Looking back from today -- our 15th anniversary -- Trade Wings’ commitment to delivering customer value has truly transformed its mission. Between 1996, when the company was founded, through 2007, Trade Wings’ core business was sourcing hard-to-find technology components such as semi-conductors. But as the pace of change within the Telecom industry accelerated – and in the face of a challenging economy – we realized that by applying Trade Wings’ expertise to help carriers and OEMs understand the strategic importance of asset visibility for more intelligent reuse/resale/recycling decisions, the company could forge deeper, more profitable client relationships.
The results? Since evolving the company’s strategic focus, Trade Wings has grown considerably. In fact, a significant percentage of our annual revenues are now derived from sources that didn’t exist prior to 2009. At the same time, the company has become a truly global organization, opening offices around the world to facilitate material flows for some of the world’s largest Telecom providers. With momentum for our solutions increasing, I have only Trade Wings’ outstanding employees to thank for their vision and tremendous commitment to our customers everywhere.
For weeks our whole team has been busy responding to inquiries, taking in RFPs, building new products and servicing customers around the globe. And for good reason.
Since our last post, some exciting events have transpired for early adopters of Trade Wings’ telecommunications Reuse Cloud. Within the past three weeks alone, our reuse project with Telenor Norway was recognized by the editors of not one, but two leading business publications for its unique approach to extending the financial and sustainability gains of the operator’s nationwide 4G upgrade, which will displace nearly 10,000 operational base stations, and otherwise result in 1.5 tons of e-waste.
On Earth Day, April 22, InfoWorld bestowed its prestigious Green 15 award on Telenor, recognizing their reuse program among this year’s top 15 most innovative IT initiatives. Just one week later, the editors of Supply & Demand Chain Executive magazine named the same reuse program among the world’s top 100 outstanding supply chain projects, measured by ease of implementation and financial returns.
After a very short ramp up, Telenor's program has delivered millions in savings and reuse revenues in the first four months alone, and significantly reduced waste. It's a business story so compelling that Norway’s leading financial daily, Dagen Naeringsliv, featured it in a recent story. And, it's a story that will be replicated over and over again as we continue to make closed loop supply chain strategies a reality for more telecom OEMs and carriers.
Exactly one year ago today, we announced the commercial availability of the innovative Re: platform. A year later, there’s a lot to celebrate. What has burgeoned into a multi‐faceted Reuse platform, a few years ago began with a crucial business goal: to ensure that excess and decommissioned network material is reintroduced into service and supply chains for maximum financial gain...and reduced environmental impact.
This ignited a big idea that has delivered more than just innovative thinking. With the introduction of Re: software-enabled services for the creation of integrated Reuse Markets, Trade Wings became the first and only service provider to address the reverse logistics process directly to increase the value of excess telecom network equipment not yet at the end of its useful life or revenue potential -- internally and externally.
As we begin fiscal 2011, Re: is now providing a growing number of customers with the asset intelligence required to fuel disruptive business models. Sitting with industry analyst Jason Marcheck of Current Analysis last week before Mobile World Congress, he expressed to us the genuine uniqueness and power of Re: in the telecom industry. On this one-year birthday, we celebrate the success of our vision and make a wish that every carrier and OEM can experience the benefits of a profitable Reuse strategy.
It’s been another fast-paced year in the telecom industry. Mergers and acquisitions are at their highest levels since 2005, there are now an estimated 5 billion mobile subscribers and smartphone sales jumped an incredible 90% in the third quarter alone. For Trade Wings, 2010 has been no less frenetic or significant. Our business has grown tremendously in the last 12 months – highlighted by exciting new opportunities and expanding relationships with some of the leading telecom organizations, accolades from influential industry groups and publications, and a new, state-of-the-art facility here in Portsmouth. Attitudes toward excess and decommissioned network equipment – and their role in driving financial, operational and environmental gains – are changing rapidly, and we are seeing greater adoption of frameworks designed to create internal reuse markets. But before we dive headfirst into 2011, let’s not let the holidays pass us by. So, to all of our customers and business partners, thank you. Best wishes for a joyous holiday season and a prosperous New Year.
Behind every great Telecom service provider is an executive with a new idea and a set of agile business processes. Yet getting a big idea off the ground takes more than just innovative thinking. Time, technology and resources are required. All too often, introducing new methods for cost-efficient network asset procurement, management and decommissioning can consume precious time -- with very little result.
Trade Wings’ innovative Re: Fast:Start Program provides select finance, operations, technology, planning, service and sustainability executives with the asset intelligence and agility required to fuel disruptive business models without significant up-front investment. Through complimentary access to the award-winning Re: solution, program participants can cut the costs of managing spares and repairs, ensure ongoing quality of service, and extend sustainability initiatives through profitable reuse strategies...guaranteed in the first 180 days!
When it comes to reuse in the carrier market, Trade Wings provides a unique differentiator over repair vendors, equipment brokers, de-installers, and third-party logistics partners. To find out why, call us at +1-603-766-7000 today and mention "Fast Start."
Let me start by welcoming you to our new Web site and blog. I hope you like all of the changes – we’re thrilled! Trade Wings is a fast-growing, vibrant company and what you see here on the Web site and in Re:, our new Reuse Optimization solution, is emblematic of the energy and passion of our team and company.
I’m going to use today’s post to highlight Re:. Whether we’re talking to equipment manufacturers and carriers in Europe, Asia or here in the Unites States, the operational, financial and environment challenges associated with putting network assets to highest and best use is universal, which is what we believe makes the launch of Re: so significant. These companies simply don’t possess the visibility necessary to maximize the value of their assets. And visibility is the core tenant of Re:.
In Re:, we’ve taken all of our industry knowledge, technical expertise and outsourced services, and combined them into a single solution that flips the reverse logistics model on its head. With Re: clients can put more emphasis on reusing assets rather than allowing them to sit idle or end up as scrap. From our vantage point, that’s the type of real change to the modern day supply chain that drives business model innovation.
If you would like to learn about Re: and some of the drivers in the Telecom market that are propelling the adoption of reuse strategies, check out the video below.
