Page 66

GO IT ALONE!

the ground and to retain ownership, so that they will realize the full rewards of whatever they create.

Application Service Providers and the Rise of Mass Customization

A central aspect of the continuing evolution of outsourcing is mass customization, the ability of ASPs, as well as brick-and-mortar, to provide such a variety of features and options that different users can effectively customize an existing service to meet their precise needs. The WorkZone APS, for example, is designed so that service firms, such as ad agencies, can create extranets with distinct features for each client. Rick Mosenkis, CEO of Trichys, which owns WorkZone says, “One ad agency might be operating different extranets with very different functions for 15 different clients, all based on preset options in our easy-to-use service.”

Outsourced services of all kinds generally follow the same pattern of growth and development. First, the service is launched with a minimum level of potential customization. The service performs a valuable function well, but it’s one size fits all.

The next phase of the life cycle is central to supporting go-it-alone businesses. As the ASP matures, it typically ads robust features that allow clients to create an increasingly customized experience. For example, when I first started Speed Anywhere, I was delighted to find a low-cost provider that (1) allowed me to inexpensively create a customized form that users would fill out on my Web site, (2) stored the information in a database, and

(3) simultaneously e-mailed the information to as many different people as I specified. Eighteen months later, there were services available that performed all of those functions and had several far more sophisticated attributes. Now, for approximately the same cost, I can link the information collected to a database and in real time display information back to the consumer.

<--previous page

next page-->

Search the complete text of Go It Alone!