ABSTRACT
Will the Company Use an Application Service Provider or Install the Software on Its Machines? Like fashion, information technology (IT) has cycles. In the 1970s timesharing option (TSO) services were popular, with companies relying on large service providers to run some of their software applications. In the
following decades, the pendulum swung, bringing most software back inhouse. Now there is a renewed interest in the use of application service providers (ASPs) or, as some refer to it, “hosted software.” Like the TSO services that were popular a generation ago, ASPs provide companies with an alternative to the traditional COTS implementation approach. Instead of installing the software on the company’s own computers, the company relies on an ASP.
