ASP joint venture still alive and getting bigger

By ADAM GIFFORD

AppServ is out to show there is life in the Application Service Provider model yet.

Chief executive Graham Clarke said ASP was over-hyped last year with the promise that thousands of small businesses could rent business software applications.

Customers did not bite, and now even one of the biggest promoters of ASP, the Telecom-EDS-Microsoft alliance eSolutions, is taking down its billboard.

But Mr Clarke said AppServ, a joint venture between himself, other private investors, and services company IT Computerland, was steadily building up a business, having spent almost $1 million so far on technology.

One of its key customers is the Telecom retail division, which includes Cellphone City, Business Direction and Ben Rumbles.

Its other customers are Challenge Petroleum, which came on board when it needed to separate itself from Fletcher Challenge Energy in a hurry, and the Computerland franchises in Tauranga and Hawkes Bay. National Mail was a customer until it closed.

"Getting IT as a service can make it easier to start and stop," Mr Clarke said.

In its offices at the bottom of College Hill in Ponsonby, AppServ has built a small data centre with independent power, air-conditioning and cabling.

"We deliver the desktop software as an ASP and we are agnostic about line of business applications - we work with customers rather than build a portfolio and wait for customers to come and rent them."

The desktop software is delivered using Citrix Metaframe.

A desktop suite costs $200 to $300 a month for each user, depending on the particular applications chosen and the size of the task involved.

Mr Clarke said AppServ was aiming to attract businesses with between 30 and 300 users.

He said it did not make financial sense for companies with working systems to shift to ASP, but it should be considered by those either starting afresh, or going through large upgrades.

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