Hi Nick,

We have been offering our Museum Collections Management system as an ASP
service for about two years now, and we do have a couple of UK based
customers using it. 

I'll contact you off-list with their details so you can get in touch
with them if you wish.

On the plus side, ASP hosting allows us to offer a neatly packaged
service which requires the minimum level of technical
knowledge/intervention by the customer, all that is required to use the
service is a PC and a broadband connection.

However, the charging model of an ASP service, i.e. low start-up costs,
but higher annual payments, as opposed to the traditional model of
higher start-up costs, but lower  annual support payments, does not seem
to fit very well with the way museum projects are currently funded in
the UK, in that it is easier to get capital funding for a CMS project
than it is revenue funding. 

However, in the case of at least one of ASP customers, they found it was
cheaper to pay our hosting costs for the whole service delivery than to
pay the annual amount their organisational IT department would recharge
them just for maintaining a database server!

Maybe we should be pushing this a bit harder...


Best regards,

 
Ian

Ian Rowson | General Manager

ADLIB Information Systems
Berkeley House | Hunts Rise
South Marston Park | Swindon
SN3 4TG | United Kingdom

tel. 0845 658 9482 | fax. 0845 658 9487

www.adlibsoft.com | [log in to unmask]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Nick
> Poole
> Sent: 21 May 2008 23:19
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Collections Management Systems as hosted applications
> 
> Dear MCGer's,
> 
> I was wondering whether I could enlist your help in a research paper
which
> the Collections Trust is considering at the moment. We are looking
into
> the potential for museums to move towards the use of Collections
> Management Systems as remotely hosted, browser-accessible
applications.
> 
> With the rise of utility computing and improvements in bandwidth, it
seems
> as though many industries are revisiting the Application Service
Provider
> model (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_Service_Provider) as a
> cost-effective way of managing both applications and data. On the face
of
> it, there are some appealing benefits to the ASP (not Active Server
Pages)
> model for Collections Management Systems. These include:
> 
> 
> *         Centralising (and therefore simplifying) the upgrade path
for
> software
> 
> *         Enabling developers to rollout extensions to functionality
> globally across their client base
> 
> *         Reducing the requirement for local data storage and
management
> 
> *         Potentially facilitating the processes of Digital
Preservation
> for museum data
> 
> *         Potential cost-savings on technical support and development
> 
> On the other hand, there is the risk that museums could perceive a
move
> towards an ASP-based CMS as a loss of control or potentially
integration
> with other museum systems, or that connectivity isn't robust enough
> provide a service as reliable as a Local Area Network/client-side
> application.
> 
> The cost-savings and efficiency gains of this development could
> potentially be significant, but at the moment we have no clear
evidence
> about how this model might be/is being applied. I would therefore
welcome
> any and all thoughts or comments on this issue, and particularly:
> 
> 
> -          Is anyone on the list using a Collections Management System
> under an Application Service Provider model?
> 
> 
> -          Are any software developers on the list already providing
or
> planning to provide such a service?
> 
> 
> 
> -          What do people think would be the reaction to this if it
were
> to become a clear direction of travel for information systems?
> 
> Hope you don't mind acting as a reference group, but if there's
sufficient
> interest, we'll follow up with some concerted research and publish a
paper
> on it later in the year.
> 
> With thanks,
> 
> Nick
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Nick Poole
> Chief Executive
> Collections Trust
> 
> www.collectionstrust.org.uk
> www.collectionslink.org.uk
> www.cuturalpropertyadvice.gov.uk
> 
> 
> Tel:  01223 316028
> Fax:  01223 364658
> 
> 
> Until the end of April 2008, the Collections Trust's legal trading
name
> is: MDA (Europe) Ltd
> Company Registration No: 1300565
> Reg. Office: 22 Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 1JP.
> 
> The Collections Trust believes that everybody, everywhere should have
the
> right to access and benefit from cultural collections. Our aim is to
> develop programmes and standards which help connect people and
culture.
> 
> The Collections Trust was launched from its predecessor body, the MDA,
in
> March 2008.
> 
> 
> **************************************************
> For mcg information and to manage your subscription to the list, visit
the
> website at http://www.museumscomputergroup.org.uk
> **************************************************

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