Cable & Wireless launches as ASP

The service, which has been offered in conjunction with Microsoft and Compaq, is aimed at SME customers. Cable & Wireless a-Services will initially offer a Collaboration computing suite including Microsoft Office and Exchange.

The Office software, internet access, desktop and customer support will be rented for 175 per user per month. With Microsoft Exchange included, customers will pay 199 per user per month. The hardware, network, software and services will be covered by an end-to-end service level agreement (SLA).

In the future, Cable & Wireless plans to add Human Resources, Sales Force Automation and accounting packages as well as a unified messaging product that will, for instance, allow users to view voicemails on their desktop. It will also add wireless capabilities to the service so that users can access such applications from their mobile phones.

However industry observers have predicted that there will be a fallout in the ASP market within the next year and many believe telcos will swallow up the commodity-based applications end of the ASP market - and put many smaller ASPs offering Microsoft Exchange and Office out of business. Although he does not dispute that this may happen, Jeremy Thompson, president of Cable & Wireless a-Services, says the SME sector will be targeted both by Cable & Wireless' own services and through recruiting a channel. He said: "This isn't a big, bad telco stepping over the market. A key part of our market is to sign up a channel - the people that traditionally have contact with SMEs."

As such, the relationship with Microsoft and Compaq may be useful in discovering VARs but Cable & Wireless also plans to recruit its own. a-Services was launched in the US last month and Thompson says that the company has already recruited over 150 channels.

Compaq will provide the iPAQ terminals to businesses accessing the ASP service. It will also provide customer support and maintenance. Cable & Wireless will centrally manage this customer care and will host the services at its data centres in Reston, Virginia and Swindon in the UK. It also plans to expand the offering to Australia next month, and deeper into Europe and Japan in the forthcoming year. Thompson added: "The value of expanding is that we have significant presence in key markets."

Cable & Wireless has also confirmed that, in addition, it will offer a-Services to its ISP and carrier customers in the next year.

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