e-Procurement: From Strategy to Implementation

Application Service Providers

ASPs are third-party service organizations that provide hosted applications that service either a one-to-many buyer model or a many-to-many industry trading community. With the advantage of maintaining all the software, catalogs, and store files on their own servers, they provide an opportunity for companies—both buyers and sellers—to participate in electronic trading communities without having to buy, install, or maintain their own software. They provide essential e-procurement services, such as catalog content aggregation and maintenance, electronic requisitioning, contract development, order and delivery management, and electronic payment, and can process transactions using various forms of EDI, XML, and other ...