It’s quite simple but I like the style, hopefully the words speak louder than snazzy design. It details the current services that are offered including web hosting, phpBB services and computer services.

The site is also being launched with a Google AdWords campaign, so if you see some ads from us that’s why . Hopefully a blog will be going up soon as well.

Current tasks include liaising with NatWest regarding a bank account and, once that has been completed, jumping through HMRC hoops for VAT registration.

I’ve recently been working on a few bits and pieces under the Island Geek brand; namely setting up Blesta to put on sale some of the phpBB services that I currently offer.

As you will see it is the usual affair of phpBB installation/configuration options as well as MOD installations. For the more enterprising customer there is also the option of a dedicated support contract, something that I know has been highlighted to me as something that people who run fairly large boards are interested in. If you aren’t that comfortable getting involved with the nuts and bolts of the software then having somebody who can is reassuring.

Now, this may be a plug but I’m here to give you an offer as well. The coupon markblog09 will get you 10% off anything you order – think of it as a late Christmas present. For something like our hosting product where buying 12 months already gets you 2 free this is a considerable saving on top. The code is valid until the end of January ’10 so feel free to pass it among your friends who you think may be interested.

Without going into great technicolour detail we required a simple system which allowed the client to provision a hosting account, bring their own domain (we currently don’t offer domain registration for various reasons), collect payment and then set-up the account on our servers and throw the client both billing and Plesk login details without any interaction from our side. Seems simple? Most systems make it like open heart surgery, with a million different options for every single step.

What a revelation Blesta was, billing done right. I’m not going to go into a hideously complex and detailed review mainly because I don’t have the time but suffice to say if you are on the look-out for a new billing system or are slowly starting to feel the need to throw your current one out of the window I’d encourage you to give Blesta a try.

We’ve currently got it running the Plesk module to auto-provision services while payments are processed by PayPal or offline (bank transfer, cheque etc.) depending on the client. It’s been incredibly easy to set-up, and the one support ticket that I dropped in was answered within a few minutes. At the moment it’s just doing hosting but billing and invoicing for service jobs shouldn’t be a problem either, and certainly well within it’s capabilities. A big plus for me is that Blesta actually uses the domain template packages on the Plesk server, and doesn’t require you to set limits within the actual billing software.

It’s not often I write nice things about billing systems, mainly because most of them are just epic amounts of fail and hideously complex to use. However, Blesta isn’t, so go and give it a try.