So he partnered with FailSafe Corp. Pte Ltd - a joint venture betweenSingapore Telecommunications Ltd and FailSafe Holdings - and parked hisentire ERP infrastructure at their premises. The calculated gambleworked. "FailSafe gave us an infrastructure that is 24x7 and is assecure as a bank vault - a key requirement since we house theintellectual property for all the major software houses on ourpremises," says Karlsson.

It has also allowed EastGate to offer a level of service that wouldhave taken millions of dollars of investment to offer. "Ours initiallywas only around US$450,000, in comparison. Yet we improved our on-timedelivery performance by 20 percent, and cut our inventory holding downby 30 percent to a mere six days of stock holding, instead of theusual 11 days," says Karlsson.

"By outsourcing the ERP system, we were able to significantly reduceour upfront investments, operational and manpower costs," saysKarlsson. "We now have peace of mind."