ASP Industry Consortium Opens 2nd Annual `ASPire Awards'; Best of the ASP Industry to be Honored Through Global Program.

Business/Technology Editors

WALTHAM, Mass--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 21, 2001

Entries are now being accepted for the second annual ASP Industry Consortium "ASPire Awards," which discover, document and highlight best practices in the application service provider (ASP) industry.

Details of the program were announced by Paula Hunter, Chairman of the ASP Industry Consortium, during a press and analyst briefing today in Waltham, Mass., USA. The ASPire Awards winners will be announced during an awards ceremony held in Europe this Fall.

"Given the tremendous attention that last years ASPire Awards program received the ASP Industry Consortium is looking forward to providing our members with another opportunity to demonstrate the hard work and high levels of performance that are helping to define the ASP delivery model," explained Hunter.

The award winners will be chosen through a three-step process:

1. Beginning June 21, 2001, members of the ASP Industry Consortium may submit case studies in one of six Best Practice categories based on ASP functions. The Consortium's Best Practices Committee has developed measures of performance for each category that will be used to evaluate case study submissions. Entries will be accepted up until August 3, 2001.

2. Evaluation Teams, comprised of Best Practices Committee members, will then anonymously review the case studies and choose three finalists in each category.

3. An Independent Review Board comprised of a team of industry experts from outside the Consortium will then anonymously review the three finalists and choose an ASPire Award winner in each category.

The six case study categories are:

Delivery and Enablement

Case study submission in the Delivery and Enablement category will represent the pioneering of unique delivery models in the ASP ecosystem, describing the speed of implementation and enablement that ultimately result in increased productivity for the customer.

Innovative Technology - "Wireless"

Case study submissions will focus on the application of wireless as an enabling technology in an ASP environment. This award is not necessarily for wireless applications, but rather for members involved with building out a wireless infrastructure as a mechanism for delivering a wireless ASP application. Criteria will be based on innovation and success that has resulted in improved productivity, customer satisfaction, increased revenue, or lower costs.

Integration

The case study will focus on a solution resulting from the integration of multiple services or applications together. It may include both ASP-to-ASP integration and ASP-to-legacy or packaged software application integration. Integration of services can incorporate data integration, transactional integration, business process integration, single-sign-on across multiple applications, etc., resulting in a customer value that could not have been achieved without such integration.

Management & Operations

Recognizing innovation in providing outstanding operational support to customers, the case study will address issues such as Help Desk support, availability architecture, Service Level Agreement, etc. A winning case study will recognize a company that develops unique ways to deliver exemplary ASP service.

Security

Addressing both technical and business security concerns of the customer, the winner will demonstrate outstanding innovation in the delivery of security solutions or implementing security in an application delivered via the ASP mode, thus successfully mitigating the security concerns of the customer.

Service Satisfaction

Case studies in the Service Satisfaction category will express the endorsement by a customer citing excellent service and outstanding satisfaction in their ASP relationship. Submissions may be submitted by the service provider on behalf of their customer or by the customer endorsing their service provider.

The 2001 ASPire Awards program is open only to members of the ASP Industry Consortium. Case study submission template forms, guidelines, and criteria are available at the Consortium website, www.allaboutasp.org. Members may choose to submit case studies in one or more categories that most closely reflect their company's business model. All case studies must demonstrate how they meet each measure of performance for that category as defined by the Consortium's Best Practices committee.

For more information about the ASP Industry Consortium ASPire Awards contact an ASPIC representative at [e-mail].

About the ASP Industry

An application service provider manages and delivers application capabilities to multiple entities from data centers across a wide area network. ASPs give customers a viable alternative to procuring and implementing complex systems themselves. ASP customers also are able to control more precisely the total cost of technology ownership through scheduled payment schemes. Though the ASP market is relatively new, computer industry analysts foresee rapid growth and multi-billion-dollar annual sales within the next few years. End users cross industry lines and include anyone from the small office/home office (SOHO) client to large corporations and from complex businesses to specific verticals.

About the ASP Industry Consortium

The ASP Industry Consortium is the global advocacy group formed to promote the application service provider industry. Its goals include educating the marketplace, promoting best practices, developing common definitions for the industry, as well as serving as a forum for discussion and sponsoring research. Among the technology sectors represented among its membership are Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), Network Service Providers (NSPs), telecommunications companies, infrastructure providers, Application Service Providers (ASPs) and other sectors supporting the industry. Since its founding by 25 leading technology companies in May 1999, more than 600 member companies in 33 countries have joined the ASP Industry Consortium. Information on the ASP Industry Consortium - including a full list of member companies - is available at www.allaboutasp.org or by contacting the Consortium's headquarters at: ASP Industry Consortium, Inc., 401 Edgewater Place, Suite 500, Wakefield, Mass., USA 01880; Tel: [phone]; Fax: [phone]; e-mail [e-mail].