ITAA issues guidelines for ASP contracting -- GCN

ITAA issues guidelines for ASP contracting

Jul 16, 2001

By Susan M. Menke

GCN Staff

JULY 16—Few agencies so far have hired application service providers to host their software applications, and the Information Technology Association of America says the reason is 'serious confusion' about how to do it [GCN, June 25, Page 1].

ITAA, an Arlington, Va., industry group, last week released results of a survey of government purchasing officials. The survey said agencies usually choose app services that are already commercially available, so they should write their contracts using the customary commercial terms as far as possible. Federal Acquisition Regulation 52.212 details terminology for commercial-item contracting.

The association said agencies should set service levels in their ASP agreements, such as percentage of monthly app availability, and identify any planned outages. Agreements should specify security methods, including physical security, and name penalties such as lower fees for reduced availability or termination for chronic underperformance.

The association's ASP guidelines appear in Adobe Portable Document format at www.itaa.org/asp/itaaslafed.pdf.

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