Classmates.com 2005 Annual Report Download - page 11

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We offer live telephone technical support for our access services billed on a per-minute basis and telephone billing support for free. We
monitor the effectiveness of our user support functions and measure performance metrics such as average hold time and first call resolution and
abandonment rates. Communications with accounts are logged and categorized to enable us to recognize and act on trends. An internal quality
assurance team monitors the performance of our vendors and provides feedback to improve their skills and establish consistency throughout our
customer support functions.
TECHNOLOGY
Our access and VoIP services are provided through a combination of internally developed and third-party software, industry standard
hardware and outsourced network services. We have developed software to enhance the functionality of certain components of our services,
including connectivity, Web services, billing, email, customer support and targeted advertising. We maintain data centers in multiple locations
around the country with, in many cases, redundant systems to provide high levels of service availability and connectivity. We host the majority
of our data center services in third-party co-location facilities and outsource all of our bandwidth and managed modem services. We deliver our
VoIP services over an infrastructure that is largely shared with our access services.
In order to utilize our access services, accounts are required to install our access client software onto their computers. This software allows
us to manage and enhance connection quality, deliver important messages and upgrade accounts with new features and functionality. We also
use our client software to collect important data regarding the quality of access connections so that we can quickly resolve network problems that
may occur. The client software also contains our internally developed “autodialer” technology that presents accounts with a list of telephone
numbers for their area and helps to ensure they are connected to a cost-effective and reliable network. Our client software also enables us to
deliver targeted advertising and collect other data as well. Our VoIP software client includes technology that enables the delivery of quality
voice connections over a variety of network connections, including dial-up. This VoIP client can also operate in a free mode than allows us to
serve targeted advertising to our NetZero FreeVoice customers.
One key feature of our access client software is the initial download size. We have developed an initial client application that can download
to a computer in less than two minutes over a standard dial-
up connection. Once installed, a user can create an account with us and connect to the
Internet. The remaining portion of our client software is, in certain cases, downloaded to the computer over time during future Internet sessions.
Our access client software currently operates on the Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows XP, Windows NT 4.x,
Mac OS IX and X and Lindows operating systems. Our accelerator client software currently operates on each of these platforms with the
exception of Mac OS IX and X and Lindows operating systems.
Another major component of our access technology is our server software, written primarily in the Java and C++ development languages,
which consists of a group of software applications running on multiple servers that manage each user’s account and online sessions. Our server
software interacts with the access client software to send and receive information such as authentication data, telephone lists, advertisements and
usage data. Database servers store session information, account information and advertisement data. Advertisement targeting servers manage
advertising inventory and determine which advertisements accounts will view and which will be downloaded to computers during online
sessions. Other major server software systems include our internally developed and partially open source email server software, our accelerated
dial-up services server software and our billing server software. All of these services are run on Unix and Linux servers.
We license a number of our software applications and components. Our principal billing system is based on a software application that is
licensed from Portal Software, Inc. and our customer support system utilizes a software application that is licensed from Remedy, a BMC
Software, Inc. company. The
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