Apps on tap turned off

By ADAM GIFFORD

After launching its application service provider (ASP) business with a flash and a bang which almost set fire to Sky City, Unisys has quietly buried the notion of apps on tap.

The only application it is still offering in a low-key way is Splashnet, a web-based version of Stayinfront's customer relationship management software.

Auckland region outsourcing director Gerrard Kaczmarek said other applications had been turned off or shifted to the infrastructure hosting side of the business.

Bathroom equipment company Athena, which signed up to take a Great Plains financial system on the ASP model, still has its solution hosted by Unisys but managed by implementer Olympic Software.

The initial promise of ASP was it would be a chance for small and medium sized organisations without their own information systems departments to get access to powerful business software which was usually the province of larger companies.

It would also allow software vendors and companies such as Unisys to deal with smaller-sized customers than they were used to, with the proviso that the software was used almost "vanilla" with little customisation.

"The idea of ASP was to be a one to many relationship, but we have found customers expect a one to one relationship," Kaczmarek said.

"The customers wanted more customisation, so that fits more with a hosted environment than pure ASP."

He said smaller firms could still benefit from Unisys' hosting capabilities, but Unisys now preferred they deal with implementation partners such as Olympic.

Kaczmarek said establishing an ASP capability made sense at the time.

Splashnet