Interliant, a Houston-based network service provider, will launch appsonline.com, a Web site which the company claims is the first online catalog of rentable business applications.
Consumers may shrug at the notion of renting software applications, but businesses that want to set up complex, interactive applications may be more receptive to the idea.
"We're seeing two different markets emerge for rentable applications," said Jim Lidestri, president and CEO of Interliant. "There are those who plan to use the software only once or a few times, and those that may not have time or resources to deploy the software themselves."
Interliant will offer an eclectic selection of five rentable applications, ranging in price from US$15 to $5,000 per month, and catering to a range of vertical markets. Skillset Software's Employment Exhange app is built for HR departments to interact with prospective recruits over the Internet; Earley & Associate's Year 2000 Risk Management app will assess the potential for disaster once the new millennium rings in; and TitleLink LLC's transaction processing app can be used to close real-estate deals from a home office.
At the lower end, companies that use Lotus Notes can now rent Lotus' Instant Teamroom for $15 per month per user, and set up virtual workgroups over the Internet. More of a service than an application, Instant Teamroom is similar to HotOffice Technologies' rentable suite of collaboration tools, HotOffice. That suite is currently offered by such national ISPs as GTE, MindSpring, and GST Telecommunications.
Beginning next week, ZipLink will offer HotOffice, as well as Microsoft's NetMeeting to facilitate whiteboard sessions and videoconferencing over the Internet. Unlike Instant Teamroom, ISPs don't host HotOffice themselves -- the service and technical support comes directly from Boca Raton-based HotOffice Technologies. For an extra $12.95 per month, HotOffice customers can also get email, share calendars and other documents, and make travel arrangements or check the status of shipped packages from major shipping carriers.
