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Oregon Daily Emerald
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FREE CAKE
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and the Marketplace)
TODAY from 2-4 PM
(or until the cake is gone).
AlphaShop blasts into business
■ By concentrating on
networks, AiphaShop helps
companies have a greater
Web presence
By Darren Freeman
Oregon Daily Emerald
A Eugene company, composed
mostly of University graduates
and former students, is capitaliz
ing on the latest trend in Internet
business applications.
Rather than providing a handful
of isolated Web sites, AiphaShop
Network Services clients consoli
date their on-line efforts into data
base-like networks.
This consolidation into net
works is indicative of Internet
service providers’ increasing will
ingness to meet clients’ special
ized demands, marketing profes
sor David Boush said.
“The advantage with [networks]
is that companies get more atten
tion and can have a bigger Web
presence,” Boush said.
Industry-specific networks are
the latest trend, said Ben Moseley,
AlphaShop director of operations
and business development.
“A lot of companies have nice
Web sites, but they’re brochures,”
said Moseley, a 1997 University
graduate. “As the world moves to
e-commerce, Web sites alone
won’t be enough. They don’t help
pefople do business. ”
Thus far, AlphaShop has put
three networks on-line. One for Mt.
Bachelor, based in Bend, another
for Dance Vision, which operates
out of Las Vegas and the third for
Engine Core, a consortium of sev
eral retailers of engine parts.
AlphaShop networks provide
job listings, company information,
product and service information
and news about companies and or
ganizations within an industry.
“We offer dynamic database
Web applications that help devel
op tools for businesses to do busi
ness with their partners, customers
and suppliers,” Moseley said. “Our
networks are so much better than
Web sites provided by Yahoo and
Excite because they’re so niche.”
Mt. Bachelor marketing vice
president Kathy BeGree said her
company has been on-line for sev
eral years and has recently experi
enced a boom in Internet business
since its AlphaShop network went
on-line this October.
The network “not only makes
the site easier to use but also pro
vides more incentives for people
to come back,” BeGree said. “How
ever, we all know that the use of
the Internet has grown exponen
tially over the last year, so it’s hard
to decide whether it’s the site or
the power of the Internet that has
caused the increased use.”
The Dance Vision network com
bines Dance Vision’s on-line store
with information about dance or
ganizations, trends and events
around the world.
“It’s a portal to the dance
world,” said Wayne Eng, Dance Vi
sion president. “It’s everything I
envisioned it would be. It will
keep us as one of the leaders in the
dance merchandising world.”
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