"I'm not a techie," Mark Beggs, general manager of the number two Internet service provider (ISP) in Ireland, insists. "When I joined Indigo, I knew nothing about the Internet," he says. "I did a crash course the day before."
Besides, after three years at the helm, the Internet is not about technology; it's about marketing and commerce, he adds.
"Indigo is a marketing company. We're trying to change our image, to get away from Indigo as an ISP and more as a company that allows you to communicate with people in a different way and do business in a different way."
For that, read e-commerce. With predictions of a $1.3 trillion (€1.21 trillion) online market by 2003, many are eager to jump on the e-commerce bandwagon and ISPs, which are rapidly losing their subscription-based revenue streams, are no exception.
Since the arrival of new players offering free Net access, spearheaded on this side of the Atlantic by British retailer Dixons, traditional ISPs like Indigo are being forced either to follow suit or risk falling by the wayside. In Ireland, telecommunications company Ocean and computer manufacturer Gateway began offering free Internet access earlier this summer. Indigo announced its free Net offering at the end of July.
The name of the game now is to sign up as many customers as possible to whom new services and products can be marketed.
"Our business model now is, we want to get a vast number of customers on board so we can do e-commerce joint ventures," Mr Beggs says. "My e-commerce strategy is to say to companies, if you go selling your product on the Internet, we'll help you. We'll help you with the marketing and the development and we'll help you push sales but we'll also take a shareholding and a cut in your profits at the end of the day. And you're locked in for three to five years."
The first joint venture, a link-up with CFI Online to provide online information on registered Irish companies, went live six weeks ago. Known as Irion, the free service allows subscribers to check data on specific companies and directors. Today, its revenue stream comes from advertising. But in the future, Irion will provide financial data on companies and charge for this, Mr Beggs says. Talks are under way with four other companies.
"Why? I'm hoping to get lucky, to find the next Amazon or Dell. I believe there is a next Dell or next Amazon in Ireland which will turn over millions per day. The prediction is that 10 to 15 brands will dominate the global e-commerce market in a few years. I'm convinced one of those will be in Ireland."
If so, they will need to get online quickly. Irish businesses have been relatively slow to embrace e-commerce despite the efforts of government and business groups to highlight the benefits.
Yet people are increasingly shopping online, Mr Beggs says, pointing to himself and his colleagues as examples. He never goes to a bookshop now, preferring to purchase from online bookseller Amazon instead. The next generation will be even more e-commerce savvy.
"My two children take the Internet for granted. [His son is five, his daughter seven.] They have no barriers to plugging my computer in, putting in the passwords and logging on. They see me buying books over the Internet and they want to buy books. They look up dinosaurs on the Internet. They just take it for granted. Most young kids in Ireland, sending e-mail is second nature to them.
"Irish companies have to realise that adults may not be buying much now, but what about the kids? If businesses don't cater to them, they'll lose business in the future, and the future is only five to 10 years away. Every kid in college now has a free e-mail address. They're used to buying stuff online."
That's not to say that e-commerce does not bring its own challenges. Mr Beggs is positively gleeful about them.
"What I love about this industry is, it's a major marketing challenge. I love marketing. You're selling a product that people can't see or touch but which has major value. How do you get that message across?"
His eyes light up. An accountant by training, thanks to a mother who saw accountancy as a passport to financial success, he sees himself more as an entrepreneur.
From age 14, he spent each summer working on the B&I car ferries where his father was a worker-director. The money was good and the chance to earn big tips even better.
"I learned at the age of 14 that the better customer service you give and the nicer you are to a customer, the bigger the tip. That has stayed with me to this day."
After completing his accountancy training, Mr Beggs worked in England, first as an accountant in a student travel company, then running his own catering company, a restaurant delivery service whose clients include Twiggy, Mark Thatcher and Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits. He was 22.
"That's one of the first things I learned in England. They pay you on your ability, not on your age. That's one of the things I've stuck to in Indigo. We employ people based on their ability and experience, not on their age."
An offer to buy out the delivery business and plans to get married brought him back to Ireland in 1990 where he set up a book-keeping and payroll bureau. He also opened a string of indoor adventure playgrounds for children, a business that started well but quickly lost money.
"It was the first time I got involved in something that I hadn't fully researched and I paid for it. A lot."
Worse was to come. Leaving one of the play centres one day, he was mugged, robbed and stabbed in the arm. The episode was such a shock that he closed both the book-keeping and the play centre businesses.
Shortly afterwards, he went to work for Shay Moran. When Mr Moran bought Indigo, Mr Beggs joined him as part of the management team. Mr Beggs reorganised the sales department, implemented a management information system, and refocused the marketing department. A year later in August 1997, he became general manager.
Since then, Indigo has widely distributed its Go Live CD which enables customers to sign up online for Internet access; launched the Transactor payment product to allow online credit card transaction processing; and, most recently, announced its go-free service which gives customers free Internet access although with normal phone charges rather than the reduced phone charges available with the Go Live service.
Not surprisingly in the highly competitive ISP market, Mr Beggs will not reveal Indigo's subscriber base, but industry observers put it in the region of 10,000 to 20,000.
All he will say is that Indigo is still a long way from his dream.
"I want Indigo to be a household name. And I want it to be very successful at what it's doing. That may or may not just be Internet access. Don't be surprised if you see Indigo getting into business with other ISPs. We could link up with ISPs in Europe to win e-commerce business.
"But I want to be number one in market share. I want to be profitable. I want to be a company that staff would be proud to work in. And I would like businesses in a few years to look back and say they wouldn't be as successful as they are if Indigo hadn't helped them get there."
That depends, of course, on whether Indigo itself survives in the cutthroat Internet world.
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