After receiving several phone calls, Emails, and Private Messages from fellow investors who have asked about the significance of what ASI has just announced, I am now convinced that many investors do not fully appreciate just what this company has accomplished, nor do they understand it's significance.
Fact #1 - ASI has a very successful Time and Attendance product that has been installed in many of the top Corporations in the World.
Fact #2 -- They are the first (or if not the first, then they are in the lead group) to have developed the capability to deliver this Time and Attendance application to companies with a distributed task force (remote location workers) over the Internet. This market has been estimated by Dun & Bradstreet at 397,000 companies.
Fact #3 -- With roll out of ATLink, they are the first (or if not the first, then they are in the lead group) to have developed the capability for corporations to capture and distribute data within this network in Real Time!
Overview
With the last few announcements, ASI company has now evolved into much, much, more than a leading edge Time and Attendance company. Their Web Enabled Time and Attendance product line opens up a huge "untapped" market to them, and building upon their Time and Attendance application, their success at developing the capability to capture and distribute data within their network in Real Time is monumental! For those of you who do not follow this closely, Real Time data capture is like the "Holy Grail"of Supply Chain management. This real time capability allows for a multitude of benefits for companies and their suppliers. It is also clear that given what ASI has done, they could easily up sell the new data capture application to many of their existing Fortune 1,000 T&A customers. This means that they already have a warm and receptive audience for their new product line.
So how receptive will new customers be to this new application? Well in my opinion, to get the market excited about what your company has done, and therefore make it easier to break into a new market, what a company often needs is a good endorsement from one of the more established companies. Hey, how about something like . . .
Don Richardson, industry manager for manufacturing at Microsoft Corp., said, "ASI's latest application, based on Windows CE and the Intermec 5020, is a brilliant example of advanced and innovative ways that the Windows CE operating system extends the power of the Windows platform to the plant floor."
To put this data capture announcement into perspective, I would like you to think about the last time you heard such a positive endorsements from a key representative of the premier software company in the world. The industry manager of Microsoft's manufacturing division understands what ASI has accomplished, and by his comments I take it that he is duly impressed.
I believe that when the word gets out, (and it will) there will be many potential customers and a growing line of eager partners who will want to accelerate their development cycle by forming strategic partnerships with this company.
I also believe that Microsoft will also do what they can to get the word out about how ASI is using Windows CE. It is definitely in their own best interest to do this. I am also painfully aware that many people do not understand just what Microsoft CE does, and the revolutionary changes that it can bring to organizations. I believe that appreciating the technological advancements that this company has pulled off is just part of the story. If the average investor does not understand Windows CE, then to I would imagine that a common response could be . . . "so what" - "what does this mean to me or to the company's bottom line"?. I believe that many of ASI's existing and new investors need to see what the potential market is for this stuff.
Because of these concerns on my part, I have prepared a 4 part series which I hope will:
Part 1 - Explain what ASI's Data Capture and Collection products (also know as Middleware) do and why they are so impressive and attractive to the market
Part 2 - Explain just what Windows CE is and show how this new system fits so well with what ASI is doing
Part 3 - Explain what is happening in the market place right now and the potential here
Part 4 - Link back to quotes in the Oracle article to explain why I believe that ASI is way ahead of the field
I will be submitting these posts over the next few days. I welcome any discussion related to this information.
Crazy Canuk |
