Fast but not leased: Software vendors have built online rental models of their logistics-related programs that are quick, easy to install, and work in real time. Yet they've received only a lukewarm response from shippers. (Application Service Providers).

Logistics Management & Distribution Report, April, 2002 by Cooke, James A.

A couple of years back, software vendors hit upon the idea of leasing their logistics-related applications to users rather than requiring them to buy the costly programs. Banking on the simplicity and potential economies of renting, they built Web-hosted solutions, assuming that if they built them, clients would come. But the customers didn't come--at least not in droves. In fact, of all the programs offered via the application service provider (ASP) model, as the rental approach is known, the only one that attracted any interest was the transportation management system (TMS). "TMS is one of the few markets where the ASP model has gained traction and continues to move forward," says Adrian Gonzalez, a senior analyst at ARC Advisory Group in Dedham, Mass. ASP-provided...

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