Corio Adds Service For Managing IT Resources

The TRM service, dubbed iSRVCE, is a suite of management applications for handling service-level agreements (SLAs), as well as asset, project, labor and knowledge management. It also includes monitoring, security, IT provisioning and disaster-recovery services.

This is Corio's first foray into developing applications. It hopes to sell the service to existing clients but also is considering offering the applications as stand-alone software modules, said Jon Ottman, executive vice president of worldwide markets at the company.

Corio's move to introduce iSRVCE demonstrates an evolution of ASPs as they sign on more customers with existing infrastructures vs. start-ups with little or no IT in place, analysts said. The service, for example, is XML-based, which means it can be integrated with customers' existing systems such as call-center software.

"Corio's and other ASPs' customers have the systems and infrastructure in place, so their job now is to enhance IT and provide tools that IT individuals need to feel empowered with their application services," said Amy Mizoras, an analyst at research firm IDC.

The iSRVCE suite gives IT departments more visibility into and control over Corio's services, Ottman said.

"The chief complaint we were getting from customers was that they had to call us to make even minor changes like adding or deleting a user or inputting a file," he said. "With the new platform, they don't have to wait for us to make changes,they do it themselves."

Future versions of iSRVCE will allow customers to make more advanced changes such as adding more storage, Ottman said. "For now, we have to be careful. . . . It's like turning over the keys of a Ferrari to a teenager," he said.