Interactive Buyers Network International Ltd. (IBNL)
launched www.ourschoolsite.com,
a new service
designed to provide free commerce-ready Web sites to colleges, high schools,
middle schools and elementary schools.
The “free site” program is designed to be used by schools, and the company
expects that sales representatives of scholastic product companies will be
working with IBNL to introduce the service into the marketplace.
Sales representatives, on behalf of schools they sell to, can log onto the
ourschool site, where they complete a form that registers the name of the
school. Once registered, the site is ready for use by the school, and can be
personalized and expanded by the school using IBNL’s system that provides for
a simplified process of developing and maintaining a commerce-ready Web site.
Schools have the ability to use the site for fund-raising; selling products to
students, such as classroom supplies, books and school uniforms; and for the
dissemination of information to students, parents and faculty. Further,
password-protected document delivery for homework and other document
distribution comes pre-loaded in these sites.
IBNL said it has tapped a network of more than 1,000 independent sales
representatives already servicing more than 100,000 schools in America. The
participating sales representatives, by signing up schools they sell to, will
share in revenue generated from these sites.
The company said it will generate revenue from these sites in two ways: first,
from the sale of banner advertising on the school sites; and second, any user
visiting a school site can create his/her own commerce-ready Web site in
minutes without technical training, software or the need and cost of a
consultant. The cost of these non-school sites to the subscriber is $24.95 per
month, or $29.95 for a site with secure e-commerce capabilities.
“The reaction that we have gotten from schools and a number of independent
sales representatives has been overwhelmingly positive. In fact, we have
already made plans to host a two-day workshop for independent sales
representatives during the first week of March,” said Richard McShirley, vice
president of IBNL. “There are over 100,000 schools in our target market, and
we believe most of those schools do not have commerce-ready Web sites.”
IBNL also operates the Virtual SOURCE network, a proprietary online
system designed to enhance business-to-business electronic commerce. Buyers
use the network to obtain competitive bids on a variety of goods and services.
The company’s Virtual SOURCE Publisher allows almost any user to build his/her
own simple Web site in minutes, without technical training, specialized
software, or the need and cost of a consultant.
