Most legal extranet and law firm portal systems are provided by ASP's. This stands for "Application Service Provider". What is an ASP? It is a company that provides computer applications that run within their own data center. The clients of the application system connect to it via the internet.
This is quite different from the traditional model where a company or individual purchases software from a software vendor, than installs it on their own personal computer or server.
Why are ASP's sprouting up and what is good about them? They significantly lessen the complexity of putting new application systems up within an organization. Since one does not need to bother with setting up new hardware (servers) or installing software, one can focus on learning to use the software and making sure it possesses the features and functionality required to support a business process. And, obviously, technical support issues are identified and resolved by the ASP (not your company's IT group), typically resolved swiftly since the provision of the software application to clients is their core competency.
ASP's also typically provide subscription based pricing models that provide more of a "pay as you go" model - fewer startup costs replaced by a series of monthly usage payments.
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