Weekly Review: ASPs Should Wake up and Smell the WiFi

The rollout of broadband services has brought high-speed Internet access to homes and offices, but ASPs have not experienced the surge in takeup that many had expected in the wake of broadband adoption. Although the higher bandwidth of broadband makes Internet applications more accessible, it doesn't add any extra incentive to abandon local servers in favor of Web-based resources. Fortunately, the advent of 802.11b wireless networking — otherwise known as WiFi — could be the vital missing ingredient that makes all the difference.

Read and React

"Instead of having to return to my hotel room and dial up to access my online applications, all I had to do was find a Starbucks, order a coffee, relax into an armchair and switch on my laptop. I was instantly and effortlessly connected to my applications — at the same broadband access speeds as at my regular desktop." Give us your feedback in the ASPnews Discussion Forum

I used to have little sympathy for ASPs who said they couldn't deliver small business applications over standard dial-up connections. Having seen how poorly most Web site designs cater for low-bandwidth users, I felt that poor application design was as much to blame as low bandwidth.

Nowadays I have more sympathy for the application designers. Although I continue to believe that programs should be designed to be as compact as possible, I also recognize that good usability means supplementing the basic functionality with a variety of on-screen helpers, such as user-friendly icons and menus, context-sensitive help, form validation and so on. Every element adds to the byte count — and therefore the download time — of even a simple Web application page.

The result is that Web-based applications are becoming too unwieldy for standard dial-up connections. For the past year, I've been maintaining a Web site (at LooselyCoupled.com) using a variety of online services. I've found that, with each upgrade in functionality, their performance over dial-up has slowed noticeably. Only when I eventually upgraded my connection to broadband did I find that it had once more become a pleasure to use those online services. So from my own practical experience, I can vouch for the fact that you need to be on a broadband connection if you're going to use sophisticated Web-native applications.

Broadband Not Incentive By Itself
But although broadband eliminates download speed as an objection against using online services, it doesn't provide any incentive for the average small business or home-based professional to start using them (not unless, like me, they're already diehard enthusiasts for the online model). Perhaps broadband levels the playing field for online providers of Web site and content management services, since most businesses already host their Web servers at a provider anyway. But for ASPs offering online customer relationship management (CRM), accounting and collaboration software, the competition is already installed on a PC at the prospect's office.

As long as those prospects have to be there in the office to be able to access their broadband Internet connection, they have little incentive to replace their locally installed software with a Web-based alternative. A minority may decide that they'd prefer to outsource the hassle to an outside provider, but most will say, "If it ain't broke, why fix it?"

Web-based Apps ... No Sugar
WiFi adds a factor that decisively tilts the balance in favor of online providers. Last month, I traveled to California, and for the first time I enjoyed the freedom of WiFi connection. Instead of having to return to my hotel room and dial up to access my online applications, all I had to do was find a Starbucks, order a coffee, relax into an armchair and switch on my laptop. I was instantly and effortlessly connected to my applications — at the same broadband access speeds as at my regular desktop.

What I couldn't do was access applications that run on the office LAN. Theoretically, it might be possible to set up a remote access capability. But if I'm going to go to all that hassle anyway, why not investigate the other alternative of migrating those applications to an online service? For the first time, WiFi gives mainstream users an incentive to evaluate online applications on an even footing with traditional LAN-based staples.

ASPs Should Grab Hold of Wireless
Here at last is a differentiating opportunity that the ASP industry ought to seize with both hands. But ironically, no one is looking in the right direction any more. Telecoms carriers have exhausted their enthusiasm for marketing online applications over broadband, and most see WiFi as a threat rather than a potential ally. Few mobile carriers are investing in WiFi either, and anyway, they've typically seen ASPs as a distraction from the real business of promoting mass market consumer fads such as picture messaging.

As for the Net-native software providers — who could make big inroads by allying with WiFi network providers — most of them long since ceased courting small businesses, preferring to chase after more lucrative enterprise market opportunities. Strike a deal with some network providers, then add some suitable encryption and a device-level firewall to plug the security gaps, and the market is a wide-open opportunity for any ASP. It's time for someone to wake up and smell the WiFi.

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