Date format in asp

These are the best of amazing times, to improvise on Dickens' would-be tale of new technologies. Application Service Provider (ASP) start-ups, together with a bevy of heralded coming attractions, are being introduced and proposed at a dizzying pace.

SmartServ Online is a "transaction routing engine" that's going places in a hurry, potentially as a global Web and wireless platform e-service provider, not only for high-volume stock trading but eventually also as a "transaction clearinghouse" for tickets, hotel rooms, travel, claims processing, and the like.

At least that is the blueprint baby of SmartServ chairman and CEO Sam Cassetta, whose vision it is to have "the businesswoman in Europe or a man on vacation in the Caribbean" gain ready access to global markets and ticketing or reservation systems. Based in Stamford, Connecticut, SmartServ is presently teaming with Hewlett-Packard in the build-out of the platforms. With HP providing technical support and $ 20 million worth of vendor financing (SmartServ's software is resident on HP's equipment), the company hopes to add New York, Europe, and Asia later on to its already existing Stamford and Omaha, Nebraska, platforms.

"Our revenue model drives us on a transaction basis," says CFO Alan Bozian.Since last fall the firm has aVPN (virtual private network) with the Bank of NewYork and its correspon dent banks, where the transaction fee is roughly $1 per trade. SmartServ's largest single client to date is DTN.IQ. Operating under SmartServ's software license, DTN generates four billion real-time quotes daily. Public since 1996, SmartServ concluded a private placement with Chase H&Q about four months ago.The firm enjoys working relationships with both Nokia and Motorola and is eagerly anticipating the immense proliferation of 3G wireless products and strategy during the next several quarters. For example, Fidelity Investments alone already has more than 70,000 wireless customers, and that's certainly just the tip of the iceberg.

TradingLinx.com provides a Web-based platform for the postexecution/pre-settlement confirmation work flow system of securities trading, globally linking financial service firms and exchanges to facilitate real-time STP (straightthrough processing). TradingLinx offers a Web solution to handle the myriad of steps involved in the trade confirmation process, linking all the players party to the transaction-broker-dealers, asset managers, custodians-a messaging and work flow system geared to supplant the current use of fax/telephone technology.The realization of the transition to a"T+1"settlement date standard that will eventually result in billions of dollars in savings is critically dependent on the new Web-based technology for its ultimate success.

The beauty of TradingLinx's XML-based universal trade confirmation platform design is that it offers for all categories of investment assets (equities, fixed income, commodities, and derivatives) a single pipeline that doesn't get bogged down in having to integrate with the diverse internal workings of each firm.The system is FIX (financial information exchange) compliant and can be integrated with Oasys. Picture an open-bed rail car of universal prescription that moves about through cyberspace arriving at the local spur of each interested party, who in turn adds, subtracts, or appends the relevant data qualifiers in the universal tongue, while leaving translation into the local language to each participant in the process. Usage fees for TradingLinx.com are based on an annual subscription rate. With servers in New York, Paris, and Singapore, users may log on with a standard browser and get linked to a virtual private network (VPN).

In effect,TLX's application dovetails nicely with the order placement routing engine ASP of a SmartServ Not that we're proposing an alliance or anything. One application allows you to place an order, the other handles the completed trade details-all courtesy of the Web we're coming to know and love.

TradingLinx's first substantive client is SG Asset Management, a subsidiary of Paris-based Societe Generate. SG Asset Management director general Philippe Brosse believes that "TradingLinx will allow us to realize unprecedented and immediate STP efficiencies regardless of where we conduct a trade and with whom." For prospective US-based clients, pilot programs (with parallel-running processing modes) is the present order of the day Buy-side asset managers are probably the best port of entry into growing the business, according to TradingLinx's co-CEO Justin Lowe, since their preferences are often accommodated by sell-side brokerdealers. For instance, SG Asset Management directs trades to about 45 brokers, who naturally are more than happy to sign on to the TradingLinx system.

The initial business focus will be in the area of cross-border trading, where the error rate is highest (in excess of 20%) and the efficiency savings potential (estimated in the billions of dollars) the greatest.

In January,Tradinglinx raised more than $6 million in its "seed" round of financing. It's projecting the likelihood of another round next year in the $20-25 million range.

Ebudgets.com, unlike most budgeting solutions, is designed specifically for the Web.The company also offers its precursor Helmsman product, a comprehensive client-- server budgeting architecture. The CFOs, controllers, and financial analysts using the ebudgets product hope to exercise dynamic real-time control over results. Noteworthy features of ebudgets "precision" budgeting format, generated on demand, are cost centers derived from their most detailed components; revenues by product line; salary and benefits by employee; and instantaneous (upon acquisition) asset depreciation schedules.The line item dimension allows the user to "drill down" to key underlying detail. "Cube" reporting operates on a cost center or project basis by controlling for the factor by which the data is being "sliced and diced:' Collaboration is aided by the fact that managers input and exchange, with all the trimmings, from their separate locations in real-time.

"ASP deployment is ideal for those companies that lack the corporate intranet or IT staff to host ebudgets internally," says Kenneth Kay, president of ebudgets.com, though product targeting is not restricted to "small to midsize" concerns.

Ebudgets installed its first site last fall (some 700 users) and began marketing in January with two additional sites. MCI WorldCom (70,000 employees worldwide) has recently adopted the ebudgets.com's client-server version (Helmsman), favoring its ease of implementation on an already existing Oracle database and its extremely attractive scalability (more analytical detail, data, and user capacity), with the intention, if all goes well, to migrate to the Web protocol with in two years. Another client, a $100 million Virginia insurance company also relishes the level of detail afforded in ebudgets' line item discretion."The bigger companies are no longer satisfied with getting the summary totals from branch offices," says Tom Scott, ebudgets,com's executive vice president.

Actually, the rationale for the reverse marketing pattern (Internet to intranet) is picking up steam. It makes sense that a large concern that might ultimately want to license and use the application for its own intranet will first choose to try out an ASP deployment in budgeting-cycle midstream, without immediately having to work out all the wrinkles with its IT department and database server. "It's a low-risk strategy for testing the product," says Tom Scott.

Some vendors require three-year commitments, which is tantamount to an outsourcing function, complete with supplying the client with workstation hardware. Other vendors require as little as a one-month start-up. Scott is delighted that ebudgets "came up with a breakthrough this summer [the six-month commitment]. Take about three weeks to get on board. Get through the current budget cycle. Then decide whether to renew."

The minimum entry point for five users is $1,000 per month, with a $1,500 implementation fee. This fall ebudgets is signing up two international distributors, one in Taiwan, one in South America. Regional hosted ASP services is the goal. Initially, the Taiwan platform will be hosted in the United States, allowing for the optimal supervisory and maintenance advantage.