ASP – alternative or supplement?

Application service providing (ASP) offers companies the option to use software applications via public networks and to pay on a pay-as-you-use basis. In contrast to systems with a high personnel, project and software investment, ASP models focus on clearly defining the actual needs, specific adaptation to the requirement and continuous improvement with distributed costs over the long term. 

Over the past few years, application service providing (ASP), which should not be confused with the abbreviation for active server pages, has been cropping up more and more in the IT world. Increasingly, ASP is attracting attention owing to the Internet's heightened capacity. 

What does ASP mean?

Application service providing, which is sometimes referred to as "software from the power point", simply means avoiding software or the provision of high-level program functionalities on the server side. In addition to provision (application hosting), ASP includes services covering all aspects of software to guarantee equipment is adapted and optimized.

The concept is not entirely new. In the '70s and '80s, a number of service providers were already making scalable server capacities and standard applications available using time-sharing services. Probably the best-known ASP service of the past few years is the renting of a configurable websites (web CMS or portal software).

The main attraction for technical documentation departments is the hiring of highly specialized, sector-specific applications which often represent a sound investment for companies and subsequently build up time-intensive know-how, not to mention system maintenance. Particularly for SMEs with limited IT and documentation resources, ASP provides considerable savings potential, as well as increased flexibilty and mobility.

How does ASP work?

Traditionally, applications such as documentation tools have been implemented within the IT infrastructure. To install a new editing system, the company must apply for software licences from the system provider. The internal IT department or the system provider installs the software on the internal systems. Generally, this process involves high initial investments. To guarantee an error-free operating system, the application must be maintained, backups created and bugfixes or upgrades installed. This incurs costs which are often underestimated during project planning and which can have an effect on day-to-day expenditure.

Such a project is managed quite differently with the introduction of the ASP model: whereby a service company makes a software application available on its servers. This may involve an individually configured, XML-based editing system in the technical documentation environment, a translation database (translation memory system) or even a terminology database specially designed to meet the customer's requirements.

Customers access their customized system solution via an appropriately dimensioned network connection, while the system is maintained or updates from the ASP service provider are installed.

Customers require only a standard PC ("thin client") with network access and consequently gain access to their system environment via a web browser or client software. Logically and logistically, this is fully integrated into the customers' IT landscape and internal documentation process. In this way, customers' hardware and software requirements are modest, leaving them free to focus on their main tasks.

In view of the increasing complexity of applications, shorter software and product lifecycles and greater availability and performance requirements, this trend will interest companies which have hitherto been reluctant to convert to a future-oriented solution in their technical documentation department. ASP is still not widely used for technical documentation.

At first glance, the idea appears strange; however, such a solution has clear advantages:

• experienced specialists manage the system environment;
• no need for additional technical staff - low training requirement overall;
• modest software and hardware requirements;
• system scalability in the event of high workloads;
• plannable costs (low TCO) as well as a lower level of invested capital.

Victor Linnemann (euroscript Switzerland AG, Zurich/Kreuzlingen)