I think they will be very effective at creating low-level infrastructure for ASPs and maybe also in selling volume solutions that don't require any customization on an ASP basis. But Interpath has positioned itself in a different space. We are focused on mid to upper- end enterprise solutions that require customization to accommodate the specific business processes of different companies. The company has standardized on Sun for its Unix needs-around half the company's servers run under Solaris. And the two companies are working on joint marketing initiatives.
Companies come and select from among the building blocks.
We can then work with systems integrators and developers to assemble a unique solution for them. Application service providers can't exist if you can't get the information from the data center to the customer's computers. In Australia we just own the routers and switches connecting Sydney and Melbourne, where we also have a data center, but we are pretty obsessive about quality and we feel we need to be able to control the pressure points at all the different levels. Bain also wanted to establish a foundation for international expansion and Australia seemed like a good stepping stone into Asia. The Australian market is currently rather more conservative than the US in its approach to application hosting, Caravias believes.