August 8, 2007 -- Apprise Software, Inc. has opened a new full-service center in Nanjing to provide its customers with 24 hour global support. With an eye on the China market, the new office will initially offer support, translation and quality assurance services but will allow Apprise to grow in China in line with customer demand.

"The biggest push for us to open an office in Nanjing was to support our customers," Jeff Broadhurst, president and founder of U.S.-based Apprise Software, told Emerging China. "We did not want to pay extra for a presence in Shanghai or the Hong Kong region and Nanjing filled our requirements for a good transport hub with an excellent university presence to hire students straight out of school."

Apprise specializes in providing a full-range of ERP supply chain management solutions to middle market distributors of consumer product goods. The sector is dominated by companies who produce goods in China to be shipped to the U.S. and sold to big box retailers such as Wal-Mart and Target. According to Broadhurst Apprise is the market leader for this sector, surpassing Microsoft, Oracle and SAP.

Sportcraft, maker of table games, outdoor games and fitness products, has been an Apprise customer since 2004.

"We are very excited about Apprise's expansion into China and we are looking forward to real-time support from the operation they are putting into place there," Jim Neitzel, CIO of Sportcraft Ltd., told Emerging China. "It [the expansion] speaks well of the partnership we have with Apprise."

"Our customers who go to China are typically the people who do the buying and not the operations people. By offering our U.S. customers our services in China it allows them to have the same level of service in China as they would have in the U.S.," explains Broadhurst.

Nanjing, capital of Anhui Province is an important inland port on the Yangtze River, centrally located between Shanghai and manufacturing centers in central and western China, and is located on both rail and road axis. It is home to seven of China's top 100 universities besides being a strategic transport hub for air, land and sea shipping.

"Nanjing is a city that has the combined elements of being a Yangtze River port city with strong rail and road linkages," Darren Benson, head of Jones Lang LaSalle's Industrial Team for North China, told Emerging China.

"Similarly to reduce costs and improve efficiencies many manufacturers are outsourcing their distribution requirements to international 3PL providers. Both these international and more aggressive local firms are embracing modern technology to provide better service to their customers particularly with more advanced goods tracking through enhancements such as item bar coding."

Apprise's new Nanjing office will allow it to grow and mature as its customer base in China grows. Currently, Apprise has a 12 hour gap in its customer service coverage in the U.S. The Nanjing office will be able to cover that, allowing Apprise to offer 24 hour customer services for the first time.