Tech Briefs: November 3-23, 2003

PC DISPOSAL COSTS CAN BE HIGH: Enterprises selling personal computers after three years of ownership receive 3 percent to 5 percent of the original equipment price. However, they would still incur net disposal costs of between $85 and $136 per personal computer, depending on the disposal method, according to a report from technology industry watchers Gartner Inc.

“Sale proceeds vary based on the quantity, method, vintage and condition of the equipment being sold. However, an important consideration is that PCs sold after four years have little economic value and still incur disposal costs,” said Gartner research director Frances O’Brien. Per-PC costs include disconnecting computers from networks, backing up and sanitizing the hard drives, reloading the operating system, testing the equipment and processing payments, and administrative functions, such as paperwork, packing, shipping and handling.

Costs can be even higher when factoring in fines paid for improper disposal and the costs for failing to eliminate important, confidential data residing on drives, Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner further said.

VENDOR GIVE-AWAY SEEKS TO ATTRACT CUSTOMERS AND RESELLERS: IAS Inc., a developer of accounting software for companies outgrowing entry-level packages, launched a product give-away in its home area of Long Island, N.Y., that it hopes will add new resellers as well as users.

In early October, the 12-year-old company, based in Plainview, N.Y., began giving away a special edition of its IAS Visual Advance to the first 1,000 takers on Long Island. Each package given away has a value of over $10,000, the company said.

In addition to adding customers, IAS hopes the campaign will attract Long Island-area resellers seeking to service those new customers, according to sales director Keith Furino. IAS, which develops 15 different modules, makes its source code available, and many of its users operate customized versions.

Prior to the campaign, the company, according to Furino, had about 1,000 customers nationwide, but no customers or resellers on Long Island, just east of Manhattan. The give-away marks the first direct marketing by IAS, which has sold exclusively through its channel.

While its typical customer has from five to 10 system users and operates IAS systems that cost about $6,000, IAS’s customers range from sole operators to companies with up to 40 simultaneous users. For more information, visit the company’s Web site, iasadvance.com.

INTERNET SERVICES FIRM JOINS SYSPRO CHANNEL: Dovetail Internet Technologies, a Shrewsbury, Mass.-based Internet service company, has become certified to resell for manufacturing software developer SysPro.

  “Our traditional business Internet services of Web site hosting, design and programming are a perfect fit with SysPro software,” said Dovetail president Michael Villa. The company’s offerings include Dovetail WMS, a content manager; Dovetail I/E, an intranet/extranet engine; and a business-to-business and business-to-consumer electronic commerce program, Dovetail E-Business.

DEMAND SURFACES FOR INTERNET-BASED APPS: After surviving the extremely harsh business conditions of the past couple of years, applications hosting management and Internet-native software-as-service providers — a category that includes accounting profession-focused Intacct Corp. and NetSuite — are now “in the right place at the right time,” according to Internet business analysts Summit Strategies.

The Boston-based company reports that roughly 25 percent of 184 “IT decision makers” it recently surveyed already use some type of applications management or hosting service, and almost half plan to evaluate these options.

However, its report: “The Survey Says: Applications Hosting and Management Adoption,” also notes that 43 percent of all respondents have no plans to use applications hosting and management whatsoever, and 13 percent have evaluated these services, but decided against using them. The $1,975 report can be purchased at www.summitstrat.com/store/3ss06detail.

-- Compiled by John M. Covaleski

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