CDC Software, a subsidiary of CDC Corporation (CHINA), has signed a binding term sheet to form a joint venture with FlexSystem Limited.
The joint venture intends to develop human resources, payroll and accounting software as a service applications for initial deployment throughout China. These applications will be marketed and sold directly by CDC Software and offered on a subscription basis with very low up-front costs.
The equally-owned Hong Kong-based joint venture intends to develop SaaS versions of CDC Software's HRM payroll and attendance tracking applications, with the financial accounting and workflow applications from FlexSystem. This integrated SaaS business suite will initially be targeted for the millions of small to medium-size enterprises in China. The joint venture will leverage FlexSystem's current SaaS platform and applications, as well as their current customers that have subscribed since their applications were launched in Hong Kong and Taiwan in 2006. The integrated SaaS solutions are expected to be available in the second quarter of 2008 with future plans that call for marketing and selling of these applications to be expanded globally. The joint venture will also seek to leverage CDC Software's Nanjing and Shanghai development centers along with FlexSystem's development center in Hong Kong as well as others.
The joint venture will leverage the extensive network infrastructure of CDC Software's sister companies, China.com, CDC Games and CDC Mobile, to facilitate the hosting of the SaaS applications throughout Greater China. CDC already leverages one of the most extensive network infrastructures in China spanning more than 30 provinces and four major municipalities and hosts services for more than 1,200 enterprises in China.
