Abstract: A method and apparatus is disclosed for managing administrative data transfers to/from hosted applications. Administrative data transfers (ADT) include: application maintenance and electronic data transfers (EDT). In an embodiment of the invention an application manager is provided for managing a plurality of host servers each hosting a corresponding application accessible to clients across a network for the exchange of client data. The application manager manages ADT for at least one of application maintenance of the corresponding application and electronic data transfers (EDT) between selected ones of the clients on the network and selected ones of the plurality of host servers. In an embodiment of the invention a control file manager is disclosed which is accessible to an administrative member of each group of clients for managing setup, scheduling and execution of control files for each client group. Each control file defines an ADT with a data source, a data target, and a schedule for effecting the ADT.

Abstract: Apparatus and methods to manage demand, service level agreements, hardware and software assets, projects, labor, knowledge and provisioning resources in hosted applications. An asset manager coupled to host servers and a network, manages the host servers and software to determine the demand for new assets and allocate available assets to meet the demand; determine assets not in compliance with existing software licenses; determine and compare actual service level metrics with the target service level metrics; and determine availability of a patch or upgrade for selected software and instances of the selected software among the assets. The asset manager may be coupled to other managers, e.g., contract, product, work and/or accounting managers, to monitor service level metrics and/or costs.