Having them hosted by a highly available and accessible service provider is a good thing. It makes it easier for customers to get at the resource, and that's part of the fundamental goal. That goal should not be left to Internet start-ups alone. Smart midtier and enterprise players can use ASPs to let customers see data and find answers that otherwise must come from a sales rep or customer-service organization. In this respect, ASPs can do for the supply chain what automated teller machines did for banking.
Customers love the accessibility to information and resources.
This model's success relies on a few factors beyond the mere existence of ASPs. First and foremost, the developers of these applications must Web-enable their software. Second, but equally important, some mechanism must be developed to administer outside customers' access to the applications. If you're planning to go the whole nine yards and offer your customers access to applications hosted by an ASP, be prepared to ask lots of questions about how your customers will be authenticated and managed. The ASP may not be able to manage this sort of access for you, nor would you want to pay it to do so.