Execs jump ship for ASP startups
Aug 23rd 1999: Silicon Valley-based startup Corio today confirmed the recent influx to its management team of a swathe of executives from enterprise software giants Oracle Corp and Seibel Systems. Former Oracle senior VP George Kadifa becomes president and CEO of the Peoplesoft-backed enterprise ASP. New VP of operations Thomas Spingola moves across from an equivalent role at Oracle's own ASP operation, Business OnLine, while new VP of marketing Kirk Krappe is a former Siebel and Oracle VP. A new CIO and senior VP of sales have also arrived, the latter a former Tivoli Systems executive. Meanwhile newly-launched startup Xevo, which last week announced $4.2 in equity funding and a change of name from Turning Point Technologies, has snared USinternetworking senior VP Rick Hronicek to become its CEO. Sudbury MA-based Xevo, founded in 1997 by former Lotus exec Hal Chapel, will launch its ASP service management platform at the Citrix iForum conference in two weeks' time.
o Corio
o Xevo

Lawson launches with USi
Aug 20th 1999: Up-and-coming ERP vendor Lawson Software made its long-awaited entry to the ASP market on Tuesday (Aug 17th) when it announced a partnership with USinternetworking (USi). Lawson's Windows NT-based Insight suite becomes the second enterprise resource planning product offered as an outsourced service by USi, which a year ago launched the ASP market for ERP applications with its announcement of a Peoplesoft offering. The adoption of Lawson as USi's second ERP vendor comes after considering several alternatives. The Annapolis MD-based ASP settled on Lawson because of its midmarket appeal and its web-centric architecture, company sources told ASP News Review this week. Minneapolis MN-based Lawson will be making "at least six announcements with other ASP partners" by the end of the year, its VP of corporate communications Judith Rothrock told ASP News Review today. "This is an exciting opportunity for us because we are the only ERP vendor that is fully web-enabled," she said.
o Lawson Software
o USinternetworking

Rightworks signs top bank as ASP
Aug 11th 1999: Rightworks yesterday launched an ASP version of its electronic procurement software with the news that the first provider it has signed for the package is US retail banking giant Wells Fargo. The bank has already deployed Rightworks for its own internal use and is now developing an outsourced service to offer to small businesses, using their combined purchasing power to negotiate special terms with suppliers. Rightworks has designed the ASP version to support multiple customers, giving each independent control over the business rules built into their purchasing profiles. Providers can purchase the package either outright or on a per-transaction basis. "Many companies are talking about adding procurement as a service that they will offer to customers," VP marketing Ian Williams told ASP News Review in a briefing last month. "Rightworks is positioning itself with this announcement to become a leader in supplying systems to procurement service providers (PSPs)." Many of Wells Fargo's small business customers are geographically-dispersed agricultural enterprises. It is the second major US bank within a month to unveil an ASP operation in partnership with an electronic purchasing vendor. See related ASP News Review story Merrill Lynch becomes an ASP (Jul 16th)
� Rightworks

Consortium signs 100th member
Aug 6th 1999: The ASP Industry Consortium, launched three months ago in May, will announce on Monday that it has signed its hundredth member, officials confirmed to ASP News Review today. Conceived two months previously in early March, the organisation launched with 25 founding members on May 11th. New members are now signing at a rate of one a day, including in the past few weeks industry-leading names such as 3Com, Cable & Wireless, EMC, Hewlett-Packard, Nortel Networks, Sequent and Unisys. The continuing diversity of the membership reflects the breadth of interest in the ASP concept across the telecoms, computing and business service sectors. Among software vendors, recent signings include enterprise applications vendor Clarus Corporation and a variety of systems management and integration tools vendors. The Consortium also continues to attract both established and startup providers. The latest signings include vertical market application outsourcer Panoptic Technology Services, and New York-based startup Mi8 Corporation, which last week launched Outlook Connect, a monthly subscription service that allows users to run their mail systems on its shared MS Exchange servers.
o See related ASP News Review stories ASPs emerge in Australia, UK (Jun 19th) and ASPs grab spotlight at N+I (May 11th)
o ASP Industry Consortium
o Panoptic Technology Services
o Mi8 Corporation

App goes free in intranet landgrab
Aug 5th 1999: Established intranet package vendor IntraNetics relaunched itself as a free-of-charge online provider with the backing of idealab! this week. Renamed Intranets.com, the Woburn MA-based vendor is signing up users for a free-of-charge online successor to its prepackaged IntraNetics product. Idealab!, whose CEO Bill Gross becomes a co-founder of Intranets.com, is the Pasadena CA-based Internet startup incubator behind names such as GoTo.com, eToys, Peoplelink and Free-PC, the first entirely ad-funded consumer PC offering. The Gross philosophy of building value by grabbing volume penetration is now being applied to Intranets.com, which already has 5,000 pre-launch business subscribers and expects to have over 1m users by September. A 'smart' registration process collects information about subscribers which it uses to tailor content from providers including NewsEdge, GoTo.com and Stockpoint. Members will benefit from discounts on software purchases made through their intranet from online merchant Digital River. Meanwhile, the IntraNetics retail package remains on sale at $1,495 for 50 users and $4,995 for 500 users.
o See related ASP News Review story Free access reaches new users (Feb 20th)
o intranets.com
o idealab!
o IntraNetics

Telstra buys into ASP
Aug 4th 1999: Australia's largest telecommunications carrier, Telstra, on Monday (Aug 2nd) took its first public step into the country's growing ASP market, agreeing to pay $A50m ($US32.5m) for a 15 percent equity stake in accountancy software provider Solution 6. The Telstra investment will fund further development of Solution 6's ASP operation, announced in March, which will rent SAP R/3 as well as the vendor's own accountancy practice management applications. Last week, the telco agreed to pay $A19m ($US12.4m) for 10 percent of Internet software developer Sausage Software, which is also thought to be developing an ASP operation. Telstra spokesperson Peter Vicary told ASP News Review today that there were no plans for other ASP-related investments, but explained that Telstra was pursuing a strategy of building up value-added services. "As [telecommunications] products become more commoditised, you have to deliver more to your customers to keep them," he said. The privatised former national carrier, which has lost ground to competitors since deregulation in 1997, is preparing for a second public offering at the end of the year. (Report by David Braue)
o See related ASP News Review story Aussie plan to rent SAP over Web (Apr 1st)
o Telstra
o Press release
o Solution 6
o Sausage Software