Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Greetings from Barcelona
The weather here in Spain has been on the cold and rainy side but that hasn’t dampened the energy inside the exhibition halls at Mobile World Congress. On Monday, we formally launched our new reuse optimization solution, Trade Wings Re: and the response thus far has been tremendous. It’s clear that the need within the carrier and OEM communities to put network assets to their highest and best use knows no boundaries. This is a challenge on a global basis.
From my perspective, two of the biggest business considerations I’ve heard this week driving the need for reuse strategies are (1) reducing operating expenses, and (2) preserving capital. Given the current economic climate, it’s not surprising that executives are focusing their attention on these areas. What’s the correlation between these drivers and reuse optimization? It’s all about the desire to optimize how operations and finance work collaboratively to manage inventory for the greatest return on investment.
Lacking visibility into inventory levels starts a chain reaction that can be difficult to stop. Not enough visibility forces companies to either buy and warehouse more equipment than is required, or make purchases when the need is most urgent, which means incurring significant ‘expedite’ fees. Both of these scenarios will inevitably lead to higher costs for procurement, equipment transportation and storage.
With visibility into global inventory levels – and the secondary market – a reuse strategy can be the springboard for more informed forecasting that can ensure you are buying and storing only the amount of equipment required to sufficiently support spares and repairs processes. It’s a message that has really resonated with Telecom executives this week. If you’d like to learn more about the impact of reuse strategies in the carrier market, check out our new whitepaper.
