People need to hear the voice of the customer using ASPs and what they're doing. It's very important for people to see how ASPs work and how secure they are. The Japan ASP Industry Consortium is working on providing case studies and also tries to link potential ASP users with resources. Most of the advanced people come from outside Japan and are very expensive. Multinational companies get the smart people, and it's hard to compete with them if you don't outsource.
ASPs can also make it easier and less expensive for companies to keep software up to date.
For small businesses, that becomes a hefty cost. ASPs can provide more predictable IT costs because customers don't have to make huge capital investments. They own the package and have to change to something new. If they lease it from an ASP, their only concern would be whether they could migrate the data to a new application. ASPs can also help companies reduce their time to market, said Takashi Mineshima, manager, telecom and media practice for Deloitte Tohmatsu Consulting's Tokyo office.