Officials said PwC is currently working on the cost and investment implications. After firming up its plans the company would start scouting for partners for the ASP thrust. These would include telecom companies, ISPs and application providers. Without giving out details, Bharadwaj said PwC would look at a centralised ASP structure. However, success of the services would depend on robustness of the communication infrastructure, he added.

One prospective partner for PwC's ASP thrust could be UK-based Systems Union, a provider of financial management and business software. Speaking to The Financial Express Systems Union chief operating officer, Asia Pacific, Ashley Clarke said his company would like to kick-start ASP operations before the year-end. Systems Union on Wednesday launched the company's financial management software suite SunSystems eBusiness Edition (Version 4.2.6), targetted at mid-market dot.coms companies.

Systems Union and PricewaterhouseCooper have an existing partnership to implement and service financial management solutions in India. Systems Union currently runs three ASP operations in the Asia-Pacific region at Hong Kong, Sidney and Singapore. Clarke said given the spurt in dot.com companies in India, Systems Union would be keen to start ASP services before the year-end along with PricewaterhouseCooper. Clarke said the company has typically invested upto $1 million on each of the ASPs.

With launch of its ASP services in the country the company would be looking at offering SunSystems management and financial solutions to users on a subscription basis through the Net, Clarke said. SunSystems is currently available in 27 languages with over 20,000 customers worldwide. The existing user base for the software application in the country is around 120, officials said. Systems Union is also looking at setting up a development centre in the country at a later date, he added. The company had a turnover of $120 million in 1999.