Michael,
There was a good degree of skepticism all around regarding the
likelihood of a large corporation "renting" their ERP application
from an ASP.
The main problem every company on this planet has is that the
internet/e-commerce/e-business (pick your own buzzword) is
changing the competitive landscape. So companies have to act.
And their main goal is to stay competitive.
In the last decade we mainly used IT (and hired consultants) to
control the bottomline by cost-cutting, business proces redesign
etc.
In the net-era topline-growth will be the key-driver.
It also means that ICT really has become a strategic issue.
I see this shift in my daily work. After working for IT-departments
in the last decade, now I more and more have to deal with the
marketing departments (and next step is the CEO. I'm a European,
we're about 2 years behind so that's why we are still at the
marketing-department level).
The internal IT-deparments are not able to stay up-to-date. To
less scale, new skills needed, quality is very important because
of the non-stop issue etc.
So that's why it is likely that we will see internal IT-deparments
disappear in the future. They are not able to deliver the quality
(and speed) external suppliers can deliver.
EDS is expecting a major new out-sourcing trend, especially in
Europe (as I said, we're behind). Origin, another global IT-player
also bets on this trend. So far they only had close ties
with Philips Electronics (like EDS & GM). But in recent months
they signed multi-year contracts with AKZO, Lucent and others.
(Origin is also talking with Compaq for a strategic alliance).
To make a very long story short; the trend is that ICT-activities
are leaving the company. Out-sourcing is one way of doing, ASP
is another. And don't forget the data-centers.
So that is why I believe that the ASP-model will also work for
the bigger companies. Just a matter of time. The small ones
responded fast, the big ones will follow sooner or later.
Hope you get my point,
Paul |
