Automate Those Spinning Plates

PlateSpin's latest research, commissioned from Ernst & Young, shows what service providers want—software like PlateSpin's that will cut costs, increase per-customer revenues, and increase customer trust.

by ISP-Planet Staff [April 18, 2001]

Toronto, Canada-based PlateSpin, a deployment automation software vendor, announced the completion of industry research by Ernst & Young into the needs of service providers.

Even in an ever-softer job market, PlateSpin's research found that over 60% of service providers consider finding and keeping qualified technology personnel and meeting customers' security demands among their greatest operational and infrastructure challenges.

Said Mark Verdun, PlateSpin CEO and co-founder, "We wanted to understand the market better than our competitors. We felt we needed to do some grass roots roll-up-the-sleeves type of work."

Decide what to do. . .
The object of the research was to learn what the market was looking for and where hosted services can be effective.

Automated deployment and management of services allows companies with a shortage of skilled specialists to optimally deploy those specialists in revenue-generating tasks, leaving the repetitive administrative tasks to the software. This can alleviate the staffing problem identified by the research. It's surely no coincidence that PlateSpin automates the deployment, installation, management, and billing of server-based resources.

Ernst & Young also noted that security is a major issue for service providers, as corporations are cautious about allowing service providers to handle proprietary and sensitive data.

Said Brian Ford, Ernst & Young's Senior Manager, Information Systems, Assurance and Advisory Services, "Automated solutions that help service providers manage the complexities of service provisioning and scaling the infrastructure should enable the implementation, execution and monitoring of customer service at a reasonable cost and temper customers' concerns about trusting a third party."

The research did not employ a separate survey, but instead gathered organic research within Ernst & Young's ISP and telecom consulting practice from aggregators, ASPs, ASP aggregators, broadband telecom service providers, and ISPs who are webhosts. Verdun noted that packaged applications can serve the lower-end of the market, where companies need software that can deliver services cost-effectively and reliably to a lot of people.

He said that the low-end of the webhosting business is about making small margins on a large volume of business.

He also noted that service providers entering this market need to understand a complex value chain from hosting centers and resellers down to self-implementations by small clients in need of minimal services.

. . . and then do it
Said Verdun, "ISPs need to determine what their core competencies are and figure out where they fit in the value chain, so they can determine their partners. Everybody needs partners."

PlateSpin announced the completion of its first institutional round of investment on February 21, 2001. The $7.5 million round included investments from the Intel 64 Fund and Castle Hill Ventures.

On January 5, 2001, PlateSpin was selected by Ernst & Young as one of "50 of today's best new technology companies—all screened for the value of their technology, the importance of their markets, and the partnering opportunities they offer right now."

PlateSpin is a member of the ASP Industry Consortium (ASPIC).

— End