Is There a Pure ASP?
by Gordon E.J. Hoke

If the ASP model is seen as a company that leases its software for a usage charge, that ideal may not exist in the real world. That is the opinion of leaders at two of the reputedly “most pure” practitioners of the ASP model.

“We didn’t even want to be an ASP,” exclaims Ralph Mele, chairman and co-founder of ZANTAZ, Inc. (Pleasanton, Calif.) www. Zantaz.com. “We wanted to deliver information over the Internet – it makes quite a bit of difference. We keep getting put in the ASP bucket, but we do not license our software to the end user. We offer a service to the end user, and our software operates only within our own facility. We thought being non-intrusive was a positive thing. You pay for storage on a use basis, and you pay for retrieval by the document. But we are not in the true model of the ASP.”

ZANTAZ works exclusively in the finance industry, particularly with stockbrokers and dealers who offer online services. The rapidly growing, privately held firm has patented a technology named SmartCell Storage. “We store static documents online for as long as need be, and the cost approaches that of tape storage,” Mele explains.

“There are probably thousands of definitions of ASPs,” hypothesizes Paul Carman, vice president of marketing and business development for Critical Technologies Inc., (Oklahoma City, Okla.) www.filesonthenet.com. “Some are formed to aggregate applications and deliver them on a pay-by-the-month plan. Their offerings are broad and diverse. Others are focused ASPs with a singular solution set.” He observes the ASP model aggressively moving forward, but notes that, until there is a working definition, it is difficult to make blanket statements about it.

“We didn’t start as an ASP, but we did have a document management mindset,” he continues. “We just wanted to deliver our product, FilesOnTheNet, on the Internet. If there were another model that would let us deploy to a wide market, we would have used it. But we will always do document management. We are not CRM or ERP or other applications, although we will work with them.” Carman notes that both the broad and narrow definitions carry considerable weight.

Critical Technologies will do scanning if required, but many of their clients prefer to scan and index in house or to use a service bureau. Carman and his company care little about the workflow as long as they achieve their mission of making captured information available over the Internet.

“We can do both,” he intones, “provide a standalone service or integrate seamlessly with almost anything. The ASP model allows us to truly focus on the customer and their needs. Our clarity of purpose simplifies our delivery.”