Courtesy of Helpinout
Sprint, Compaq spill more ASP plans
By Dan Briody
InfoWorld Electric
Posted at 10:16 AM PT, Nov 3, 1999
DENVER - At the ASP Summit conference here Wednesday, Sprint and Compaq both
clarified their intended roles in the emerging ASP market amidst the confusion and hype of
this fast-growing industry.
In a keynote speech addressing the role of the telecommunications giant amongst ASPs, Jeff
Anderson, vice president of strategic development at Sprint Business, boldly predicted that
ASPs are "on the verge of shaking up the world." In recognizing the ASP trend as such,
Anderson identified market's key challenge in going forward as the need to forge complex
partnerships required for seamless solutions.
"The delivery model is only as strong as the service level agreement for each component,"
Anderson said. "They all have to work in harmony."
Sprint, for its part, prefers to act as both an enabler of ASP infrastructure as well as serving
as an ASP itself for large enterprises. Through its Preferred Partner Program, the company
hopes to qualify "best of breed" ASP partners to do co-branding and co-marketing for small
and medium businesses. In addition, Sprint has announced a partnership with Deloitte
Consulting to provide customized ASP service to Fortune 1000 companies.
"In essence, Sprint itself has become an ASP," Anderson said.
Following Anderson was Eduardo Pontoriero, vice president of Compaq's eService
Providers Practice, who also portrayed Compaq as an enabler of ASP technology. Though
Pontoriero did not go so far as to say that Compaq would serve as an ASP itself, he did
reconfirm the hardware giant's commitment to serving the marketplace.
Originally, Compaq's intentions in the ASP space were unclear. But Pontoriero's speech
made it clear that Compaq's position in the market is to provide the necessary technology to
enable the space.
Pontoriero also warned ASPs against trying to promise high availability to every customer,
saying that only certain types of clients will need the costly hardware and network systems
required for "99.999 percent uptime."
"You need to identify what customer's really need," said Pontoriero. "Do they all really need
99.999 percent? In going from 99.5 percent to 99.95 alone will double their costs." |
