NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: JEB BOLDING on
APPLICATION SERVICE PROVIDERS
01/16/02
Today's focus: The doctor's advice

Dear Wincenty Kaminski,

In this issue:

* Help from PhysicianASP
* Links related to ASPs
* Featured reader resource

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Today's focus: The doctor's advice

By Jeb Bolding

Although I'm not a doctor, I subscribe to a listserv called
PhysicianASP. The ASP solutions discussed in this group are the
niche, vertical kinds of ASPs that I have, ad nauseum, said
that I really like.

Scanning through the messages I've received, I came across this
exchange which I thought was interesting. It's interesting
because I believe that many ASPs jump several flaming hoops
when putting together detailed ROI studies, ease-of-use
analyses, and feature/benefit comparisons, yet sometimes, the
decision to go with an ASP is all about simple value and
timing.

I did get permission to quote this just so that everyone's
comfortable with the fact that I'm not a messageboard lurker
waiting to print what people say (actually, I am, but I do ask
the composers first).

The questioned posed in the message was the following:

"What criteria did/will you look at to decide whether or not
ASP is right for your practice? ...such as:

1. Financial return/enhance finances of practice.

2. Able to solve current problems with PM system.

3. Allow staff to be more productive.

4. Allow physicians to be more productive.

5. Eliminate IT headache from practice."

With such a question, you might expect a complex set of
spreadsheets in return. However, here is Dr. Jeannie Marcus'
response:

"I decided to use an ASP because I had a personnel crisis that
[an] ASP solved.  My office manager/billing manager quit, yet
the role had to be filled. [An ASP solution also] eliminated
the IT headache for that part of system. We were not looking
for increased productivity as much as we were looking for a
competent solution for the billing/practice management part.

The finances of the practice have been enhanced by using [an
ASP]...our previous system was about to sink us. We had nowhere
to go but up.  We made a good choice."

I don't know an ASP around that wouldn't like to have this
quote. However, this one belongs to Athena Health, an ASP to
healthcare practitioners (http://www.athenahealth.com ).

Athena Health offers several services including:

   * Billing and collections.

   * Payables management.

   * Payroll management.

   * Financial reporting.

   * Cash management.

No doubt, many of the proof points for ASP services are
required to make a typical enterprise sale. But there are still
sales being made based upon a good value proposition for a
service that solves a specific need in a timely fashion.

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To contact Jeb Bolding:

Jeb Bolding is senior consultant with Enterprise Management
Associates in Boulder, Colo., an analyst and market research
firm focusing exclusively on enterprise management. Bolding has
10 years of experience in the network systems industry, most
recently with eCollege.com, an ASP for higher education, where
he was director of product development. He can be reached at
mailto:jbolding@enterprisemanagement.com.
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RELATED EDITORIAL LINKS

Top ASP vows Chapter 11 isn't the end
Network World, 01/14/02
http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2002/129038_01-14-2002.html

Breaking ASP news from Network World, updated daily:
http://www.nwfusion.com/topics/asp.html

Archive of the ASP newsletter:
http://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/asp/index.html
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