Zhou Ziming, general manager of the Outsourcing Department of IBM (IBM) Greater China, has disclosed to local media that IBM will soon expand more services in Japan, South Korea and Greater China with Chengdu as an operations base and help from a new electronic invoicing system.

According to Zhou, IBM's outsourcing volume in Greater China has reached US$3 billion to US$4 billion annually, and IBM has relocated its global outsourcing center from New York to Shenzhen. In addition, it has integrated the outsourcing service centers in Shanghai, India and Eastern Europe to provide outsourcing service for enterprises in 160 countries.

Zhou says that IBM's Chengdu Outsourcing Center, which was set up earlier this year, has about 50 staff and is mainly serving Japanese, South Korean and Chinese markets and it aims to become a key node for IBM in the global market. In order to realize a smooth outsourcing service, electronic outsourcing is a must. For this reason, IBM will try the electronic invoice system on a trial basis in Chengdu, starting next month, and ultimately include Shenzhen and Dalian into the system.

The trial work in Chengdu will involve more than 10 suppliers that are either sub-contractors or dealers of IBM. The initiation of the electronic invoice is expected to help the companies save costs and improve work efficiency.