Development Service Links AppGenesys, Intel

Outsourcer AppGenesys.com Inc. is expanding its application- development,-testing, and-monitoring services through a deal with Intel Online Services Inc., a subsidiary of Intel. AppGenesys will help clients build and test applications, and Intel Online will sell ongoing monitoring and hosting of that software.

AppGenesys' services cover app staging, testing, deployment, and ongoing maintenance. The company offers a hosted staging environment in which clients can build new applications outside their production systems. Clients not wanting to use AppGenesys' hosting service can opt for a "copy-exact" environment, where hardware and software are shipped to them to build apps separate from their own systems. In the testing phase, AppGenesys provides a remote hosted testing service for applications built in the staging phase.

The company will install monitoring code before passing applications along to Intel Online. AppGenesys.com previously offered its clients access to a co-location facility for hosting their applications. Staging services, which usually last one to four months, are priced at about $20,000 per month, depending upon the scope of the project. Testing services range from $50,000 to $100,000. Pricing for the monitoring phase is based upon Intel's cost of providing the ongoing hosted environment.

Caryn Gillooly, a senior analyst with Hurwitz Group, says the success of AppGenesys' services model will depend on how well the company integrates the applications that it helps clients develop and host. Says Gillooly: "Customers should be looking more at business-process management and the integration of this information with other areas of the infrastructure, because applications don't operate in a vacuum."