There are many benefits to using an ASP in your operation. To help make these benefits clear to prospective customers we have selected what we believe are the top 10, and broken them into two categories. 

The two broad categories are business benefits and technical benefits. Business benefits are those that focus on improving the overall productivity and profitability of the entire enterprise. Technical benefits are those that improve the delivery of specific technology to user's within the enterprise.

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) can be very difficult for companies to calculate where it relates to IT systems. Some IT expense can be easily summed. For example, computer hardware purchases, software licensing, networking gear, cabling, computer repair, Internet services and tuition reimbursement for staff training.

Other expenses can be very difficult to calculate. For example, if you were asked to calculate the cost of lost productivity when a user's computer was down, you might conclude it was cost of that person's salary while they waited for the computer system to be repaired. But what if the person affected was your top salesman, and she was prevented from making sales while the computer was down. If these sales were to new accounts, you might want to even include a lifetime revenue for the lost opportunity.

Even more difficult to calculate is the cost for maintenance of your computer systems. Often in small to medium sized firms, the IT responsibility is assigned as "part-time" to a senior manager. When the systems need managing, that persons normal duties are postponed.

Finally, some the most difficult expenses to calculate are those associated with not using the latest technology. Maybe it takes your staff 5 days to send out literature requests from that last trade show you exhibited at. Perhaps you missed a new technology that could shave that time down to a single day.

So how can Carroll-Net's ASP service help. First, we'll help you actually calculate your TCO for IT systems. Once this has been done, we will make a proposal for integrating our ASP service into your operation. You can expect to see a significant savings in TCO. How much? Studies indicate that using an ASP can save you anywhere from 35% to 55% of your yearly TCO.

Businesses are required to deal with too much uncertainty. While we all make budgets, too often an unforeseen event arises and creates an expense we hadn't anticipated. IT expenses are a perfect example. When asked what their IT budget was for next year, many businesses respond with "...if it's broke, we fix it...".

An ASP can bring welcome order to this situation. Carroll-Net offers their ASP customers a flat monthly fee. This fee includes all expenses necessary to maintain the entire information infrastructure of the firm. 

This flat fee creates predictability in a company's cash flow. It also removes the need to book computer assets on the balance sheet and depreciate them over time. Each monthly fee is an expense and can be directly written off against that quarter's income.

Finally, the most attractive element of this flat fee is that it's usually less than what the firm was already paying for IT.

In the book "In Search of Excellence" by Peters and Waterman, the authors lay out 12 lessons learned from the most successful companies in America. One of the key tenants was "Stick to the Knitting". Basically, it states that a company should stick close to it's central skill. This concept is the underpinning to one of the most successful business trends in the past decade, that of outsourcing/partnering.

Outsourcing your IT to an ASP provides freedom for your company to focus on core competencies. Unless you are in the business of providing IT services to others, IT is an expensive non-revenue generating activity. Instead of your staff grappling with poorly integrated systems, or systems for which they have inadequate training, an ASP could free you from this burden. 

Carroll-Net starts with an analysis of your current business processes and IT systems. After a through analysis, a business process improvement and technology support system will be created. Once implemented and the staff is trained, your employees will be able to focus all their time on serving your customers more effectively.

(If your interested in reading more about focusing on core competencies, read this excellent article written by Tal Briddell "Stick to the Knitting").

One of the key benefits of using an ASP in your operation is the improvement in productivity. Nowhere is this more evident than the assistance we can offer to the internal IT staff.

(Note: This benefit assumes there is an internal IT staff within the organization. Internal IT is not a pre-requisite to subscribing to ASP services. If it does exist, however, the final benefits can be astounding).

The assistance we offer internal IT is the reduction of low value workload. More than 50% of your IT staff's time is spent in the maintenance and repair of minor computer problems that can defy resolution for hours and sometimes days.

Once Carroll-Net has assumed all desktop, printer, LAN and Internet support, your IT staff is able to focus on high value projects your company has discussed at length, but has never had the time to implement.

To facilitate this transition, we start with training your technicians to be business process engineering experts. In some cases, we have trained internal IT staff to be eCommerce programmers, and provided them with a platform to create enterprise applications based on staff and customer needs.

