Selecting an ASP

Here are some factors to consider and questions to ask:

The company willing to outsource ASP should come out with a clear plan of after a strategic intra departmental study of the existing business processes and evaluate various ASPs. An ASP must be capable of translating the business process needs of the company effectively into the software systems. The systems are to be designed in such a way to accept modifications / customizations in the future business requirements and strategies. Make sure whether the ASP manages a data center or not. Have a clear written service-level agreements.

Concerns About ASPs

 Security :This is priority #1. Its after all data being transported via various protocols and platforms has a chance to slip into somebody else's hand in an improperly secured system. Some of the companies are more concerned about their data sensitivity.

 Bandwidth : Users and analysts agree that if the systems are slow now, moving applications off-site won't help. But if the pipes are fat and the access speeds are decent, service providers won't slow you down significantly.

 Customization : ASPs discourage customization because they want to keep their own costs down. Moreover, they're guaranteeing a certain agreed-upon quality of service, and that's easier for them to achieve when lots of customers are running the same applications.