CHANNEL NEWS

Ingram Micro Inc., Santa Ana, Calif., announced plans to launch a two-tiered service that enables technology solution providers to become application service providers for their customers, while providing ASP vendors with an effective market strategy to reach the information technology channel.

Initially available in the first half of 2001 to a limited group of Sun, Cisco and Citrix-authorized technology solution providers, Ingram Micro's ASP offering features applications, training, technical support and a complementary group of partners to provide services tailored to the needs of end users.

The offering allows technology solution providers to become ASPs, while reducing the infrastructure costs of hosting and delivering these applications and expanding their current ASP offerings, the company said in a Nov. 20 statement announcing the program.

"A well-rounded ASP program is a vital component in helping technology solution providers compete in today's e-business environment," said Kevin Murai, president, Ingram Micro U.S. "Ingram Micro's ASP offering allows our customers to provide services with a pre-packaged business framework at a low cost of capital."

Ingram Micro's ASP package combines services from top ASP partners with participation options that depend on the technology expertise of the solution provider. Services include applications that can be resold to end-user customers as well as infrastructure outsourcing services. Partners include FutureLink, Lake Forest, Calif., and Wizmo Inc., Eden Prairie, Minn.

Ingram Micro, one of the largest global wholesale provider of technology solutions, products and services, had sales exceeding $30 billion for the past four reported quarters.VeriSign Inc. of Mountain View, Calif., will provide public-key infrastructure consulting and application integration support for a number of federal agencies to enable students to use digital certificates to secure online transactions with those agencies.

The agencies, including the departments of Education, Labor and Veterans Affairs and the U.S. Postal Service, are collaborating to offer students a single online interface to federal programs, such as student financial aid applications.

The programs will leverage the government-wide PKI services provided through the General Services Administration's Access Certificates for Electronic Services program. VeriSign will provide digital certificate issuance, renewal and revocation services, online validation services, and PKI consulting and implementation support. Digital certificates serve as electronic credentials to enable secure transactions and communications over the Internet.

Examples of other student services include the Postal Service's change-of-address form and the Veterans Affairs' Web Automated Verification of Enrollment application. Through the ACES program, VeriSign and AT&T Corp. of Basking Ridge, N.J., will enable these applications to use digital signatures to prove end-user identity for online submissions.

VeriSign's support of ACES is expected to promote the acceptance of digital certificate-based security for online government services as the general population gradually becomes familiar with PKI technology and its ability to protect their online privacy.

The AT&T-VeriSign ACES team recently won part of an ACES task order to deliver 500,000 certificates over the next year.