[announce] Hermes Deployed in New e-Procurement Project

["Dorris Tai" <cwtai@cecid.hku.hk>]

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Hermes Deployed in New MTR e-Procurement Vendor
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Hong Kong SAR, Peoples Republic of China - February 4, 2005 - Center for
E-Commerce Infrastructure Development (CECID), The University of Hong Kong
(HKU) has completed a new e-procurement project for MTR Corporation, the
operator of Hong Kong's urban metro railway and bigboXX.com, an e-commerce
portal providing a wide range of office supplies and business services to
corporate customers in Hong Kong. The project involves the deployment of our
B2B Connector, at MTR and the deployment of Hermes to bigboXX.com's existing
procurement portal. The e-procurement system is in production after testing
on the business systems at both companies. 

The B2B Connector, which is a stand-alone internet appliance powered by
Hermes, at MTR receives electronic invoices and statements
from bigboXX.com. The benefit of using the B2B Connector lies in the
ease of integration with MTR's existing Electronic Goods Receiving System.
With the web-based procurement system, MTR can send their orders to
bigboXX.com online and all the orders are sent directly to the backend
system of bigboXX.com. As soon as the goods are delivered to MTR, an
electronic invoice is sent from bigboXX.com through Hermes to MTR reliably
and securely. When the invoice reaches the B2B Connector in MTR, it is put
into MTR's own intranet application and hence reconciliation can be
automatically performed. Statements from bigboXX.com to MTR are sent on a
monthly basis following the same mechanism.

About MTR Corporation (http://www.mtrcorp.com):
Carrying an average 2.3 million passengers each weekday, the MTR has been
confirmed by recent benchmarking studies as one of the world's finest
railways for reliability, customer service and cost efficiency. Besides
railway operations, the Corporation is also actively involved in the
development of key residential and commercial projects above existing
stations and along new line extensions as well as many other commercial
activities associated with the railway including rental of retail and
advertising space, ATM banking facilities and personal telecommunication
services. It also provides consultancy services to organizations worldwide.

About bigboXX.com (http://www.bigboxx.com):
bigboXX.com is a leading B2B operator supplying a comprehensive range of
office products and services to corporate customers. It is Hong Kong's
largest office supplies provider with over 8,000 product offerings
specializing in stationery, paper, computer, furniture and breakroom items.
In addition to office supplies, bigboXX.com is fully established in other
core disciplines including a Print Center which caters for digital and
offset printing, a Premium Center that sources gift items for promotions and
Records Management to offer secure document storage solutions. bigboXX.com
is an e-commerce operation of Hutchison Whampoa Limited.

About CECID (www.cecid.hku.hk)
Established in January 2002, Center for E-Commerce Infrastructure
Development (CECID) at the University of Hong Kong conducts e-commerce
research and development with the vision of helping organizations increase
their competitiveness in the global economy. CECID develops e-commerce
enabling technologies, participates in important international e-commerce
initiatives, supports e-commerce standardization for Hong Kong and the Asia
Pacific Region, and transfers e-commerce technology and skills to the
community. With projects primarily funded by the Hong Kong Government's
Innovation and Technology Commission, CECID is an active member of OASIS and
the ebXML Asia Committee. The Center also collaborates with a number of lead
technology users in the Asia-Pacific Region on turning R&D results into
real-life business applications. CECID's contributions to the community
include its code donation of Hermes and ebMail to freebXML
(www.freebxml.org) and the production of an in-depth design and management
guide on XML Schemas for the Hong Kong Government. CECID is currently
developing a plug-and-play Internet appliance for secure and reliable
transmission of electronic documents based on ebXML/ Web Services.

PR Contacts for Press and Analysts:
Dorris Tai (cwtai@cecid.hku.hk)
Business Manager
Center for E-Commerce Infrastructure Development (CECID)
Dept. of Computer Science
The University of Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2859 2818
Fax: +852 2547 4611
URL: www.cecid.hku.hk