This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Key Concepts
Service provision—The ASP sets up, turns on, or orders network, system platform, application, servers, billing, reporting/monitoring, and security
Implementation estimate—The ASP estimates the extent of customization and fee
System sizing—The ASP decides the number, type, and use of computers to be deployed as well as the number of software seats; and the general system architecture
Platform preparation—The ASP loads operating systems, partitions drives, loads servers and storage devices into data center racks, and deploys firewalls
Client preparation—The ASP loads communication protocols and client, encryption, and remote management software on customer desktops
Customization—The ASP makes actual code changes to the hosted software that may involve integration with legacy applications and other value-added integration
User policies—Network policies grant different types of traffic from different companies or departments greater or lesser availability and bandwidth; application policies authorize certain users access to certain applications or application resources
Data conversion—The ASP or a partner converts the formats of customer legacy applications to formats usable by the hosted applications
Testing and QA—To guarantee SLA performance levels, the ASP maintains a separate testing environment to "test drive" hosted applications loaded with customer data
Training—The ASP should cover any functionality created by the customized hosted application and often uses train-the-trainer strategies
Going live—The ASP replicates the customized application from the testing environment to the production environment so the customer can conduct legitimate business
Maintenance and upgrades—The ASP should include client software, operating systems, patches for software bugs, data backup, restore and archival, and an on-call database administrator
Monitoring and reporting—Monitoring should be proactive and should cover key components of and equipment integral to the hosted infrastructure; reporting should contain data relevant to the customer's typical production work periods
Call centers—Customers should be able to contact the ASP call center readily (often in multiple ways like phone, fax, e-mail), and agents should have access to the customer's service history
Billing and mediation—The ASP should present consolidated, itemized services from multiple providers on one bill; ASP mediation should track actual application activity to calculate usage-based fees
ASP CRM—An ASP's CRM should combine best business practices, optimized work processes, apt technology, and relevant knowledge to service customers better, retain their business, and win new customers