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IT companies help create supply-chain management service

The Institute for Information Industry (資策會) and 10 local information technology manufacturers yesterday launched a business-to-business (B2B) supply chain service company, StarBex International Inc (星動科技).

"I believe our e-hub service will help local enterprises, especially the small and medium-sized companies, save costs while enhancing efficiency to communicate with their customers worldwide," Lin Ferng-ching (林逢慶), chief executive of the institute and chairman of StarBex, said during the launch ceremony yesterday.

StarBex is a spin-off of a government-supported program launched in September 2002 by the institute and local IT companies -- including BenQ Corp (明基電通), AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), Lite-On Technology Corp (光寶科技), Elitegroup Computer Systems Co (精英電腦) and Accton Technology Corp (智邦科技) -- which invested NT$200 million in the new company.

saving costs

The program developed a standardized e-platform, which provides companies with end-to-end supply chain management solutions. The idea was to help companies save costs in developing their own enterprise resource planning in response to customer needs.

StarBex has since formed strategic alliances with other major e-logistics companies such as Global eXchange Services Inc, the world's largest provider of Internet electronic data interchange services, GT Nexus Inc and Viacore Inc, which provide supply chain integration services to Cisco Systems Inc, Hewlett-Packard Co, Dell Inc and other multinational IT companies.

"In a short time, we hope to become the largest e-logistics provider for the IT industry in the greater Chinese region or in the Asia-Pacific region. In the long-run, we anticipate becoming the largest in the world," said Teresa Lin (林美華), general manager of StarBex.

As of the end of last year, there were more than 1,200 local IT suppliers and logistics companies using the service, making deals last year worth more than NT$200 billion and saving customers NT$950 million, Lin said.

The overwhelming response helped the program break even in its first year of operation, Lin said.

One technologist, however, suggested that StarBex work on software compatibility before getting too ambitious.

"Many companies have come up with their own systems already, so the problem for StarBex would be making its platform compatible with all kinds of data formats, which is a big challenge," said Ethan Tsai (蔡易達), product manager of CyberDaemons Corp (迪麥科技), a Hsinchu-based provider of Web-native software and services for the semiconductor industry.
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