Room service for the corporation.
Room service is one of the few pleasures in business travel. Tired from an exhausting plane ride, you arrive late at the hotel. All you want is to get something to eat while you sit working on the bed in front of your laptop.
Room service is such a luxury! Order whatever you fancy; someone else prepares it; delivers it to your door; and when you’re all finished they come by to clean it all up. No muss, no fuss. Room service delivers what we want, when we want it, and takes care of all the preparation and cleanup services.
That is the premise behind application hosting services. This delivery option gives organizations what they want, when they want it. An Application Service Provider (ASP) eliminates many of the maintenance headaches that can accompany enterprise level software and connects users with support staff knowledgeable in the software.
WHAT IS APPLICATION HOSTING?
Traditionally, organizations license HR software applications, create an implementation team and spend months or years implementing the software. Then when upgrades come, the cycle begins all over again.
Today, IT talent is in short supply and expensive. Technological advances have complicated the infrastructure. Software, hardware, and network connectivity are so intimately related in today’s applications that sourcing software problems can be time-consuming and frustrating.
Given the fast-paced changes in technology, major upgrades in software applications strike every few years, forcing organizations to dedicate precious IT resources to gut-wrenching re-implementation projects.
In simple terms, application hosting is another software delivery option. Application hosting provides HR software application functionality delivered via the Internet. Customers need not license the software. Instead of “owning” the software, organizations, in essence, “rent” the software applications.
The ASP typically installs the software application on its own servers, maintains the software application and provides support services to client organizations in exchange for a recurring service fee (often a monthly, per-user fee).
BENEFICIAL TO BOTH CUSTOMER AND VENDOR
Customers who license software applications often bear significant upfront costs in licensing software and then continue to allocate resources into implementation, support, and maintenance. Licensing software applications can be expensive, but the real cost burden usually comes with implementation. Some analysts claim that organizations spend 10 times as much on implementation as they do on licensing software.
Even more troublesome is that costs of ownership can be unpredictable. Customers are frustrated over the cost of implementation, support, maintenance and the time it takes to recoup their investment, which generates tremendous animosity in the marketplace.
HR software application vendors work feverishly to enhance their applications to improve customer satisfaction and gain market share. Software upgrades are costly to vendors, however, because they require reengineering software to incorporate new technology. Software upgrades are also costly to customers because they often require full-scale re-implementations. While application hosting may not reduce the cost of using a software application, it certainly will make these costs more predictable.
For smaller organizations, licensing and implementing “best of breed” software applications can be cost prohibitive. Application hosting can provide these organizations with incredible functionality and reduce the upfront costs of ownership.
WHO ARE THE ASPs?
Application hosting has many flavours. There are many vendors entering this market from a diverse set of industries. Communications providers such as AT&T, Qwest, and UUNET want to move into the ASP marketplace. These companies are partnering with HR software application vendors to deliver value-added software to their customers.
Software application vendors are at the other end of the spectrum. They typically either partner with appropriate hardware and infrastructure providers or create a business unit to host and support their software. Software application vendors can offer their clients a service option that eliminates much of the implementation and maintenance costs.
What factors are important when choosing an ASP? — Application hosting can reduce upfront costs and make costs of software applications much more predictable. In some cases, an ASP can give organizations more functionality than they could afford if they licensed and implemented the software internally.
However, just as in hotel room service, it is important to remember that some provide better service than others.
“Where’s my meal? I ordered it hours ago!” — Application hosting relies on many “chefs” acting as a team. Hosting requires co-ordination among many providers: communication infrastructure, hardware, software applications, implementation experts, and customer support, to name but a few.
Each of these providers must understand how the others work in order to optimize performance in a hosted environment. And that’s just on the technology side of the equation. So, it is crucial for all the chefs to work as a team. Evaluating ASPs means looking into the quality of service provided by each of the vendors in the team individually and how well they work together.
“They brought steak when I ordered chicken!” — The other group that must work together to successfully implement a hosted application includes the ASP, the software vendor, the HR team and end-user’s IT group. It is critical to identify responsibilities in minute detail and document them. Questions that should be asked include:
•How will performance be measured?
•What levels of system responsiveness are acceptable?
•What is acceptable downtime?
•When trouble arrives, how will problems be addressed?
•What’s the escalation path? Who is accountable for what?
An organization should define the support path that determines who handles first- and second-level support of users; who is responsible for data maintenance; what happens when the software vendor releases an upgrade. Good documentation increases the likelihood of success.
“I don’t eat dairy, salt or meat.” — Offerings from some of the major ASP vendors may not address all of the needs that organizations with highly unique requirements face. Some of the ASP vendors offer generic implementations of HR software applications. Organizations with highly specific requirements may need to seek out a software application vendor who will not only host the software, but also customize the implementation.
Application hosting is a convenient and financially predictable way to access tremendous functionality in HR processing and analytics. Due to the current labour market’s heavy demand for, and short supply of, IT talent, it may be the only way to access the functionality an organization needs in a timely manner and keep it operational.
