About five of Highland's 10 employees have been carefully logging those hours using QuickArrow, a professional services automation software package, since Sept. 1. Highland Software rents QuickArrow from an application service provider. But Spengler won't have to hunt around for another service provider to meet his needs or deal with the hassles of accessing, tracking, and managing a diverse collection of hosted applications. Highland uses Agiliti Inc., a Minneapolis ASP aggregator. ASP aggregators offer software packages from more than one vendor, providing single sign-on access and unified billing and administration tools.
Most aggregators target small and midsize companies as their customer base.
Besides software, Highland can get a number of services from Agiliti, he says. For instance, Agiliti offers storage and other infrastructure services as part of its E-commerce service portfolio. Before becoming an Agiliti customer, Highland was an Agiliti solution partner. Other customers of ASP aggregators already are taking advantage of a broad range of software and services. Calif. The iPass remote-access software that Jamcracker provides is one of the biggest benefits for traveling U.S. employees, Greguras says.