Nov 2, 2021 - by Jesse Marsh
Drivers for Making the Move to a New Corporate Registrar
Over the last ten years, I’ve had the opportunity to help countless large companies to navigate the process of selecting a new domain name provider. While the team, group or individual are rarely the same, the reasons for making the move to a new registrar generally fall into three buckets: customer service, security and overall value. Sometimes there is pressure from an ancillary group like procurement or IT security; other times the decision to look at new vendors is driven from a specific incident with their current provider.
Customer Service & Technology
Depending on who the current registrar is, this either represents the need for the introduction of a customer service and support team, or the replacement of an existing one. For companies that use traditional ‘retail’ registrars, this need becomes obvious when the portfolio starts to grow and day-to-day management becomes more time consuming than one person can handle on their own. The introduction of a dedicated account manager can free up hours each week to focus on other aspects of the job.
For companies that work with a legacy corporate registrar, they’re often driven to look at alternatives when the relationship is not what was initially promised. Key contributors are often delays in response time, unexpected charges showing up on an invoice, or a missing functionality
Security
With cybercrime a large and growing threat, companies are expanding their security protocols to the domain name space as well. Often, additional controls such as two-factor authentication, SSO (single sign-on) and registry lock become less of a ‘nice to have’ and more of a requirement.
Overall Value
There is no doubt that cost-reduction is a motivator, especially now. It isn’t always as simple as renewal costs. Does your current corporate registrar charge high fees to modify existing domains? Are they charging you for masking? Do you have to pay for a basic DNS service? How much time will I save moving to a better tool with a better team? I think it’s important to first, acknowledge how much savings will motivate you to move; and second, compare all of the hidden costs to ensure that you’re getting the best ‘bang for your buck’.
Conclusion
All said, making the decision to choose a new registrar for your domain program isn’t easy. There are multiple stakeholders who all care about different pieces of the puzzle. Finding a partner that can provide excellent customer service, security, and technology at a reasonable price is paramount.
Jesse Marsh is a Senior Sales Executive at Brandsight where he manages a North American territory. Jesse has worked in domain name management and brand protection since 2011. Prior to his existing role, Jesse worked in business development roles with Gandi and CSC.
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