The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) has today issued a Call for Collaboration (CFC) for an Aggregation of Application Service Providers (ASP). The CFC aims to encourage the formation of consortia among ASP companies and encouraging them to develop proposals and conduct trials of innovative end-to-end solutions using ...
Singapore, 22 January 2002 | For Immediate Release
The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) has today issued a Call for Collaboration (CFC) for an Aggregation of Application Service Providers (ASP).
The CFC aims to encourage the formation of consortia among ASP companies and encouraging them to develop proposals and conduct trials of innovative end-to-end solutions using an Aggregator model. Each consortium formed will be led by an ASP Aggregator.
The ASP Aggregator is a third party who operates a middle layer infrastructure that is able to integrate various applications hosted by different ASPs, and deliver them through a single conduit to end users. An Aggregator model has the following characteristics:
-
A more extensive suite of service offerings of which end-user organisations are allowed to select their preferred applications.
-
Centralized access, management, and service support.
-
More flexibility in pricing and switching applications.
-
Interoperability between solutions of different ASPs, as well as between ASP-to-legacy systems.
The ASP aggregator and its consortium of strategic technology and enterprise partners will jointly develop a common platform with a range of service offerings and corresponding service quality. This will benefit their participating user enterprises. The lead ASP aggregator should preferably be registered in Singapore.
There will be an industry briefing on the ASP CFC conducted by IDA on 8 February 2002 (Friday) at 9.00am at the Carlton Hotel, Empress Room 1 & 2.
The Call for Collaboration for an Aggregation of Application Service Providers paper can be downloaded from the IDA website at https://www.imda.gov.sg/ under "Key Programmes". More information on the CFC for Aggregation of Application Service Providers is attached as Annex 1.
ISSUED BY CORPORATE COMMUNICATION DIVISION
INFOCOMM DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY OF SINGAPORE
Pilot And Trial Hotspots (PATH)
PATH is an industry development initiative that accelerates the development of innovative infocomm infrastructure, applications and products. It facilitates this by supporting the trial and piloting of emerging infocomm technologies and best-of-breed services.
About Calls for Collaboration
The IDA recognises that the implementation of open, innovative, scalable infocomm projects requires the concerted effort of several parties in the value chain. IDA intends to promote more of such collaboration efforts across the technology platforms with a series of Call For Collaboration (CFCs). Each CFC will focus on projects in specific areas of technology.
Resulting proposals will be evaluated by a committee nominated by the IDAand selected projects will qualify for co-funding. The amount of initial aid and project funding will be determined upon assessment of the impact and scope of the project.
For more information, please contact:
Kelvin Lee
Manager, Corporate Communication
Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore
Phone:+65 6211 1726
Email: kelvin_lee@imda.gov.sg
Emma Brewster / Yang Sook Chin
Edelman Public Relations Worldwide
Tel: +65 6733 1110 ext. 209 / 235
Fax: +65 6733 5550
Email:ebrewster@edelman.com.sg/scyang@edelman.com.sg
ANNEX 1: CALL FOR COLLABORATION - AGGREGATION OF APPLICATION SERVICE PROVIDERS
Introduction
This CFC seeks to bring technology providers, enterprises and organisations to implement and facilitate the pilot of the Application Service Provider (ASP) Aggregator model as part of the Pilot and Trial Hotspots (PATH) initiative.
Background
Companies are set to gain from the ASP model. The commonly cited benefits of the ASP model includes:
- lower the total costs of ownership for IT projects;
- reduce internal IT manpower costs, such as training needed to keep up with evolving technologies;
- ease of cash flow through a subscription model;
- allow companies to focus more on their core competencies.
IDA also recognises that the potential of ASPs goes beyond these direct benefits. More importantly, they represent a very central part of a broader ecosystem. Most ASPs do not provide all the services necessary to deliver applications to customers alone; they usually work with complementary partners such as: Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), System Integrators (SIs), and the Internet Data Centres (IDCs), among others. Hence, growth in the ASP industry can help drive demand for other complementary services down the chain; and this presents tremendous growth potential for the IT industry as a whole.
A "do-it-alone" strategy will no longer be viable, as few ASPs have the scale to attempt to take on the entire IT needs of their target customers by themselves. As the ASP market space matures, "partnership" will become an increasingly important success factor; and this applies not only between ASP-complementary partners, but also between ASPs-ASPs. It is envisaged that through greater collaboration between various industry players, the competitive quotient of each participating company can be greatly improved.
To this end, IDA would like to invite technology solution providers, ASPs, infrastructure service providers and user organisations1 to form consortia to develop and pilot a state-of-the-art infrastructure for ASP Aggregation in Singapore. This consortia partnership should aim to resolve key integration and interoperability challenges between the various solutions offered by different ASPs and to test the infrastructure and business concept of an ASP Aggregation model. This will serve to showcase ASP Aggregator success stories to establish Singapore as a premium hub for ASP services.
A diagrammatic view of the proposed ASP Aggregator Platform is as follows:
Objectives of the CFC
- Facilitate an open exchange of ideas and possibilities, and foster greater collaboration between ASP companies, technology solution providers, infrastructure providers and user organisations.
- Encourage the development and pilot of a state-of-the-art ASP Aggregator infrastructure based on open standards and new technologies.
- Lower risks involved in trials and pilots to spur user adoption.
- Create showcase on ASP Aggregation success stories to establish Singapore as a premium hub for ASP services.
Pre-requisites for Participants(s)
- The minimum pre-requisites for Participants in this CFC are as follows:
Consist of at least one (1) lead partner with at least one (1) application from an external ASP solution provider (beyond the ASP Aggregator) to develop and deploy the ASP Aggregator Platform, and at least three (3) user organisations as pilot test sites, and each user organisation subscribing to more than one (1) application; - The lead partner shall be the ASP Aggregator, and should be Singapore registered (or with the intention to set up operations in Singapore upon the award of CFC);
- Project must be implemented and hosted in Singapore; and
- Project must involve the use of innovative technologies with open standards.
Timeline
The timeline with regards to this Call For Collaboration is as follows:
- Issuance of Call for Collaboration 22 Jan 2002
- IDA Industry Briefing 8 Feb 2002
- Last Date for Registration for Networking Session 24 Feb 2002
- Networking Session 26 Feb 2002
- Last Date for Enquiries 18 Apr 2002
- Final Proposal Submission 19 Apr 2002,10am
- Publish Schedule for Consortia for 6 May 2002
- Presentation to Evaluation Committee
- Evaluation Period 14 to 22 May 2002
- Award of Project Early July 2002
For any further enquiries, please email to: CFC-ASP@imda.gov.sg
1User organisations will trial the applications that are furnished through the ASP Aggregator infrastructure
.webp)