Smart companies make sure that their contracts are flexible and can be adjusted if the pricing scheme proves to be too much for the value of the applications. Customers may want to create exit plans if the young ASP folds. After choosing an ASP that has proven expertise, customers may want to establish a single point of contact at the ASP s company. The customer can check with the contact on a regular basis to confirm the application s performance and ASP s business are proceeding as planned. Some customer companies choose to use their own performance monitoring tools.
ASPs help customers get an application up and running in little time, for little money.
The customers are thus free to focus their time and resources on their core business concerns. ASPs can also help companies serve remote offices. Rather than set up the physical infrastructure needed to run applications at these offices, the parent company can arrange to deliver them much of the computing through ASPs. So early reports relaying customers experiences with service level agreements and support during downtime, as well as changes in the marketplace, are being read carefully by the industry.