The recent news that CRM hosting company RightNow Technologies has filed for an IPO brought to mind both my dealings with the company in a previous life and of the ongoing validity of the ASP business model. When I worked as vice president of operations at another ASP, our client care team used RightNow for CRM services, including case management and integrated Web access for customers. Using outsourced services through a service provider made sense then and it still makes sense now.

It seems that in the rush to blame someone or something for the bubble and burst of the early 21st century we've thrown the baby out with the bathwater. While many ASPs have struggled to survive the market's slow acceptance of outsourcing, others, such as RightNow, have managed to buck the trend and deliver excellent services to their customers.

It is clear that many applications are excellent candidates for delivery over the Internet. Many of the now-defunct ASPs provided excellent services but were unable to achieve the momentum necessary to overcome the economic downturn and the resulting backlash from skittish investors. The question now becomes which investors and technology visionaries will take on the leadership role in this once-again nascent market.

The emerging IPO marketplace points to RightNow, Salesforce.com, and Google as the current probable banner bearers in the near-term, at least. So should businesses trust their core applications to ASPs? Will Web services introduce new potential for improved service models? I will avoid the oft-used answer of "it depends" and argue that the short answer to both questions is, "Yes."

As a proof point, consider the possible reasons for avoiding the use of service providers. Other than the challenge of the loss of headcount that could result from outsourcing, there are other potential reasons for avoiding service providers. These include the quality of the delivered service, whether the service meets the users' requirements, and the loss of control that can result from having an application hosted by a third-party rather than by the internal IT department. While these are all concerns to be addressed during exploration, they are often overcome by selecting the appropriate service provider for the users' needs.