Welcome to the Initiative. Make yourself at home as you learn about the next generation of business-to-business applications and how Internet Business Services are energizing the industry.
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The Internet Business Services Initiative (IBSi) is a mutual benefit, non-profit corporation formed to assist companies in providing better software solutions to the marketplace.
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The work of the Initiative is carried out through member committees, the Board of Directors and executive staff. The IBSi also sponsors periodic members-only marketing and technical forums and a series of educational seminars and events that are open to the industry.
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Formed in December 1999, the Initiative has announced a general road map for standards development, held its first membership meeting and is developing a series of educational seminars. It offers a speakers bureau with industry and technical experts, and participates in relevant trade events.
Read Morewelcome to iBSi
The primary business of an Internet Business Service is to
develop,
host and service business-to-business applications
designed from
the ground-up for deployment over the Web. The IBS model
leverages
this Web-native platform to lower the cost of software,
reduce the
risk in automating a business and improve accessibility.
While computing is second nature to business these days,
the time
and money required to purchase, install, maintain and
upgrade software
is often a major impediment to growth. IT staffs and
budgets are
further stretched as companies go mobile and off-site
personnel
require access to corporate software and data.
In recent years the industry has looked to the Internet as
a platform
to address these issues, with varying degrees of success.
Application
Service Providers (ASPs) took the route of adapting
existing client/server
applications for use over the Internet and moving the
software from
the user's facilities to their offsite servers. The
third-party
ASPs then host and maintain the applications with
customers typically
renting an assigned number of user seats. Fees can range
from hundreds
of dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars each month
and often
require a major expenditure to deploy an application,
upgrade to
a new release or increase the number of users.
Internet Business Services have taken a different approach
by developing
new software applications that are specifically designed
to be available
to thousands of users simultaneously over the Web. With
the one-to-many
IBS architecture, customers access specific applications
directly
from the supplier. The monthly subscription for an IBS,
for example
an accounting or sales force management application, can
start at
less than ten dollars per user. Since Internet Business
Services
are owned and hosted by the supplier, customers generally
are not
charged for feature upgrades.
The IBS model leverages the economies of scale inherent in
the Internet
by creating a direct relationship between the customer and
supplier.
Internet Business Services answer directly to the user for
all aspects
of the software development, hosting and customer service.
Users
can access applications anywhere, any time through a
standard browser,
yet there are no upgrades, costs are lower and there is a
single
source accountable for uptime.