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NEWS
Apr 12th 2000: Computer Associates unveiled its ASP strategy this week with the launch of interBiz Online Group, a new unit within interBiz, the vendor's enterprise applications division. As well as hosting enterprise applications for its own clients, interBiz Online will offer products and services that enable its customers to become ASPs in their own right. Its interBureau product line, originally introduced last year, is for clients and partner ASPs who want to host interBiz applications for their own third-party customers. Last August saw the launch of the first product in the range, a hostable version of the Masterpiece financials suite aimed at banks, ASPs and other business service providers, which enables them to offer outsourced accounting and financial management services to small and medium businesses. The first customers for the interBureau products - which interBiz introduced in response to clients' searches for revenue-generating services - were banking and insurance companies in the UK and Scandinavia. Further modules introduced in December added the facility to offer hosted debt management applications and services. This week's launch adds hosting services alongside the interBureau product range. iBizPartner is for clients who want interBiz to host applications on their behalf, which they then market to customers as their own service offering. iBizDirect is a service for clients who simply want to outsource the hosting of interBiz applications for delivery to their own internal users. Computer Associates has been working with a number of partners worldwide to develop hosting of interBiz applications, and for this week's launch it showcased Active ISP, a Norwegian ISP that offers Internet and Web services to small and medium-sized companies standardized on Microsoft NT and SQL Server. Active ISP is to offer the Masterpiece/Net Web-based financials application to its customers, hosted by interBureau. "Our goal is to expand our Web offering to our client base," said Espen Haaksonson, VP of product development at Active ISP. "interBiz offers a system and strategy which are ideally suited to the growing number of companies wishing to use the Internet functionality as part of their company infrastructure." Last month, Beltsville MD-based hosting provider Digex announced it will provide application hosting services for Computer Associates clients. In Asia Pacific, the vendor has invested in a series of joint venture ASP initiatives. Last month, it announced a joint venture with telecoms company Cable & Wireless HKT to deliver e-business capabilities to Hong Kong businesses, and another with Internet services provider Korea Telecom Hitel to provide ASP services in Korea. In December, it teamed up with Taiwanese manufacturer Acer and a Shanghai-based Internet solutions provider to form separate joint ventures in Taiwan and mainland China (see related ASPnews.com article, CA backs Chinese ASPs - news, Dec 10th, 1999). It also has an ASP partnership with leading Australian IT services provider Kaz Computer Services, a longtime reseller of interBiz applications. Formed last year to bring together Computer Associate's various software brands including ACCPAC International, MK and Prestige Software, interBiz now positions itself as an e-business vendor, offering a range of banking, financial and supply chain applications. As well as the launch of the Online Group, this week it also launched BizWorks, a new integrated suite of technologies for integrating enterprise application and information into an e-business architecture. The announcements took place at Computer Associate's annual CA-World conference in New Orleans. Additional reporting by Denise D'Onofrio
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