By MICHAEL FOREMAN
Esolutions, the e-commerce joint venture between Microsoft, Telecom New Zealand and EDS, has appointed Tech Pacific as a distributor of its application service provider (ASP) services.
The deal means that businesses will now be able to rent esolutions' range of applications through any of Tech Pacific's 2000 resellers. Previously
these services were marketed only through esolutions' parent companies.
Channel manager Joanne Hodgson said the agreement would help the company to broaden its client base to include companies of any size or location by offering its ASP services through any technology company.
The customer would be invoiced at the end of each month on its Telecom account and the reseller would be rebated for the sale through Tech Pacific.
Tech Pacific managing director Tony Butler said his resellers would now be able to provide ASP services to their customers without having to establish a relationship with new suppliers.
Unlike conventional software, ASP services are delivered online for a fixed monthly charge. For example, Office Online, which consists of Microsoft's Office 2000 and Exchange 5.5 applications, the Safecom security package and other utilities, costs users $155 monthly from esolutions.
Esolutions is also offering online fax and web hosting services, Datacom's NettPay payroll application, and its BusinessXchange eProcurement system. The company said an internet billing solution and online marketing tools were under development.
According to proponents, users benefit from the ASP model as the high initial purchase cost and ongoing maintenance costs of conventional software is removed.
Software companies benefit from reduced packaging and marketing costs as well as gaining an assured revenue stream.
