DataOne, Frontstep team up to offer ASP deals

The tie-up will leverage on DataOne’s dedicated hosting and managed service facilities to deliver Frontstep's application service provider (ASP) packages to the Southeast Asian marketplace.

Frontstep offers a wide portfolio of ASP-ready customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) packages. The partnership will target small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the region looking to employ such solutions. The ASP model revolves around access to Web-enabled applications hosted at central data centers based on a monthly subscription.

“The partnership with Frontstep (Singapore) is timely as ERP and CRM back office markets are starting to pick up in the region. Analysts’ studies show that the ASP hosting market will grow more than 60 percent annually to about US$2.4 billion by 2004," said Michael Warren, deputy CEO of DataOne Asia in a statement. "The Frontstep partnership continues our ascent up the value chain, differentiating us from competitors, and provides a new revenue stream for the company.”

For Frontstep, this alliance is "in line with our new focus and direction following the name change from Symix to Frontstep, reiterating our commitment to turn the Internet into reality for the mid-market”, said its Asia Pacific vice president for Hosting Services & South Asia Joseph Ho in the statement.

He added: “We have finalized the details of the packages that will be released initially to Singapore, and subsequently to the rest of the region. We are also working with DataOne Asia to unveil a marketing strategy that will enhance customers’ usage of these packages.”