Cont.....

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

Since 1999 ecL has built on its WMS core to cover the management of transport, procurement, business-to-retail e-commerce and courier services and has also developed modules for business reporting and integration with ERP systems.

"The innovation strategy has proven successful both for attracting investors and customers who don't necessarily use all the functions but appreciate that we continually push out the boundaries for them," said Hsu.

These days, the WMS database contains over 50,000 individual SKUs (stock keeping units) on behalf of ecL's 30 customers. According to Yip, more than 1,000-end users across the region regularly access WMS through a Web browser yet and the server has never really been stressed by these loads.

And this despite the fact that, in 2002, Yip decided to take advantage of the availability of IBM's market-leaded WebSphere

Application Server (WAS) on the iSeries to "collapse" one layer of ecL's three-layer applications architecture on to the core platform.

"We had been using the open-source Apache Tomcat Web application server running an Intel-based Linux system to handle our middleware functions. We realised that, for various reasons, this was not viable a long term solution. WebSphere, which supports the Java 2 Enterprise Edition standard, represented a good alternative," said Yip.

Migration of ecL's Java application code to WebSphere was not without issues but Yip said IBM provided good support to help smooth the process. The result of its effort, however, has been very rewarding for ecL. Not only was ecL able to deliver an improved user interface and better performance to customers, but it also started to receive industry-wide recognition for its achievements.

In early 2003 ecL won the 1st Place Application Gold Award in the Hong Kong IT

Excellence Awards organised by the Hong Kong Computer Society and sponsored by the Hong Kong SAR Government. And at the close of the year it followed this up by receiving an Asia Pacific ICT Award, after WMS was selected as a winner by the judging panel ahead of entries from 10 other countries.

"The success we've built on our IBM iSeries foundation has enabled us to start changing our business model to move beyond being an application service provider toward being technology driven logistics company. The revenues are small at the moment but the margins are considerably better," said Hsu.

In early 2004 ecL started licensing its software to the Huaxin Group, nationwide distribution company in China which serves 200 suppliers and a network of 30,000 retail outlets, whose operations ecL had previously served through its ASP model. The completeness of ecL's WMS solution and its proven ability to handle 7 x 24 operations were persuasive factors in the deal.

"To our fellow start-ups the decision to base our applications on IBM's iSeries may have seemed unusual but, like our company, our systems have stood the test of time. That's a lot more than can be said by most start-ups and shows that our trust in IBM was not misplaced," said Hsu.