FINANCIALjobs.com presents:
FINANCIAL WEB
By Dana Petri
Part 2: The Lowdown on Financial ASPs....
ASPs are not only a "gold mine’ for companies, but they also
provide an opportunity for financial firms to offer value-added online services. According
to Carl Carrie, CEO of The Beast.com, which launched TheBeast Online, an ASP for financial
markets, "We see the trend as being explosive. We see most software vendors
transforming themselves into ASPs."
One of the niche areas of ASPs focuses on financial applications such as proprietary trading, derivatives pricing, portfolio accounting, and customer relationship management for sales and trading. Now several ASPs are offering portfolio management and accounting services together with a suite of applications aimed at helping firms achieve straight-through processing. These companies usually supply a suite of applications across capital markets as well as application hosting technology.
For example, by migrating business operations to an online environment, a firm can accumulate different kinds of online information and online services via a centralized website. That website can be personalized for individual clients so that they have immediate access to information relating to their own concerns. Some have even gone a step further by adding credit capabilities and equities to their existing platforms.
Overall, this technological breakthrough is more cost effective for financial companies than the old model of running software internally. Interested users can visit AppsOnline.com and view an online catalogue of rentable web applications. Some great resources for understanding these "software superstores" and their potential impact include:
http://webreview.com/wr/pub/1999/09/03/feature/index2.htmlhttp://www.outsourcing-journal.com/issues/oct1999/
Dana Petri, MBA, is
currently a business unit controller for a global spare parts company in the aircraft
industry. Although she specializes in the manufacturing field, Dana has several years of
experience in the public, private and government/nonprofit accounting
sectors. She is an active member of the IMA and AICPA and volunteers
in the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program. In her spare time, she does
consulting work and will begin teaching business courses in the Fall..
Write her with questions, comments, or requests for research on your own
favorite topics in the Financial Web: dpetri@fjadnet.com