External and Internal Communication

In $1998,$ GPE began to carry out its "paperless office" policy vigorously. All transactions and documents including petty cash claims and leave applications are posted online and processed by computers. At the same time, the introduction of the Wide Area Network $($WAN$)$ has enabled the Hong Kong office, the subsidiary company in the United Kingdom and the plants in Mainland China to exchange information efficiently. For instance, management can access data from the manufacturing system stored at the Hong Kong office from China or the United Kingdom, and vice versa. The staff of GPE can access the company's Lotus Notes through the Internet. Besides, e$-$mail and video conferencing are also used for communication among group companies. System designs are standardized to allow remote login and inter$-$company information exchange.