From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Organization that provides services to other organizations
A
service provider
(
SP
) is an organization that provides services, such as consulting, legal, real estate, communications, storage, and processing services, to other organizations. Although a service provider can be a sub-unit of the organization that it serves, it is usually a third-party or
outsourced
supplier. Examples include
telecommunications service providers
(TSPs),
application service providers
(ASPs),
storage service providers
(SSPs), and internet service providers (ISPs).
[
citation needed
]
A more traditional term is
service bureau
.
IT professionals sometimes differentiate between service providers by categorizing them as type I, II, or III.
[1]
The three service types are recognized by the IT industry although specifically defined by
ITIL
and the U.S.
Telecommunications Act of 1996
.
- Type I: internal service provider
- Type II: shared service provider
- Type III: external service provider
Type III SPs provide IT services to external customers and subsequently can be referred to as external service providers (ESPs)
[2]
which range from a full IT organization/service outsource via
managed services
or MSPs (managed service providers) to limited product feature delivery via ASPs (
application service providers
).
[3]
Types
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]
See also
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References
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Further reading
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]
- Hall, Mark (7 February 2000). "Service Providers Give Users More IT Options".
Computerworld
: 40.
- "Mapping the xSP world".
CIO
: S8?S10. 15 September 2001.
External links
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]