Press Releases

September 22, 2000

Application Service Providers - Planning for Success

Andrews Consulting Group recently teamed with IBM’s NetGen organization to educate over 1500 IT business executives on the emerging Application Service Provider (ASP) computing model during a three-week tour through six major Asian cities. ASP’s provide centralized access to a wide range of web-hosted software, such as e-mail, word processing and document management, e-commerce applications, ERP, financial systems, and human resources applications.

M. C. (Butch) Maxwell, Director of the Software Engineering Division at Andrews Consulting Group, analyzed successful business models in the industry and highlighted critical success factors within this rapidly emerging IT industry segment. He pointed to the explosive growth in communications bandwidth worldwide, the shortages of skilled IT personnel and the acceptance of the web-browser as an application interface as the driving factors. Success in this market will result from providing complete solutions to both small/medium and large businesses, many of whom do not want to deal with the high capital, implementation and maintenance costs of today’s sophisticated business applications.

The seminars dealt with both the opportunities and the responsibilities for companies wishing to become ASP’s. “Early entrants too often thought that a computer, an application and a network were all it took to be successful as an ASP”, noted Maxwell. “The industry shakeout that is underway highlights the importance of delivering application solutions not just pieces. Geography, however, is history. With growing global communications capabilities, the service provider in Singapore can compete around the world.”

Maxwell’s thirty years of prior experience in the industry, most recently as VP of Marketing Operations for IBM’s AS/400 Division, provided the experience and perspective for analyzing the ASP model in both presentations and subsequent individual discussions.