This story is interesting, at least to me. IBM recently paid a hefty amount of money ($187 million) for a relatively unknown company, Corio. Apparently, IBM sees a lot of potential profit in the services Corio offers and wants to make sure that they get in on it.

Corio is an application service provider, the reporter comments

That may seem like a lot of money to pay for a company most people have never heard of and for an idea–application service providing, or renting out applications over the Internet–that was blown out of proportion by hype four years ago and has been subject to some ridicule since then. IBM is a pretty stingy company, and it rarely falls for its own spin, so perhaps server, software, security, and networking technology have matured to the point that the ASP idea, which both Corio and IBM independently refer to as applications on demand to try to duck the whole ASP comparison, might start to go a little more mainstream.

ASPs are used often in the business world to promote collaboration. They are nifty tools that the Church should consider using. The market would indicate that they offer true value.