The Straits Times
September 2001

GridNode promises fast moves in supply chain

IMAGINE this: each time an order is placed for a personal computer online or over the phone, the PC vendor's suppliers receive the requisite orders to ship all relevant components within the hour.

And should a particular product fall out of favor quickly, our nimble suppliers are just as quick to stop making it and turn to the next 'in' thing. Super-fast and highly efficient - but existing only in our imagination?

Not so, says Leow Chee Tong, founder and managing director of Gridnode Pte Ltd. Because disk drive maker Seagate has already taken a step in realizing that vision. And the technology it is using to make it happen is GridNode's GridTalk, a new peer-to-peer (P2P) solution from a startup company in the supply chain space.

Gridnode is a beneficiary of the Economic Development Board's Technopreneurship 21 scheme, which is backed by investment from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, the Walden group, and First Taiwan Venture Capital.

It aims to show just how quickly an entire community of trading partners can react to every whim and fancy of the consumer. Its new offering, which has excited MNCs such as Seagate, uses P2P technology to integrate the enterprise systems of players in high technology manufacturing industries.

Gridtalk is an XML-based software that allows business supply chains to exchange business documents, automate workflows and synchronize shared data directly with those of their partners over the Internet in real-time.

Developed in Java with RosettaNet standard compliance, GridTalk runs off any PC, notebook, server or net appliance. Designed with built in security features and audit functions, it will work with existing network infrastructure and enterprise systems such as supply-chain management, enterprise resource planning, and customer relationship management.

Promising seamless and near real-time information exchange - just what the vertical portals and B2C marketplaces need - it is affordable (costing less than US$2,000 a year), does not require servers, is easy to install and integrate, and is based on the open standards of XML and RosettaNet. Most important of all, it is live and running.

This explains why Seagate is so keen on it. From now on, the company can ensure that its suppliers will be able to respond to its demands for disk drive components within minutes, using Gridnode's new P2P technology.