Government says yes to ASP focus group

Speaking at the launch of AAC today, Dr.Kaizad Heerjee, assistant chief executive, Online Development, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), painted an optimistic view of the ASP industry calling it "potentially a huge undiscovered market in Asia."

Citing IDC's prediction of global ASP market to bloom to US$2 billion by the year 2003, Heerjee also stated the government's belief that ASP will play a major role in the development of IT industry in Singapore.

Backing up his position, Heerjee pointed out the difficulty of a private enterprise to maintain a e-commerce facility on its own, citing the shortage of IT professionals, the hight start-up costs of computerization, and the unknown additional cost beyond the initial investment.

Filling this void, Heerjee believed, is ASP's rented application approach which advances a single point of contact for multiple vendors making the process a simple, efficient and cost-effective way for business to move into the e-commerce arena.

In fact, Heerjee added, according to a Gartner group study, a business which adopted ASP as its approach to e-business stands to save at least 30% of the necessary cost.

Finally, speaking specifically about the formation of ACC and the Singapore context, the Dr. endorsed the committee highlighting its alignment with IDA's own recent initiative to "dotcom the private sector," and its potential as a platform for Singapore's IT industry to build and establish global and regional contacts