solutions for professional Internet stores. The Utrecht based company was established in 1999 and developed a modular package allowing SMBs and corporate organizations to set up their Internet sales in a very short time. Based on the MamboFive Commerce Suite™, MamboFive is able to roll out e-commerce platforms in a matter of weeks, including the associated processes such as stock management, logistics functions for sourcing and sales, and billing. The application is very popular in the telecommunication industry, MamboFive's customers include Vodafone, KPN, Debitel, Albert Heijn Mobiel and Buyyourwine.nl.

HOSTING E-COMMERCE

Despite being fully customized, MamboFive's Internet stores have a short time to market. “The precise delivery time depends on the kind of Internet store, of course, but we recently took a complex telecommunication related Internet store live within just four weeks,” says Frank van Doorn, CEO of MamboFive. "That's very quick. We know exactly what questions to ask to set up all of the required
e-commerce processes."

The MamboFive Commerce Suite™ is a high-end e-commerce solution available from 15,000 Euros for a custom front-end application plus a monthly management fee. Its modular structure means the comprehensive solutions can be implemented quickly despite being customized. Van Doorn: "Because hosting is an integrated part of our e-commerce solutions, we need to be able to scale up and down quickly with our hosting provider. Fortunately LeaseWeb's hosting infrastructure is easily scalable and communication lines in the LeaseWeb organization are short. In fact, we can adapt both bandwidth and data center space in a matter of hours."

HOSTING AVAILABILITY

Customers like KPN, Vodafone and Debitel want more than just an adequate setup for their Internet stores. In their eyes, the uptime of the MamboFive Commerce Suite™ is at least as important. “The availability of the application is vital,” confirms Van Doorn. "Being offline means an immediate loss of profits for online stores of this size. We want to avoid that kind of loss, which is why we decided to team up with LeaseWeb in 2005. The uptime of the LeaseWeb network is high and they are able to provide excellent 24x7 monitoring of our customers' applications. We have also found LeaseWeb to be a fair and honest party. If there is a failure in their network, they communicate quickly and transparently about the causes. In our eyes an important foundation for long term collaboration with LeaseWeb."

HOSTING SLA

Because uptime is so important, MamboFive has also signed the most stringent Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with LeaseWeb. "It's a significant investment but the highest SLA level contributes to making our customers' Internet stores available all the time. It guarantees that LeaseWeb takes immediate action if something happens. In the past years LeaseWeb's support has always responded with great alacrity. Still, the performance of the network and the hardware we installed at LeaseWeb is highly stable. We called LeaseWeb's support desk just seven times over the past three years."

HIGH HOSTING UPTIME

Before deciding to work with LeaseWeb, MamboFive outsourced its hosting and application management. These arrangements proved less satisfying. “Our previous hosting provider did more than just the OS but application management for the Internet is quite complex," explains Van Doorn. "So we prefer to handle that part ourselves, giving us more control. We cannot deal with the hosting ourselves because we are simply unable to monitor application performance on a 24x7 basis. As a result, we now have much fewer performance issues. The uptime has been very good since we have been managing our own applications, with LeaseWeb providing the hosting infrastructure.

EVOSWITCH DATA CENTER

LeaseWeb allocated the e-commerce applications of MamboFive customers to the CO2 neutral EvoSwitch data center in Haarlem. This may be an important advantage for customers of the scale served by MamboFive. "Corporations increasingly list green operations as a rule in their corporate policy. Particularly in view of the current social discussion concerning the Internet's power consumption, the fact that EvoSwitch is CO2 neutral is definitely a sales argument for us."