"We are aware of some 30 major clients - some of them major companiesin the telco industry, seeking to leverage their existing brand nameand technical skills around the world, region or within countries toenter the MSP market. It takes players who are trusted brandnames - and this is one reason the telcos are so interested in this.They have got, in most countries, a fairly well known brand name,reach into the SME business, infrastructure, assets, and people," saysJester.

"The reason they have a chance of succeeding is if they go out with abrand name that people trust, targeted at certain market segments, andif they have the partnerships with the software developers and networkcompanies to deliver on their promises, users will be willing to buy,"he adds.

What is certain is, the ASP and MSP will eventually become a featureof the corporate IT outsourcing landscape. As hardware and softwarecosts go down, the cost of people and time go up. The emergence ofASPs and MSPs is thus a predictable macroeconomicdevelopment.

Companies like Sony Logistics also believe outsourcing ultimatelyhelps them to focus on their core business, rather than on IT. "Itboils down to letting each party do what it does best. In our case,the service provider contributes its expertise in implementing qualitylogistics IT solutions, while we focus our efforts on core logisticsmanagement," says Ng.

Mathivanan says: "ASP acceptance is on the rise. Otherwise, we'd haveto close shop. The reason is, people realise how costly it is to buildand maintain [applications and infrastructure] themselves. Why wouldyou want to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars every year tochange your software and hardware when you can get someoneto do it?"