The Kalyani group is designing a supply chain management (SCM) solution, especially for small and medium vendors and suppliers, in a bid to get them e-enabled and become part of a larger e-connected market.

On one end of the spectrum the, group has plans to play a role in the meta markets of the world for which it has initiated steps to set up two separate, fully-focussed industry specific e-markets for speciality steels and auto components, through two separate companies with investment of Rs 25 to 30 crore. These e-markets are being built up in association with ICICI and Price Waterhouse Cooper.

At the other end, it has begun work on offering secure, low cost SCM platforms complete with firewalls to the smaller suppliers and vendors enabling them to integrate with the larger ''e'' supply-chain mainstream.

As Baba Kalyani, chairman of the Kalyani group points out, "E-commerce is a forgone conclusion, and you have to be part of it."

The plan is to get them all e-connected with minimum investment of PC and modem, and dial up access offering them supply chain management solutions costing as low as Rs 10,000, which the Kalyani group is developing.

The solution, for which beta testing has begun with a few vendors, is expected to be operational in about a month. Bharat Forge alone has over 3,000 small and medium vendors. All the vendors are expected to be on the platform by the year 2002.

The larger speciality steel and auto-component e-markets are expected to begin operations in two-plus months'' time, while they would be fully developed in five months'' time.