Group West Systems Ltd. Announces An Application Service Provider ASP Solution For The Publishing Industry

Business Wire, August 5, 1999

BURNABY, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 5, 1999--

Group West Systems Ltd. (TSE:GPW) today announced the hosting of its WebPub e-commerce product, an internet advertising system that provides the tools to professionally present advertising content on the Web.

WebPub Remote Hosting provides the same full featured search, presentation and electronic ad order entry features currently being provided through in house systems, except at a fraction of the cost. The concept behind WebPub Remote Hosting is that all of the systems administration, hardware, networking and help desk support is the responsibility of Group West.

WebPub Remote Hosting is suitable for any size publication, but is particularly attractive to the smaller publications and corporate groups who cannot afford the staff and infrastructure costs to host their own advertising and editorial content. WebPub Remote Hosting is in effect the home site for these types of publications.

Advantages Summary:

- Reduced labor costs - Reduced hardware and software costs - Reduced communications costs - Fixed expense - Professional consulting, programming and site design services

Jan McDonald, General Manager of Group West California, stated: "the time of the Application Service Provider (ASP) is now. Today's technology allows publishers to move the cost of business outside of the traditional capital purchase arena. Since technology has provided us the means to make outsourcing a true business solution, it should be applied to all areas that add profitability to the publishing industry and not limited to add-on products. A completely hosted publishing system can be accomplished and we intend to offer one."

Founded in 1976, Group West is in the business of providing midrange outsourcing and supplying computer technology products and services to commercial organizations and government agencies located primarily in North America. The Company currently employs over 140 professionals in Canada and the United States to deliver these products and services to its customer base. The Company has positioned itself as an Application Service Provider (ASP), outsourcing business applications over the Internet. Group West services allow companies to quickly deploy applications for a flat monthly fee, without the cost of implementing and managing the applications or underlying infrastructure. According to Forrester Research Inc., this industry is projected to reach US$21 billion by 2001. Giga Information Group has predicted that network-based rentals will be the most popular way to get desktop computing software by 2002.