When you're renting a high-stakes application such as ERP, you should invest in your own performance monitoring tools. Service-level agreements are very hard to measure and enforce in the absence of a tool kit. Mass. Xevo sells service management platforms to the ASP industry. Insist on extra services. With what seems like hundreds of new companies calling themselves ASPs every week, it pays to remember that just hosting an application does not an ASP make.
Many ASPs offer value-added services at no extra charge.
They can tell us about things that have worked for their other clients. Because Pandesic is paid based on its customers' site volume, it has good reason to want them to succeed. Make sure there's flexibility. ASP contracts are much more flexible than the multiyear, monolithic contracts with traditional outsourcers. If at any time you feel your pricing arrangement has become less than ideal, don't be afraid to speak up.