Milinx Maynard L. Dokken CEO Featured on World Business Review

December 7, 2000 - Milinx Maynard L. Dokken CEO Featured On World Business Review to discuss how the ASP model affects the business landscape, and how Milinx is dealing with the prospect of commoditization of the ASP industry. He also describes what Milinx is doing to enable customers to build communities within the secure ASP space. "Our goal is to become the leading global ASP in the SME market sector of business communications, productivity and e-commerce," said Dokken.

Vinton Cerf, vice president of WorldCom and Internet pioneer, serves as industry expert on the panel. He explained the reason that the ASP model makes so much sense in spite of the loss of control that it represents for companies. "I think the critical factor here is cost and cost savings. A company today, if it has to buy software and as you point out, put it into a whole bunch of PCs and then maintain that, it's going to find potentially higher cost then it would otherwise," said Cerf.

Milinx Business Services, Inc., an ASP, provides a complete suite of rented software applications. It provides tools that enable companies to operate more efficiently and economically in a secure operating environment. The company rents these applications, stored on its own servers, to businesses and individuals for a monthly fee. This delivery model reduces the cost of software used, cuts the implementation time for new software and hardware from months to weeks, and allows for frequent upgrades. It also provides best-of-breed applications, virtually eliminating the need to maintain a large, expensive and increasingly scarce human resource component: internal IT staff.

As companies grapple with the cost and complexities of acquiring and upgrading their systems (hardware and software), many are turning to Application Service Providers (ASPs) to improve their efficiency with respect to their information systems (IS) configuration. The ASP delivery model is a viable means of enabling companies to maximize their competitiveness by freeing up precious financial resources for investment in meeting operational goals. Similarly they are able to lower their IT (information technology) costs to reflect a more attractive bottom line. They are able to focus on core competencies and operations that leverage the strategic objectives of the firm, instead of the intricacies of system implementation, maintenance and upgrade. On show # 814A ("IT & Commerce Optimization Solutions"), World Business Review looks at an ASP that delivers communications, productivity and e-commerce tools to improve efficiency and reduce IT costs.

The ASP model represents a huge advancement in the manner in which companies manage their information assets. Milinx has a key advantage over many ASPs, in that it has instituted a clear and focused strategy to develop demand in, what is, after all, an industry in its nascent stages. Milinx has complete understanding of the need for a simple entry point to ASP computing linked to a logical upgrade route leading to more complex applications. This deep understanding of the technology buying process is a result of Milinx's early adoption of the ASP model, which has led to successful market acceptance among customers from as early as 1998.

The product targeted to the SOHO (small office/home office) sector is comprised of an initial suite of Web presence and e-commerce-enabling tools. Web presence and e-commerce tools allow a company or individual to create their own Web site and sell products and services online. Milinx's three main product suites are Milinx Portal suite, Milinx Communicator Suite and Milinx CRM Suite. These offerings will be augmented in scale and substance in the near term to include a portal suite (Milinx Portal Suite), an electronic storefront (miStore) and a content solution (miContent). The communications suite includes a solution similar to a virtual intranet delivered through the ASP model (miOffice), a unified messaging solution (miMessaging), a Virtual Private Network or VPN (miNetwork), an e-storage solution (miStorage), and a billing application (miBiling).

The Milinx suite of products has undergone numerous iterations in response to feedback from clients. The company also devotes considerable effort to R&D. One of the recurrent themes in the ASP industry is the prospect of ASPs enabling groups to create electronic communities within a secure ASP space. To this end, Milinx is developing a customizable portal interface for its clients. It has numerous patents pending, particularly in the areas of biometric encryption, voice context e-mail, voice recognition, and virtual call center environments. The company is also building its own "toolkit," which will enable ease of customization and design for the many applications that it offers.