Companies are least likely to rely on application service providers for supply chain management and most comfortable using ASPs to host communication applications, such as e-mail, messaging and groupware, according to a new industry survey.
The results of the study were released by the ASP Industry Consortium, a global advocacy group for ASPs. The survey was performed by Zona Research and was the fourth of a quarterly series.
The survey was made of 137 senior and executive level managers and technology professionals in the United States who indicated they use ASP services or plan to do so within a year.
Communication applications topped the list of services rented from ASPs, with 33.6 percent of the respondents saying they outsourced e-mail, messaging or groupware. The next most popular applications rented from ASPs were financial and accounting packages, coming in a 24.8 percent.
They were followed closely (21.2 percent) by e-commerce applications, described as catalogs, transactions and billing. Customer relationship management products were used by 19 percent of the respondents, education and training applications were rented by 18.2 percent and human resources products came in at 13.1 percent.
Less than one percent of the participants said they trusted ASPs to provide supply chain management apps.
According to the consortium, the respondents of the prior three surveys said the biggest benefit they found to using ASPs was the reduction in total costs. This time, they cited "the fact that ASPs enable them to more quickly implement new applications" and the freeing-up of IT staff "to focus on internal, mission critical applications," according to the consortium.
Ninety-two percent of the respondents said they were satisfied with their current service level agreements. More information on the survey can be seen at www.allaboutasp.org.
