BT and IBM team up to chase SMEs with ASP offering

BT 's broadband division, BT Ignite, pinpointed another target this morning when it announced plans to offer ASP-type collaborative tools to SMEs.

The company has teamed up with IBM, Intel and Lotus Software (which is owned by IBM) to provide pay-as-you-go access to applications hosted in BT's data centres.

Initially three applications will be made available: Lotus iNotes, Sametime and QuickPlace running on Intel-powered Compaq servers.

Mark Lindsay, Lotus product manager at BT Ignite, said: "The idea is to offer a comprehensive platform with a range of scalable applications on a secure server. SMEs have the same concerns as corporates but without the financial resources.

"However, they want more sophisticated applications than consumers but aspire to the SLAs [service level agreements] and security that corporates can afford."

BT Ignite already offers similar services to larger businesses.

Users pay on a per application, per month basis, depending on whether the subscription is for standalone applications or an array of tools.

Prices are graded according to the number of users. For example, one month's rental for 50 users of all three applications costs £17 per user, or £14 per user for up to 499 employees.

A 50-seat SME could set up an entire collaborative work environment for under £10,000 a year, said Lindsay.

BT currently charges its corporate collaborative users £4,500 set up costs for building a dedicated platform. These charges would be waived for SMEs.

BT is in discussions with IBM, said Lindsay, about the possibility of developing future applications.