Behind the Headlines: ASPs could banish software stiffing

Renting applications from service providers could protect IT directors from being stiffed by software vendors.

This was the position endorsed by the guests on this week's Behind the Headlines, in response to news that a report will be presented to lobby group Eurim next month urging vendors to adopt standard licence conditions and put an end to charging companies large amounts for minor changes to their software licences.

Richard Sykes, chairman of Morgan Chambers Duncan Chapple analyst at Ovum and Thomas Power, founder of Ecademy, all welcomed the move. They added that the trend towards the ASP model could sort out the complexities of licences altogether by making them the responsibility of the service provider.

Powell said: "The protection of people against complication of licences could be the new ASP model which we can see starting to grow."

Richard Sykes, who said he'd had a stiffing experience when he was the IT director of ICI during its de-merger from Zeneca in 1993, claimed that both ASPs and pressure from Eurim will be welcomed in the industry.

He said: "I am absolutely behind the campaign by Fast (Federation Against Software Theft) that licences must be paid for, but if it is administratively complex and not open to change and doesn't work the way that real people work, then there's bound to be trouble."

Duncan Chapple added: "The ASP model is just a way of trying to outsource that risk because instead of you getting stung it will just be whoever you rent the software from. The only real solution is to make suppliers to wise up to the fact that they have to start treating customers with some sort of respect."

Other top stories up for discussion include the emergence of competition from China as trade barriers come down, and Invensys' $709m buyout of ERP vendor Baan.

You can watch the full Behind the Headlines programme in the Desktop Strategies Channel (http://www.silicon.com/a37812 ).