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NEWS
Mar 24th 2000: Europe's first ASP industry group was formed yesterday in Munich, Germany. The thirty charter members of the ASP-Konsortium include German ASP startups and systems integrators together with technology vendors and network providers. Working with - although not formally linked to - the US-based global ASP Industry Consortium (ASPiC), the new group will act as an independent communication and information platform for the ASP industry and its customers, with the aim of developing the ASP model in Europe. Christian Kruppa, director of central European ASP activities at ASP platform vendor Citrix, was elected chairman of the ASP Konsortium, completing a Citrix consortium hattrick - Citrix executives also lead ASPiC and (as executive vice-chair) a Japanese ASP industry group. In an exclusive interview yesterday, Kruppa told ASP News Review the Konsortium will set up a Website under the domain name "ASP-Konsortium.de�; will commission research on the German software market to identify today's business opportunities for ASPs; and will start defining standards for ASP customer service levels. Kruppa is joined on the board by representatives from two German systems integrators - both Citrix partners - along with European computer manufacturer Fujitsu Siemens and Internet service provider Uunet. Thomas Deutscher, who takes responsibility for resources and finance, is chief technology officer of Krefeld-based Victorvox AG, a mobile phone distributor with a systems integration arm that has developed an ASP business model. For over a year, Victorvox has been providing application services for mobile phone stores. It will soon begin offering business and consumer software to smaller businesses and home users from its data centre in Krefeld as an ASP. Thomas Roth, CEO of Karslruhe-based systems integrator Group, will be responsible for organisation issues. He also heads up Group's multiuser software unit, WTS -Center, which has developed a facility for developing and testing software and solutions for the ASP-market, aided by Cisco, Citrix, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and Uunet. Thomas H. Schaefer, director of application hosting services at Fujitsu Siemens Computers, will serve as vice-chairman, while Stephan Deutsch, enterprise spokesman for Uunet Germany, will be responsible for the Konsortium's international relations, including contacts with ASPiC and ASPs in other European countries. Uunet will soon be introducing high performance hosting and ASP infrastructure services, while Fujitsu Siemens is building an ASP testing and certification centre with leading industry partners. The day-to-day business affairs of the new group will be handled by Werner Grohman, CEO of vibrio interactive gmbh, based in Unterschleissheim, a sister company of Citrix' PR company in Germany. Grohmann is also media spokesperson for another German technology industry group, the CAPI Association. Traver Gruen-Kennedy, chairman of ASPiC, was on hand to congratulate the new board members. He said ASPIC is working with software vendors on globally-enforceable ASP contracts, has defined a �cyber process certification� together with international audit and consulting firm Ernst and Young, and is developing standards for ASP customer contracts. The need to define recognised standards is a primary concern of many members of the new group. "Cisco has already launched the worldwide Hosted Applications Initiative, and wants to set standards for secure solutions for bandwith carriers and ISPs," Cisco's Christoph Krell told ASP News Review. "We have already financed the data communications equipment for WTS-Center, where applications are tested in ASP environments." Thomas Wysocki of systems integrator, Dr. Materna said it wanted to provide its consulting expertise to the Konsortium. "Large ASP customers will need assistance in transforming business processes," he said. Report by Bernd Kretschmer
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