Ultimately, Li & Fung hopes that all its suppliers rely on SCMTalksolution and the Internet to improve the supply chains. Adds Ho: "Allthe data will appear in Excel format, which is the most popular toolfor SME suppliers, regardless of the format that the customer hasused. As a result, suppliers can take advantage of basic systemfunctionalities with Internet access and Excel alone. Of course theywill need SCMTalk if they want to further extend the chain orintegrate with in-house applications."

The Great Conversion

Getting 7,000 suppliers hooked on to this system is a challenge. "Theproject was initiated in March this year...and the gateway at Li &Fung has already been completed," says Ho.

Ip adds: "We will implement the solution with our suppliers in phases.We will start with our key suppliers. Once they are hooked up, we willmove on to the next tier and so on."

The first phase, comprising 10 suppliers, is likely to be completed bySeptember. It is, of course, easier to motivate the key suppliers asthey do a lot of business with Li & Fung. Says Ho: "We're hoping thatsmaller suppliers will get excited and jump on to this solution asthey begin to see the benefits accruing to the earlyadopters."