Marcia L. Jones is senior vice-president and CEO for Criterion Incorporated. She is responsible for the design of the company’s workforce planning software applications and consulting services. She can be contacted at [email protected].
Room service is such a luxury! Order whatever you fancy; someone else prepares it; delivers it to your door; and when you’re all finished they come by to clean it all up. No muss, no fuss. Room service delivers what we want, when we want it, and takes care of all the preparation and cleanup services.
That is the premise behind application hosting services. This delivery option gives organizations what they want, when they want it. An Application Service Provider (ASP) eliminates many of the maintenance headaches that can accompany enterprise level software and connects users with support staff knowledgeable in the software.
WHAT IS APPLICATION HOSTING?
Traditionally, organizations license HR software applications, create an implementation team and spend months or years implementing the software. Then when upgrades come, the cycle begins all over again.
Today, IT talent is in short supply and expensive. Technological advances have complicated the infrastructure. Software, hardware, and network connectivity are so intimately related in today’s applications that sourcing software problems can be time-consuming and frustrating.
Given the fast-paced changes in technology, major upgrades in software applications strike every few years, forcing organizations to dedicate precious IT resources to gut-wrenching re-implementation projects.
In simple terms, application hosting is another software delivery option. Application hosting provides HR software application functionality delivered via the Internet. Customers need not license the software. Instead of “owning” the software, organizations, in essence, “rent” the software applications.
The ASP typically installs the software application on its own servers, maintains the software application and provides support services to client organizations in exchange for a recurring service fee (often a monthly, per-user fee).
BENEFICIAL TO BOTH CUSTOMER AND VENDOR
Customers who license software applications often bear significant upfront costs in licensing software and then continue to allocate resources into implementation, support, and maintenance. Licensing software applications can be expensive, but the real cost burden usually comes with implementation. Some analysts claim that organizations spend 10 times as much on implementation as they do on licensing software.
Even more troublesome is that costs of ownership can be unpredictable. Customers are frustrated over the cost of implementation, support, maintenance and the time it takes to recoup their investment, which generates tremendous animosity in the marketplace.
HR software application vendors work feverishly to enhance their applications to improve customer satisfaction and gain market share. Software upgrades are costly to vendors, however, because they require reengineering software to incorporate new technology. Software upgrades are also costly to customers because they often require full-scale re-implementations. While application hosting may not reduce the cost of using a software application, it certainly will make these costs more predictable.
For smaller organizations, licensing and implementing “best of breed” software applications can be cost prohibitive. Application hosting can provide these organizations with incredible functionality and reduce the upfront costs of ownership.
WHO ARE THE ASPs?
Application hosting has many flavours. There are many vendors entering this market from a diverse set of industries. Communications providers such as AT&T, Qwest, and UUNET want to move into the ASP marketplace. These companies are partnering with HR software application vendors to deliver value-added software to their customers.
Software application vendors are at the other end of the spectrum. They typically either partner with appropriate hardware and infrastructure providers or create a business unit to host and support their software. Software application vendors can offer their clients a service option that eliminates much of the implementation and maintenance costs.
What factors are important when choosing an ASP? — Application hosting can reduce upfront costs and make costs of software applications much more predictable. In some cases, an ASP can give organizations more functionality than they could afford if they licensed and implemented the software internally.
However, just as in hotel room service, it is important to remember that some provide better service than others.
“Where’s my meal? I ordered it hours ago!” — Application hosting relies on many “chefs” acting as a team. Hosting requires co-ordination among many providers: communication infrastructure, hardware, software applications, implementation experts, and customer support, to name but a few.
Each of these providers must understand how the others work in order to optimize performance in a hosted environment. And that’s just on the technology side of the equation. So, it is crucial for all the chefs to work as a team. Evaluating ASPs means looking into the quality of service provided by each of the vendors in the team individually and how well they work together.
“They brought steak when I ordered chicken!” — The other group that must work together to successfully implement a hosted application includes the ASP, the software vendor, the HR team and end-user’s IT group. It is critical to identify responsibilities in minute detail and document them. Questions that should be asked include:
•How will performance be measured?
•What levels of system responsiveness are acceptable?
•What is acceptable downtime?
•When trouble arrives, how will problems be addressed?
•What’s the escalation path? Who is accountable for what?
An organization should define the support path that determines who handles first- and second-level support of users; who is responsible for data maintenance; what happens when the software vendor releases an upgrade. Good documentation increases the likelihood of success.
“I don’t eat dairy, salt or meat.” — Offerings from some of the major ASP vendors may not address all of the needs that organizations with highly unique requirements face. Some of the ASP vendors offer generic implementations of HR software applications. Organizations with highly specific requirements may need to seek out a software application vendor who will not only host the software, but also customize the implementation.
Application hosting is a convenient and financially predictable way to access tremendous functionality in HR processing and analytics. Due to the current labour market’s heavy demand for, and short supply of, IT talent, it may be the only way to access the functionality an organization needs in a timely manner and keep it operational.
Marcia L. Jones is senior vice-president and CEO for Criterion Incorporated. She is responsible for the design of the company’s workforce planning software applications and consulting services. She can be contacted at [email protected].
