By Adam Gifford
Solution 6 has launched its SAP online offering, rebadging the powerful German R/3 enterprise applications as its "Centrum" range.
The range, which also includes Lotus Domino and Notes, includes eFinancials, ePeople, eCollaborate, eCustomer, eIntranet, eAnalyst and eUtilities.
Rushenka Perera, the head of corporate communications, said Centrum would be available in
New Zealand early next year. Solution 6, whose core business is making practice software for accountancy firms, is gambling heavily on the ASP (application service provider) market taking off globally.
Analysis firm Gartner Group is backing the call, with research director Rita Terdiman predicting that "over time, not tomorrow, the Fortune 1000 will use" ASPs. She said faster deployment, lower total cost of ownership and a shortage of IT staff would drive the switch.
Gartner Group's Dataquest research arm said the ASP market will hit $US2.7 billion this year and $22.7 billion by 2003, a five-year compounded annual growth rate of 91 per cent.
Ms Perera said ASP allowed small firms to use the same applications as giants like BHP.
"We're trying to open up a new market which has never been able to access these applications before," she said.
In Australia the applications will be hosted at an IBM server farm, part of a worldwide alliance between Solution 6 and Big Blue. Users will access Centrum through virtual private networks using Telstra's Big Pond frame relay network.
Ms Perera said more ASP applications would be made available next year through dial-up access over the internet. She said frame relay was used for Centrum because "our research told us this market wants security and reliability. We wanted to offer a premium service of the highest quality."
New Zealand partners for the service have still to be finalised. Centrum will be sold through system integrators and accounting firms.
Ms Perera said the cost could be as low as $20 per user per month if the client just wanted Lotus Domino, and upwards of $350 a month for the eFinancials suite.
Doug Hanna from Solution 6 New Zealand said the New Zealand service would be run off IBM AS/400 servers in Auckland, mirroring to Sydney for back-up.
