To answer the questions below:

1) The applications are wholly in the possession of USC (through site
licenses) and reside on USC's application servers.  The first time you run
any application, some parts of the application are installed on your hard
drive (e.g., your toolbars).  Henceforth, you can only use the application
after the remainder of it is sent to you when you boot up.  Mac users also
have access to this process but not through the Novell Application Launcher.

2)  It is true that if the application server goes down, we cannnot use
such applications as NetScape, Word, etc.  However, I've installed a
standby software folder on each desktop to use in these cases.  E.g., MS
Interenet Explorer comes as part of the operating system and can be used in
place of NetScape.  Obviously, we cannot operate in full blown mode, but
management is satisfied that we can get through emergencies.  Also, we've
encountered great reliability with USC's servers.  Finally, some even
welcome downtime because it's the only tiome to catch up on such things as
filing.

3) In my previous email I did not specifiy that the cost of $75/node is
$75/node/year.

4) For someone like myself who does computer/network support as part of my
job, this arrangement has really cut doen on maintenance of each node and
made problem resolution easier.

At 09:48 Am 4/10/2000 -0500, you wrote:
>Out of curiosity, is this software "rented" through an application service
>provider or is it maintained on a Novell server? Is it available via LAN
>directly or via the Internet through a LAN gateway? I've seen a lot lately
>about application providers using Internet-based services, but I haven't
>heard a lot yet about how things have worked out from the user perspective.
>Research administration being largely deadline driven, I would worry that
>the Internet (or LAN) connection would be down for users within 24 hours of
>a deadline or something like that. It still seems here that the print
>servers go down a day or two before major NIH deadlines...Bill
>
>Bill Caskey, PhD
>Director, Research & Grants Administration
>Children's Mercy Hospital
>2401 Gillham Road
>Kansas City, MO  64108

Joe Titone
Dept. of Contracts and Grants
Univ. of Southern California
xxxxxx@mizar.usc.edu
213 740-6069

======================================================================
 Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including
 subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available
 via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists")
======================================================================