We have heard over the years, from businesses, that they don’t need a corporate domain registrar as they manage their domains in-house?
What does “in-house” mean and can it be done?
The answer is YES and NO.
YES, a person or team can oversee domain management on behalf of a company. They can manage a variety of duties such as creating a domain strategy, internal policy, determining when to register new domains, administering the registration and renewal process, and bringing together all relevant internal departments to discuss domain related matters.
NO, in order to register, renew, transfer or update a domain, the in-house team MUST use a domain registrar. This is because most domain registries do not allow registrants to register domains directly. A registrar is a company that holds an accreditation with a registry for each domain extension and has integrated its systems to facilitate the registration and management of domains with a direct connection to the registry.
Let’s break it down.
Here is a diagram to show the process of registering a domain:
There are three parties involved in this registration process:
The in-house person logs in to his company’s account with a registrar (such as Lexsynergy). They register the domain through Lexsynergy’s portal where they can also manage and update it. This registration process is seamless due to the registrar and registry integration.
Now that you know that a domain registrar is required, how do you go about choosing the right one for your company?
When making this decision it is important to know the difference between a corporate registrar and retail registrar.
Retail Registrars
Retail registrars (e.g. Network Solutions, GoDaddy, Tucows, etc.) are for individuals or small companies that have a handful of domains. The retail registrar’s domain prices are low as their domains are the ancillary service to support hosting, web design templates and email services. Without a domain, you cannot have an email address or website. A domain has an annual charge while hosting and email is a monthly charge with a higher profit margin from which they derive their revenue. They are not geared to provide a specialised domain advisory service. Generally, a retail registrar has:
Due to a retail registrar’s limited accreditations, they will resell from another registrar or you will find yourself using multiple registrars for different extensions as your business expands. The flow chart depicts the situation.
Registrar 1 is used for the popular extensions such as .com, .net and .uk.
Registrar 2 is used as the business starts trading in some African countries extensions such as .ng (Nigeria), co.za (South Africa) and co.bw (Botswana).
Registrar 3 is used as the business expands to Europe to secure domains in extensions such as .de (Germany), .be (Belgium) and .fr (France).
Registrar 4 is used to register new extensions that are reserved for a specific industry or location such as .bank (registered banks), .law (lawyers) and .insurance (registered insurance companies).
PROBLEM: The in-house team has to log into four separate registrar accounts if not more to manage one domain portfolio, downloading spreadsheets or importing information into internal software that is ever-changing. This is inefficient and is prone to error potentially exposing the company to unnecessary risks.
Corporate Registrars
Corporate registrars (e.g. Lexsynergy) are geared for small to large businesses that own multiple domains across several countries or that correspond to its trade marks. Corporate registrars are widely accredited in both common and exotic jurisdictions such as co.zm (Zambia), .ci (Ivory Coast) and com.ar (Argentina) and uncommon extensions such as .购物 (.shopping in Chinese), allowing you to manage your entire domain portfolio through a single provider.
Having all your domains managed in one place allows you to have an overall view of your portfolio so you can manage your domains efficiently, renew domains timeously and identify gaps and potential infringements.
It is prudent to separate the management of your domains from your hosting provider, which will allow you to move hosting services without interruption and avoids the administrative burden, cost, and risk of transferring domains to another registrar.
Features of a corporate registrar include:
The diagram below shows the simplified process of managing all of your domains with a single provider.
There is no real way of avoiding a registrar, even if you are in-house, so the best solution is to select a registrar that will make managing domains simpler and more efficient.
If you are interested in how Lexsynergy can help you manage your domains, please email us at [email protected] or call one of our global offices - https://www.lexsynergy.com/contact-lexsynergy