In today’s world, domain name registrars play a very important role in the functioning of the domain name ecosystem. This is in stark contrast from the Registry-dominated industry most of us have been used to seeing over the past decade. After the introduction of New gTLDs, Registrars have been elevated to a strategic and important pedestal because they’re the first contact point to end customers of domain names.

Don’t get me wrong, a Registrar doesn’t have it easy in today’s world. They have the added work-load of Registry relationship management, New gTLD integrations onto their platforms and handling complex regulations put in place by ICANN regularly.

In this situation, it becomes very important for a Domain Registrar to automate day-to-day operational activities that are mundane so that they can focus on business growth and development activities.

How Does This Article Help?

This article covers a comprehensive list of automation modules that every ICANN-compliant Registrar Automation Platform should offer.

If you’re a fresh Registrar that’s evaluating a platform for your new and bigger role in the domain industry, this article will help as a checklist in finding the right ICANN-Accredited platform for your automation needs.

If you’re an existing Registrar that’s looking to outsource from legacy systems over to a modern and scalable platform, this article arms you with a list of parameters that you can use to compare your own platform with others in the market today.

The Automation Modules

1. Product Management – With the introduction of a so many new gTLDs, your platform should help you manage all existing new gTLDs and integrate new ones as and when they go LIVE. It should also help you choose a relevant suite of web products for your user base and have the flexibility to incorporate new products.

2. Customer Management – Instead of using another tool for CRM, the registrar automation platform should have in-built functionalities for end-to-end customer management including handling of orders, funds, pricing, etc.

3. Reseller Management – The wholesale channel requires special attention because of the deeper gravity of its operations. It’s important that you empower your resellers with a subset of the tools and automation that you possess as a Registrar.

4. Marketing Management – Given the online nature of the product, it is a definite value add if you can automatically send out promotional email campaigns from within your automation platform and share new announcements with customers and resellers inside their control panels.

5. Finance & Billing Management – While most registrars would have a team dedicated to Accounting and Finance, your automation platform should be able to generate invoices, receipts, debit and credit notes, etc. and maintain a log of every financial transaction for bookkeeping purposes.

6. Provisioning Management – Any registrar automation platform should allow customers to visit the registrar’s retail website, place an order, pay and get it live/active instantly. While this seems like a simple & upfront task, it’s a lot more complex, involving connections with various domain registries, vendors, etc.

7. ICANN Compliance Management – To retain its Accreditation, every registrar needs to comply with ICANN’s regulations. Working on an ICANN-compliant platform ensures that you have lesser headaches about meeting these requirements that include automated WHOIS reminders, compliance reports, data for compliance audits, etc.

8. Business Continuity – Every registrar business is unique and so are its requirements. Your platform should have the flexibility to incorporate all your business needs and custom specifications. It should also have the flexibility to scale up and allow you to add unlimited customers, resellers & orders under you.

How Do We Know All This?

Having worked with 100+ Registrar partners, over the years, the above list was built looking at the most common needs of every registrar that we’ve interacted with at LogicBoxes. If you’d like to learn anything specific or have any questions, I’ll be happy to answer them!