Versatile iSeries enables e-commerce
Logistics to go the extra mile

Published by IBM China/Hong Kong Limited

Founded at the height of the dot-com boom to support the projected expansion of US-based business-to-consumer website sites into Asia, e-commerce Logistics Ltd (ecL) adapted rapidly to changing market conditions and has emerged as a leader in the Greater China market for e-Logistics services. IBM eServer iSeries form a solid foundation at the heart of ecL's innovative services and also provide a platform for other companies licensing ecL's award-winning software suite.

ecL brings together 24-hour customer care, warehousing, order processing, transportation & logistics, seamless real time data management and technology expertise to meet the varied needs of each link in the supply chain - from suppliers through to manufacturers, distributors, direct marketers and end-consumers. It manages over 1.2 million square feet of warehouse space in 16 logistics centres across China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, supporting the distribution operations of

more than 30 local and multinational customers. In 2003 the company grew by more than 100%.

"When we started the company our chief executive made the point that the business was going to be based on trust. To win the trust of our customers we need trustworthy employees and trustworthy systems," said Simon Hsu, Chairman & CEO of ecL. "We knew that, within both the banking industry and the US logistics industry, IBM's iSeries was held in high regard for its excellent reliability and security so that's what we decided to use as our foundation platform."

While strong buy-in from senior management for strategic technology decisions is what every CIO wants, Anthony Yip, ecL's IT Manager, nonetheless faced the task of developing the company's core Warehouse Management System (WMS) on an unfamiliar platform, having cut his teeth on PC network systems.
"Of course the first thing I did was hire programmers with iSeries experience but I was still responsible for application design. I knew the iSeries' reputation for reliability and low operational overhead and was pleasantly surprised by the logical design of the integrated database system, so there really weren't any issues during our first phase development," recalled Anthony Yip.

Within four months, Yip and his team of 4 application programmers had developed and implemented the first release of WMS. It was not to be their last. Four years later, Yip says only about 20% or their original code remains as WMS has been continually enhanced, based on suggestions from customers and operationsl staff.

"We decided early on that if we were to survive and thrive we'd have to compete through innovation since, as a start-up, we certainly couldn't compete in terms of scale compared to established logistics service providers. So we are always encouraging the IT team to develop new things," said Simon Hsu.

The drive to "develop new things" has resulted in ecL having one of the broadest service offerings of any e-Logistics player in Greater China and vindicated the choice of IBM's iSeries as foundation of its IT infrastructure.

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