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Technology Stocks : FirstWave Technologies (FSTW) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Roger A. Babb who wrote (1200)	6/30/1999 9:33:00 PM
From: Oeconomicus	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9677

...rapid growth in the remote hosting and support industry. Hence your recent endeavors, eh? Re Shege's question, it sounded a bit rhetorical to me. Perhaps one of FSTW's recent prospects is sharing pricing info with the competition's salesman? Do tell, Shege. I'm sure many here would like to see your side-by-side comparison of features, services and pricing. Can you make such a comparison? Objectively? Roger, let me know when you'll have some free time in Atlanta (I'm guessing you are spending a bit more time here these days, no?). Regards, Bob

To: Roger A. Babb who wrote (1200)	6/30/1999 11:21:00 PM
From: Mike M	Respond to of 9677

However, (lease vs. buy) is not the correct valuation method for comparing purchased software installed in-house to remote hosted applications. Roger, Sledge knew that, he was just trying to trick me.... :@) Thanks, Mike

To: Roger A. Babb who wrote (1200)	7/1/1999 12:12:00 AM
From: Shege Dambanza	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 9677

...However, (lease vs. buy) is not the correct valuation method for comparing purchased software installed in-house to remote hosted applications... Seems to me you are talking about TCO (total cost of ownership) while I am talking about how Brock's revenue stream will be affected. Certainly there is much to be said for the advantages of hosted applications, and while there are still some performance and control issues I don't think they'll be tough to work out in the longer term. I believe the whole ASP concept has a lot of potential. Be that as it may, the customer still has to fork out some money for the software, be it in a one-time lump sum or in a series of periodic payments. This is the lease vs. buy decision. Of greater interest to an investor is the economics of such an approach not to the customer, but to the manufacturer of the software. In this regard, the manufacturer could either sell the software to the ASP, and have the ASP collect the subscription fees. Or the manufacturer could partner with the ASP to provide the software to the customer on a monthly subscription. In the former case, the ASP will have to make the capital expenditure to acquire the software, and the vendor sees no discernible difference in the revenue stream (i.e. continues to collect one-time license fees), albeit somewhat discounted because the ASP will want a discount to take on the risk of future payments. In the latter case the revenue stream to the vendor is affected in that revenues will come in monthly, not in one-time license fees. This model is risker to the vendor because the costs of switching are lower. To be sure you can use financial instruments to get around this (as in the former case) but it just seems like a hassle. In a third case the vendor could sell the software in a one-time deal, and hand off the on-going operation and support to the ASP. Somehow I don't see customers getting very excited about this because one of the attractions of the ASP model is that you can avoid a large up-front capital expenditure, something important to small companies. Now, getting the Brock pricing information is a trivial exercise for anyone in the industry, in spite of your protestations of confidentiality and RD Buschman's peurile insinuations. My point in my response to Mike M is that he is easily swayed by press releases with little real content, and does not demonstrate any rigor in thought or writing. And it's easy to get his goat. ;-0