Cornerstones are the whats, whys and hows of PlusNet. They began life back in the early nineties when we began offering non subscription dial up access under the pseudonym 'Force9' - Essentially a reaction to the packages Freeserve were offering around the same time. This led to an extremely hectic month with us jumping from about 10,000 customers and a comfortable manual backend to about 300,000 customers and a need for something a little more streamlined than having to manually add email boxes via command line! We had a choice. There was a lot more work that suddenly needed doing. We could have employed a large amount of new staff, or we could find another way to do the work that didn’t need manual intervention. Thus was born the PlusNet business model. Automation was indeed the way forward. There was still a need for staff growth, in particular the development department due to the large amount of software that had to be written – essentially a platform capable of running an Internet provisioning service. PlusNet did indeed grow from here, leading to a need for more formal operating procedures. Fortunately because we started small, people were used to knowing everything that was being done, by whom, and why. It seemed obvious that this should continue, simply because running the business would be a lot easier with this information to hand. Therefore it was decided that this model should continue to grow along with the business, to make sure that all the new people coming on board understood the whats, whys and hows. And now, in an attempt to help everyone else understand them as well, we will be publishing a series of blogs explaining the many and varied parts of Cornerstones, what they mean to staff and how they make a difference to their working day. Is there anything you want to know about? Think this is a good idea? Think it sucks? Please tell us. Comment on this blog, join us on our forums, or even raise a ticket and we’ll see what we can do for you. Matt Taylor
