Progress launches e-business professional services focused on ISVs

Progress Software SA has launched Professional Services, a new initiative to help its independent software vendors (ISVs) Internet-enable their applications, improving their flexibility and making them available to businesses of all sizes on a purchase or subscription/ASP basis.

The Professional Services division complements Progress`s ASP Enablement (ASPEN) Programme which is fast gaining ground in the ASP arena, with more than 200 vendors building, deploying and marketing ASP-enabled applications.

The new division provides business planning assistance, technology, services, partnerships and industry recognition to help ISVs transform Progress-based applications into ASP-enabled applications.

"We offer a start-to-finish consultation and support service for ISVs which want to enable and deploy their Progress-based applications on the Internet," says Professional Services manager Natalie Bishop.

ISVs benefit from the fact that all the ASPEN services are linked together to provide a comprehensive solution to the business and technical challenges related to ASP enablement. The offering comprises five specific phases, including:

Assessment

• .         Review of current application and analysis of technology options for moving to ASP deployment

• .         Review of technical issues including integration, compatibility, migration, security and deployment

Planning

• .         Recommendations about ASP enablement concepts and plans prior to development

• .         Delivery of project plan with schedules, resources, dependencies and skill sets

Development

• .         Assistance in ASP application creation or migration

• .         Access to comprehensive technical consulting

Deployment

• .         Installation of ASP-enabled applications at ASP hosting partner

• .         Guaranteed operational readiness

Support

• .         24x7 technical support

• .         Support for developers and ASP hosting partner

• .         Continued access to information and experts with options for on-site support and monitoring

"Progress identified a need among its independent software vendors for solutions that would enable them to deliver e-commerce solutions to their clients quickly and cost-effectively," says Bishop. "The key is to use new tools developed by Progress specifically to do this. Through Professional Services, we are offering advice as to how to use Progress`s Web enablement solutions such as WebSpeed, WebClient and SmartObjects to convert existing applications.

"Progress has made a strategic decision to support its ISVs to migrate to e-business and ASP models as soon as possible. We aim to support our ISVs throughout the process of developing and deploying their e-business and ASP applications in the most efficient manner possible.

Research analyst and advisory services have alerted customers, ISVs and ASPs to the need for such services in the emerging subscription-based application market. "We`re advising ISVs to bundle additional services, such as IT consulting and applications development, with their applications outsourcing contracts, as suggested by Gartner and Dataquest."

A channel pioneer, Progress provides an established infrastructure for bringing 2 000-plus ISVs and their more than 5 000 Progress-based applications to the ASP channel.

"ASP applications, available on a subscription basis and accessed over the Internet rather than purchased, allow small and mid-tier end-user organisations to gain access to application functionality previously unavailable," concludes Bishop. "ASP-enabled applications reduce traditional IT infrastructure costs because they are developed and maintained by service providers rather than an internal IT staff."