The Beijing-based company, which has 185 employees, is tiny by world standards and the CEO Adam Yan earned $16,076 in 2004.

e-Future’s brief financial record has been erratic. Revenue fell 21.3% to RMB 28.4m ($3.4m) in 2003 when it recorded a net loss of RMB 680,779 ($82,254), though this was a period when much of China’s economy was hit by the effects of the SARS crisis. Last year however it recorded net income of RMB 5m ($610,533) on revenue 22.1% higher at RMB 34.7m ($4.19m).

The revenue figure is inflated by the inclusion of RMB 5.1m ($616,202) of hardware sales, though this was down 54.3% on the previous year. e-Future recognizes it has little future in a low margin, high volume business and says it not expect to emphasize hardware sales as part of its marketing and sales strategies.

e-Future sees enormous potential in its home market. It argues that China has been hampered by poor infrastructure, a disorganized distribution system, local protectionism, difficulties with cash flow and accounts receivable, and an antiquated legal system:

In 2000, logistics and transportation costs represented approximately 20% of the Chinese gross domestic product compared with 10% in the US and 14% in Japan. However, by September 2001, China’s total logistics and transportation costs reduced to 16.7% of GDP.

It says that many commodities in China cost 40% to 50% more to transport than they would in the US and transportation and warehousing costs in China amounting to 30% to 40% of the total cost of goods sold.

Despite the fact that Chinese businesses traditionally have low technology adoption rates, e-Future believes that the country’s rapid economic development will force companies to look to source ready-made software for supply chain management.

With the population growing at roughly 15 million a year and the gross national product is expected to increase at a rate of 8% to 9% per year, there is a burgeoning consumer goods market. The need to modernize China’s supply chain infrastructure is increasing at a dramatic rate, says e-Future.

The company claims to offer the broadest and most functional set of demand-driven software available to participants in the Chinese supply chain. It also offers integration tools and services that reduce the overall effort required to deploy its software.

e-Future is clearly evolving into a broad supplier of enterprise applications and, on top of its core software, it also offers CRM and BI Packages.

The company says it has 360 clients, including over 190 retailers, over 170 distributors, and six manufacturers.

e-Future hopes to sell between one million and 1.5 million shares at $6 each.