Want the Answer? Just ASP

	Technology Trends PM 101 Advice, Anecdotes and Case Studies

by Geoff Choo

June 6, 2001

66/6Let me get this straight. You're telling me that if we want to implement this new e-business marketplace, I have to fork over 70 percent of my budget just to purchase the servers and networking gear. And the remaining 30 percent will just about cover the ongoing 24/7support and maintenance that this whole thing will require? That doesn't leave us with any money to build the thing. There's got to be a better way to do this?

Well, actually there may be a better way to do it. We all know how the saying goes, "If you want something done right, do it yourself." That may be the conventional wisdom, even in the age of the New Economy. But with the current trend of businesses looking to create competitive advantage by crafting and delivering increasingly complex Internet strategies, IT departments are facing more pressure to deliver larger and more complicated e-business applications, on ever-shrinking budgets and timeframes.

If you find yourself caught in this difficult position, then consider what an application service provider (ASP) could do for your business. According to the ASP Industry Consortium, an ASP can be defined as a business that delivers and manages applications and computer services from remote data centers to multiple users via the Internet or a private network."

Although the jury is still out on how successful the ASP model will be?market projections range from Meta Group's $2.5 million by 2003 to Forrester Research's $10 million in the same period, 54 percent of Fortune 1000 executives recently interviewed by CIO magazine thought that ASPs will be an enduring change in the way IT is accessed and utilized.