The end result is that your internal IT staff is transformed from tool carrying technicians to process experts. They act as the strategy driver, the link between your customers, your employees and your vendors.

Far too often, companies will have several procedures for handling the same processes. It can be the result of difference in training, or personal preference. The result is inconsistent responses to customers and vendors.

It is for this reason the first step in the process of Carroll-Net's proposal is an analysis of a company's business processes and technology. After a detailed review, a "roadmap" will evolve that shows where we can offer the greatest amount of assistance.

This "roadmap" becomes part of the proposal, and finally becomes the blueprint for business process transformation. It highlights key areas of focus, and specifies project time-lines and deliverables.

The final result is coordination between departments at the enterprise level.

October 2000 employment numbers show an all time low unemployment rate of 3.9%. In a study conducted by the Information Technology Association of America, it is estimated that there are currently 1.6 million job openings for IT workers in the US. The study reports:

The implications for small to medium sized businesses are staggering. These firms simply will not be able to draft and retain the skill sets needed to meet their staffing needs.

Using an ASP solves this problem. Rather than compete to staff a non-core business function, customers can outsource this staffing to a trusted business partner. The hiring and retention challenge becomes the responsibility of the ASP.

A key benefit to using ASP services is the access it offers to "Best of Breed" applications and service without the risks, costs and complexity. Customers experience superior network application availability, security, backup, disaster recovery, and help-desk support delivered uniformly across the entire enterprise.

Most businesses have experienced problems when attempting to implement new IT systems. The result is unanticipated expenses and significant delays. An ASP acts as an experienced guide in the process of planning and implementation of new systems. Once the new systems are installed, the ASP manages the daily operations, maintenance and disaster recovery planning.

Carroll-Net believes that systems are designed to support and maintain business processes, not vice versa. We offer customers our experience using the latest technology in support of business activities. The result is your business is optimized for productivity.

With today's competitive business environment, long application development cycles are unacceptable. Once a need has been identified, and the resources allocated, an organization needs to have the application deployed as quickly as possible. Delays can result in increased expenses and a changing requirements list.

An ASP can significantly reduce application deployment time. There are two reasons for this. First is expertise. ASP's can leverage their application customization and deployment experience to get to roll-out more quickly. 

The second reason is sample libraries. With an installed base of clients, ASP's can leverage shared modules more quickly between customers. This shared module methodology reduces the need to create solutions from scratch, in many cases reducing roll-out by many months.

Twenty years ago, the computer industry spawned a metric, called Moore's Law. It stated that computer speeds would double every 18 months. This has held true, and we now have the fastest most complex computer systems every built.

This complexity has created the need for different computer specialties and areas of expertise. This increases the knowledge needed by an ever increasing amount of staff to handle the integration and daily maintenance of the computer systems used to run business.

Carroll-Net's strength is understanding the various specialties, and partnering with the best in each area. The analogy is similar to a project manager with sub-contractors performing the work. Carroll-Net is the project manager. We have the customer responsibility to deliver the solution on time and within budget.

Through partnering with an ASP, customers are able to receive the technical expertise and experience necessary to meet their growing needs. This is the primary benefit of outsourcing. You find the partner able to deliver the best result in their area. You focus on what you do best, and they focus on when they do best.

Technical excellence is achieved when you select the best-of-breed ASP. The firm with the knowledge, experience and business relationships needed by your business. The question you need answered is how can you tell if you've found the right firm.

While the test of best-of-breed is not simple, it is straight forward. First, meet with the prospective ASP. See if their business philosophy seems to match yours. The staff of this firm will work side-by-side with yours. The styles must be compatible.

Next, explain the obstacles and problems you face in as much detail as possible. Listen to their reaction and suggestions. It's very important that they be able to explain their ideas in clear terms. If the answers sound technical to the point you don't understand, this ASP is not for you.

Finally, ask the prospective ASP about their business plan and strategy. They should be able to describe their business, their market and their future plans clearly. It's important you select a successful firm that will be around for a long time. Switching ASP's later will be expensive.

Carroll-Net, Inc.
905 Main Street
Hackensack, New Jersey 07601
(201) 488-1332, (201) 488-1093
Email our staff info@carroll.com