CATSWeb On-Demand Solutions

Innovative companies know that success comes from focusing on core competencies. Activities that do not directly add value to the final product or service are best outsourced to key vendors and strategic partners. Internet technology has now evolved to a point where companies can outsource one more activity: developing, maintaining, and delivering manufacturing software solutions.

AssurX provides innovative companies with an alternative easy-to-use, secure, and reliable enterprise quality solution that is accessed over the Internet for a low monthly fee. Benefits include:

• Lower Costs - AssurX applications are available for a low, pay-as-you-go monthly fee. The large up-front cost of traditional purchased software applications is non-existent.
  
• Rapid Deployment - AssurX applications can be fully configured and available to your users within hours of signing up for the service. No complex, time-consuming, and expensive server and client installations are required.
  
• No System Administration - Traditional purchased software applications must be managed and administered by qualified information systems personnel. AssurX performs these functions for you, freeing you and your staff to focus on your company's core competencies.
  
• Ubiquitous Access - Extend the workplace beyond the plant and office. Work anytime, anywhere that you have an Internet connection.
  
• Minimal Client Hardware Requirements - AssurX applications can be accessed from any computer, on any operating system, on any Web browser (Firefox, IE, Safari, Netscape) and an Internet connection. Computers that are considered obsolete for many applications will work great as network computers accessing AssurX on-demand solutions.
  
• Real-time, Free Upgrades - Upgrades and new features are automatically and transparently available to your users as soon as they are released. No installation is required.
  
• Improved Communications with Key Suppliers and Customers - Selectively allow key business partners to have real-time access to your system, increasing customer satisfaction and tightening strategic bonds. You determine what functions each user can perform.
  
• Flexible Software Delivery - AssurX applications are also available for purchase, for those companies who prefer to run the software on their own servers or in their own data center.

Reliability By Design
Imagine a manufacturing system that has at least two of every resource: two sets of machinery and tools, two sets of production workers, supervisors, electrical power supplies, raw material inventories, telephone systems, shipping companies, computer networks, etc. If anything in the manufacturing process failed for any reason, a backup resource would immediately and automatically come online, allowing production to continue without interruption.

AssurX partners with top-tier hosting providers that offer exactly this type of design. If you require mission-critical reliability and availability, we can configure your hosted solution with a fully redundant system architecture containing no single points of failure. Backup power systems and multiple high-speed connections to the Internet assure that your applications and data are virtually always available. Few in-house data centers can offer this degree of redundancy and reliability.

Security Without Compromise
Your manufacturing data may include trade secrets which are competitive advantages for your firm. We understand how critical and sensitive your data is. All of our applications are delivered through managed firewalls in the SAS 70 Type II certified data centers via Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), the standard security protocol used for e-commerce on the Internet. Our engineers constantly monitor the firewalls and keep current on industry best practices, updating security policies as necessary to fend off attacks from "hackers" and other unauthorized users. Your data is confidential, available only to you and selected AssurX technical support personnel (on an as-needed basis to provide support for you and your users).

Freedom from Technical Headaches
Manufacturing is challenging enough without having to worry about computer, network, or software problems. Keeping up with the never ending cycle of upgrades and service packs in traditional software systems is a significant resource drain. Even routine administration tasks such as performing daily system backups, monitoring system performance, etc. take time and energy that could best be spent on your core competencies. Partnering with AssurX eliminates all these technical burdens and headaches.