B2B Connectivity Hub Seeks to Link Multinationals, Suppliers in China

Motorola among first to sign up for RosettaNet program to link with small, midsize enterprises in Chinese market

Beijing — January 19, 2005 — A new B2B connectivity hub has debuted in China, promising to make it easier, faster and less costly for multinational companies to integrate with thousands of small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) across China.

Motorola and Tianjin Jinya Electronics Co., Ltd. (Jinya) are the first companies to sign up to use the new hub, which was set up in conjunction with RosettaNet and B2B connectivity specialist E2open.

The China B2B Hub is a project of CLTC, the Productivity Center for e-Business and Logistics located in the Beijing Zhongguancun High-tech Development Area. CLTC provides collaborative supply chain solutions and management services, as well as a best-of-breed technology platform and services targeted at SMEs in China.

CLTC said that the China B2B Hub is designed to be a Chinese government-endorsed standard for use by China-based SMEs to effectively integrate with multinational corporations. "The China B2B Hub provides a cost-effective supply chain and logistics solutions for SMEs in China, minimizing the risk and deployment time for a traditional B2B integration solution," CLTC said in a statement.

Leveraging the China B2B Hub, multinationals can integrate their supply chain with thousands of China-based companies, including OEM partners, suppliers, logistics providers and distributors, according to CLTC. The benefits could include reduced purchasing costs and lower costs for parts and materials handling.

For the hub, CLTC is working closely with RosettaNet China, which was established by a partnership between the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and RosettaNet Global. RosettaNet China is supported by several Chinese government ministries.

CLTC also received support from the Ministry of Commerce (MOC), the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) and the China Association for Standardization (CAS) for the hub project.

Motorola and Tianjin Jinya Electronics Co., Ltd. (Jinya) are the first companies to use the China B2B hub to execute RosettaNet-based B2B transactions.

CLTC partnered with E2open Inc. to power the China B2B Hub. E2open, of Redwood City, Calif., is a provider of software-as-a-service to manage inter-company processes such as inventory management, order management, demand/supply synchronization and multi-tier visibility, integrating trading partners across multiple tiers of distributed global supply and demand networks.

E2open brings to the project an existing ecosystem of more than 6,000 multinationals and trading partners with supply chains and distribution networks extending into China, according to CLTC.

For more information on the challenges and opportunities presented by increasingly global supply chains, see the special in-depth report in the August/September 2004 issue of Supply & Demand Chain Executive, which includes the following articles:

• Making Global Supply Chains Work  Supply and demand chain practitioners take on the challenges and opportunities of world marketplace.


• The Hidden Costs of a Global Supply & Demand Chain - Veteran industry observers warn of potential hidden costs of offshoring.


• Mastering the Complexity Challenge in the Global Supply Chain - While many companies are acting globally, they are still thinking locally.


• Ensuring Security of Supply in the Lean Supply Chain - Balancing the demands of security with the requirements of today's lean supply chains


• The World Is Enough - Making the global high-tech supply chain more accessible.

For more information on the global supply chain, with a focus on security issues, see "Building the Secure Supply Chain," the Net Best Thing article in the June/July 2003 issue of iSource Business (now Supply & Demand Chain Executive) magazine.