You need to get a complex application up quickly. We needed a solution to get our sales team into one location, and we needed it yesterday. Neoforma considered buying its own Oracle or Siebel CRM system, but O'Neal estimated that installation and training would take six months. O'Neal says he's been pleasantly surprised with the ASP's functionality and has no plans to buy Neoforma's own system. You need specialized vertical applications.
Some ASPs cater to the specific vertical needs of enterprises.
Before DRS, it took PHO data specialists months to prepare reports because they had to compile records manually from insurance company databases. For example, a study of treatment patterns for congestive heart failure completed last year took three months and covered just two of the five insurer databases available, Luddy says. She says she can gather the same information across all databases using DRS in a matter of minutes. Luddy's organization considered buying a reporting system but quickly rejected the idea. You'd need a platform as big as an oil rig to manage it all.