Dehe update- forums, dashboard, and more

[JPC-Greg]

Another company I run, JaguarPC, was in a position to help DEHE which was colocated with the same provider this past August. This put me in a prime position to aquire the US operations of DEHE . I took over as CEO here when Dehe split from solidhost and since have used many of my resource from JaguarPc to make improvements here. My question to you , the DEHE community, is would you be in favor of a more official merge of the two brands?

Things this would include:
- zero changes tech wise or operation wise, all of dehe is already colocated in our jaguar cage, but each company is run independantly.
- These forums would be merged with jag forums, which are more active, larger, and also are vbulletin
- The dashboard , billing, support, etc - again also all powered by the same technology and easy to import.
- addons and other jag technologies can be shared easier and vice versa

Things this would NOT change:
- prices: would remain or go down
- offerings: we will not remove windows plans, nor dedicated servers, rather add to them
- resellers, we intend on doing more reseller abilities for dehe and jag both.
- sites, servers, operations: no changes needed whatsoever


There are certain other benefits on the back side from a managerial aspect, but for clients the largest gains are outlined above and also the instant access to the already existant jag live chat and phones.

An easy way to think of this proposal / inquiry is , it used to be DEHE : a solidhost company , and Im asking if you guys welcome DEHE : a jaguarpc company. Or would prefer everything remain independant. Discussing this publicly with our client base is the best most open approach I can think of to show that 1) I care a lot about client feedback and recommendations and 2) I always have and always will run honest up front open business models. Your input is much appreciated.

[Rob]

Well if you merged the forums you may have a conflict with duplicate users. Another thing about the forums being merged is that the forums on DEHE are mostly part of the site design - all the links on DEHE are usually linked to the forums. How would you get round that?

[JPC-Greg]

I guess the first obvious with forum usernames is to just ask whoever has the youngest use of that handle, if they would change it willingly to something else. If not, or the old handle has been dormant for a while, just rename it since that user may not care anyhow. Beyond that, not much that can be done besides forcing a change like appending something to the name, ie dehe-Rob for example, since the dehe-NAME would no longer be the staff handles .

As for the links, thats easy, just change them. the dehe site needs reworked anyhow and we have a new jag site done thats launching in a week or so.

[CPUBUM]

Greg,

Things were VERY ROCKY in the beginning as we all know. I personally have seen much better service and support as well as offerings since you took over DEHE from Solidhost. I think a lot of us fear what we do not know, so if you continue in the direction you have been going with DEHE, I see nothing to fear with the merger of the two companies.

I would like to see additions, as Andre promised 2+ years ago, like an 800 or even a toll number for support. SO MUCH is lost in translation in only EMAIL contact with support. The ability to pick up the phone and talk to someone is refreshing. Even if you offer a toll number to dedicated clients or something that would be fine.

Good Luck and I feel you have the best interest of your clients no matter what your final choice is.

Jim

[Rob]

Whats happening with the old jagpc site? could it be used for DEHE as this current design is a bit outdated

[CPUBUM]

I think what Greg wants is to join DEHE and JagPC to make a JagPC that is both companies. So using the old JagPC site for DEHE and still have a newer JagPC site, just continues to leave them as seperate verse merged.

Greg??

[JPC-Greg]

Yes something like that in sorts, I would probably leave a main dehe.com homepage thats also a subdir of jaguarpc.com/dehe , where dehe is the page/link/site that holds our windows offerings , since jag doesnt have windows and dehe does its the one service thats truly different already.

Im open to suggestions on any of it though, if we proceed I want to make sure its an easy and useful change.

[Rob]

jaguarpc.com/dehe

that link isn't working. Can i ask why you wanted to merge?

It would be really nice if DEHE had a nice new design

[CPUBUM]

Frankly Greg, I would be fine with a complete merge of the two companies to JagPC. If you keep seperate then you still have two different areas which continue to appear as two companies. Why not just pull as one. JagPC acquires DEHE.... If you continue the way you have been, it would be great for the clients and have one central access point.

Just thinking outloud.

Jim

[darcy]

I'm with CPUBUM - complete merger is fine with me. Seems to me the simplest option. I really don't care that much if DEHE.com ceases to be, as long as my servers are up and I am getting the support that I need.

[JPC-Greg]

that link isn't working. Can i ask why you wanted to merge?

It would be really nice if DEHE had a nice new design

I just made that up as an example, its not a real link yet. Why I wanted to merge them, to make things a little easier on the back side which should leave room for more positive changes.

[JPC-Greg]

Thank you all so far for your interaction. Its been great building some notes and getting your concerns and suggestions down to work with them.