Fusion Productions - Integrating Meetings, Learning & Technology

Business Case

Choosing an integrated set of applications delivered as a service can accelerate the time of deploying new applications and significantly reduce the installation cost. Moreover, you don't need dedicated staff to maintain the new system or manage upgrades.

Technology Case

Software that requires no client installation, such as browser-contained GUIs, can simplify local requirements and permit seamless access from multiple locations.

Pros

• Faster implementation time for new applications
• Limited initial investment
• Flexibility to add modules

Cons

• Application performance is dependent on ASP
• Custom features may be expensive
• Unfamiliar, potentially unproven model:

Checklist

• Make sure that the candidate ASP has a thorough understanding of your business. Look for a firm that has experience dealing with your business. Is the company familiar with associations, organizational structure, business and association goals, and technological environment? If not, you could find yourself financing your ASP's education and possibly paying for its mistakes.
• Educate yourself about the ASPs business practice and model. One of the advantages of outsourcing is that it relieves your association from the duty of managing technicalities, thereby freeing you to focus on your association. But that doesn't mean you can count on your ASP to absorb all the headaches of installing the solution and keeping it running. After all, if the ASP doesn't perform as promised, your association could be embarrassed.
• Ask the firm how big its data centers are and how many locations it maintains. Figure out what sorts of contingency-management policies the company enforces and how it monitors capacity and performance problems. Determine how its staff manages hardware/software infrastructure changes, whether or not the company is willing to investigate and correct recurring problems, and whether or not it provides training.
• Consider using a SLA (service-level agreement). This document should define the metrics of the service, including the response time for online transactions and support calls, and procedures in cases of exceptional events such as natural calamities and DoS (denial of service) attacks. As with all contracts, the devil is in the details, so read the fine print and ask lots of questions. It's your association.

What will an ASP cost?

Some cost savings are due to the fact that the ASP model is fundamentally different from the internally hosted model. For example, an in-house deployment involves spending money on new servers, routers, data storage, backup units, and even office space. You also have to license software such as operating systems and databases and possibly even hire additional IT personnel to operate the system. But none of these costs necessarily apply to the service-based model. Another reason for the lower costs is that ASPs can work more efficiently than your IT department can. An ASP can spread its capital investments and maintenance costs over a larger base than an association could.

Still, service-based ASP packages don't come cheap. Apart from the costs of migrating your data (which could include consultation), you're also liable for an installation fee. The service provider must estimate how many users will be accessing the system, how much disk space it must allot, which features to deliver, and how many databases must be converted. More demanding installations may require a business process assessment or specific adjustments to meet custom requirements; obviously, these services will cost you, too. Then there's the cost of the actual service itself. Some ASPs offer a flat monthly fee per user, which usually varies according to the number of features being delivered. Others charge fees for each transaction. Depending on the nature of your applications, one model might be more appealing than the other: If you manage a lot of transactions, say, you might prefer to pay per user/administrator.