ECnet: Becoming a Global Player

This case discusses the challenges a Singapore-based company faced in attempting to become a global player in the supply chain management software market. The company experienced early successes as a regional company and in March 1999, relocated its headquarters from Singapore to Silicon Valley to build its North America business and to build credibility with U.S. investors, with the hope of going public in 2000. However, ECnet, faced a number of unexpected internal and external challenges that forced it to postpone its IPO and to revamp its business model. The primary challenges facing the company in the spring of 2001 were to overcome U.S. companies’ perception of ECnet’s managed service model as a direct threat to the security of their data and proprietary information and to scale ECnet’s solution to other divisions within the company’s existing client base. Finally, these challenges were global in scope and would be orchestrated from ECnet’s headquarters in Mountain View, California.