IS announces ASP offerings

IS (The Internet Solution) has moved into the Application Service Provider (ASP) market with a comprehensive offering aimed at enabling software integrators to rent popular applications to their customers. IS is using the building blocks it has created over the past seven years to provide the foundations for online business and electronic commerce, including comprehensive access, hosting, security, and extranet solutions, to make the ASP model a reality for software integrators.

IS existing customers will benefit from this move as it will enable them to access a wide range of ASP offerings, built by software integrators on the infrastructure foundations provided by IS. Software integrators use IS to build ASP services because of established infrastructure services and client base. The latter is particularly important as it offers the ASP a ready corporate user base for ASP services.

IS is augmenting its established ASP building blocks with certain features that are specifically required to support the ASP model. These include application monitoring, and pay-as-you-go pricing models.

IS has already signed agreements with a number of software integrators to offer ASP services.

IS has also entered into a unique partnership with Microsoft, designed to help test the pricing and licensing models needed for an ASP to offer successful services to customers.

Additionally, IS intends to add other strategic partners to the program in the near future. IS has already established an outsourced mail server offering with Microsoft and a number of other offerings are in the pipeline.

Other partners already signed up say the offering will give the industry new opportunities. Mohamed Madhi, CEO of CyberKnowledge Systems and former CEO of the NYDSC, says: " IS have displayed vision, creativity and a willingness to embrace this new business model, and to adapt and enhance their current solutions to meet our requirements for an ASP partner."

According to Neels van Tonder, Pressident of Ultimate Connection: " IS have a solid infrastructural foundation on which we can base our ASP business. They are also working diligently with us, together with Microsoft and other potential partners, to create the kind of environment we need from an ASP partner. We are operating within a market sector where are applications are mission critical to our customers. Partnering with IS provide the possible risk to our customers in making the hosting decision."

Steve Traill, IS Hosting General Manager, says that what makes IS unique as an ASP partner is that the offering is built on the years of experience and established client base that IS has in managed Internet Hosting, security, and access. He adds that: " IS Hosting has built its infrastructure and hosting competency up to international standards over the past four years. With our focus of creating dedicated hosting services for mission critical e-commerce applications, IS understands the enterprise hosting market better than anyone in South Africa. Where other companies are still building their data centres and developing entry level hosting solutions, we have already refined our sophisticated services for the ASP business model."

Andrew Aitken, Application Hosting Manager at IS says: "IS has a complete service environment that includes all the tools that companies require to make software available as a service under the ASP business model. The practical knowledge that we have gained in hosting applications for rental put us in a clear leadership position in this market."