Assignment

On
Jamcracker
Question 1: What is an Application Service Provider? What factors drive their
emergence?
An  application service provider (ASP) is defined as an enterprise that delivers application
functionality and associated services across a network to multiple customers using a
rental or usage-based transaction-pricing model.
Some of the factors that drove the emergence of ASP are:
 Reduction in cost: ASP helps in lowering delivery costs of IT services.
 Positive Cash Flows: Due to lower infrastructure costs in ASP model, emergence of
ASP arises.
 24*7 Support: Due to expectations of 99.9999% availability of web-based
businesses, there is need of always-on operations which require specialized
expertise that leads to emergence of ASP.
 Scarcity of skilled IT workers: There are shortages of IT skilled workers in industry,
so ASP will help in running IT intensive business activities smoothly with a smaller
number of IT skilled workers.
 Fast Implementation: Implementation of ASP takes less time than local set up of IT
services.

Question 2: How does Jamcracker fit in the ASP space? How would you explain the
Jamcracker business model in 30-seconds or less?
Although, jamcracker is not an ASP but its business concept is based on “Application
Service Providers.” ASPs provided software services—email, word processing, accounting,
and any other services that companies could obtain from software—across the Internet
and Jamcracker cooperated with such ASP partners to combine application services
through its enterprise IT management platform, Jamcracker Enterprise, into
comprehensive offerings, including technical support and billing. So, in this way
Jamcracker fit in the ASP space.
Business Model:
In layman words, Jamcracker is an IT platform which integrates different
applications of individual SAP’s and customises it as a package according to the customer
requirements. With Jamcracker the customer is not burdened with multiple logins to
various applications and individual SAP’s could focus more on operation.
In the 21st century, Jamcracker’s web-based technology promised to keep companies
moving smoothly toward their business objectives and to help them avoid “IT log jams.”

Question 3: Identify two or three critical challenges that Jamcracker must address to
create a credible and sustainable business model. What must they prove? Will they
succeed?
Critical challenges that Jam cracker must address to create a credible and sustainable
business model are:
1. Addressing concerns of customers about uncertainty of service levels, security and
privacy.
2. Need for professional services to assist customers in setting up initial system
configurations.
3. What businesses and companies must be targeted to achieve sustainable growth.
Their vision is to deliver world-class support and make our customers happy.
Yes, they will succeed as:
 if we look into their customer reach in 9 months from February 2000 to June 2001, it
has increased from 10 to 100;
 Also. interest shown by successful technology companies in Jamcracker is sufficient
to confirm the value of what the company is building.