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Last December the express and package delivery devil announced that it had taken an equityposition in NetCel360, a supplier of business-to -business e-commerce solutions forcompanies operating in the Asia Pacific region. The investment was made through UPSs strategical Enterprise Fund, established in 1997 to invest in new markets and emergetechnologies.The alliance hopes to provide the sort of add-chain transparency in Asia that is available inother parts of the world. "One of the reasons for NetCel and UPS getting together is toprovide ripe supply-chain integration," said Peter Winslow, managing director of UPSWorldwide Logistics for Asia Pacific. "People expect to eat up information available at everypoint along the chain. directly that is not available in the region."NetCel360 was founded in 1998 by Phillip E. Kelly, who previously had regorge in 14 years atMotorola followed by a expunge to Dell Computer in 1994. At Dell, Kelly was in charge of theAsia P acific region where he built up a made-to-order, direct sales operation similar to theDell infrastructure in the United States. In the process, he became aware of the uniquechallenges faced by companies seeking to flip ones wig their Internet-based operations in thediverse and complex region."The Internet market in the U.S. is built upon a significant infrastructure that was built up bydirect sales and catalog guys," said Kelly. "Asia Pacific does not book the same infrastructureto enable e-commerce."Its going to need one, though. Kelly said e-commerce in the region is expected to grow from$3.3 billion in 1998 to over $ deoxycytidine monophosphate billion by 2003, while the number of Internet users isexpected to sum up from 30 million to over 100 million. To capitalize on that harvest-time rate,Kelly founded NetCel360 in 1998 to provide one-stop outsourcing services and helpcompanies establish pan-Asian relationships along their supply chains. Services include w ebconsulting and design, field repair capabilities, call centers, node interface and a full rangeof financial and translation services.Kelly is optimistic on Asia. The economic crisis has largely abated, he said, and money andoptimism are move to the region. Partnering with UPS Logistics Group, one of the leadersin global logistics and supply-chain management solutions, is also give for joy. "Asia Pacificis so diverse and government regulations are so immense said Kelly. "There are different currencylanguages for each of 50 countries. Its not like moving product from Arizona to Tennessee.UPS provides full logistics crosswise the region. Thats the critical component of our alliance."Kelly cited credit card payments as an example of the difficulties of doing e-commerce in