Gerald Wee

Small and mid-sized organizations will be eligible for project funding, but only if they show a 10-fold improvement in performance

While the concept of portals has been pioneered by the likes of Plumtree Software Inc. and Epicentric Inc., the prospect of gaining control of this lucrative market -- coupled with wide-ranging customer requirements -- have attracted a host of vendors, including application, software, and infrastructure players like IBM Corp. and BEA Systems Inc.

Partnering vendor brand-names, cutting new sales on a regional basis and positioning services in niche areas are helping Asia Pacific ASPs make respectable revenues of US$250,000 on average, according to International Data Corporation in its latest report, Asia/Pacific ASP Roadmap 2001.

With a user base of 35,000 students and staff, the National University of Singapore (NUS) houses one of the region's largest campus networks. Managing it, however, is no easy task, and everything that can make life easier for the school's IT department is more than welcomed.