Some Differences Unlike ASPs, the AM business model often involves extensive, far-reaching, and lengthy engagements ranging from the custom development of applications to onsite participation by consultants, developers, and others from the AM company. Unlike the ASP model, the AM business plan usually involves the care and feeding of applications already owned by the end-user company. For ASPs, the opposite is true. In the typical ASP model, the ASP owns the license and provides access to the application to the end user so costs associated with application ownership are spread out over the lifetime of the contract, thus lowering the up-front entry costs. In recent iterations of the ASP model, however, the license is sometimes sold separately to give the end user a more secure relationship with the software's creators.
Speedy deployments are due in part to limited customization and integration efforts.
While AM companies can manage applications either from the clients' location or remotely, ASPs, by definition, deliver their services and manage applications remotely from a centralized site. Right for the Times Mergers, acquisitions, and consolidations can be expected to produce new business entities. Some of these will exist within old entities, and some will be totally new, but taken together, they will represent diverse IT imperatives. Price points can be expected to exert substantial pressures in a softening economy, yet the need for IT capabilities will continue to fuel demand. Some market experts regard a slowing economy as potentially beneficial to the ASP value proposition.