Procuring Hardware to Support Remote Working for a Global Software Client
Overview
Completion of a global hardware rollout enabling the client’s employees to successfully work from home in over 20 locations, providing fast, seamless deployment and commercial benefits.
Our customer is a global software provider with over 3000 employees working across more than 20 locations around the world.
As with most large, global organisations, hardware forms a critical part of their onboarding process and with continuous growth and over 100 new hires a month, the organisation relies on a consistent supply chain to deliver every time.
We have worked with this customer since 2017 and built our service delivery to integrate seamlessly with their internal business process and workflows.
Requirements
Our solution
When it became apparent in March 2020 that COVID-19 was going to cause significant disruption to our normal ways of working, organisations were forced to think about how they were going to support entire workforces relocating from the office to their homes.
Our client employs global teams who are used to handling isolated issues and solving logistical problems within their locations/regions, however it was apparent that the company needed to collaborate and embark on a global project in order to shift the entire business, spanning across over 20 locations, to remote working.
Being a software company, the systems, network infrastructure and technology stack they had in place was able to cope with and support the shift, however, logistically there was a requirement to source hardware and peripheral items for staff to work on their critical projects successfully from home, at a time of immense pressure on global technology supply chain.
The problem was evident - needing to procure and deploy a standardised array of products in a time of constraint on their global workforce, in a very short timescale.
There was also the added complexity that, due to the nature of their work, all items and peripherals have to be approved by an internal technical security team, so it was essential that they worked with a vetted supplier.
Given our established role as an integral partner/supplier, the client approached us to co-ordinate a global order to various central locations which would provide their staff with the technology they need to perform their day-to-day work.
We immediately rose to the challenge. Our procurement team worked with the client to collate a defined list of products based on their requirements.
The order consisted of monitors, peripherals, chargers, stands for monitors and other remote working items. Volumes and requirements for each location were agreed on with the client, taking into account specific changes in part numbers/SKUs across regions for the same products and ensuring compatibility with all deployed hardware.
The procurement team engaged with vendors and distributors to ensure deal registrations and vendor support could be obtained on a global level and that the client would benefit from the commercial advantages of placing a large, global order. This resulted in the best possible unit pricing for the client in each location.
We were also able to leverage our distribution and vendor relationships to place holds on stock while orders were collated and approved - this proved to be essential given the global stock constraint on particular items.
Being a global entity, we were able co-ordinate finance related requisitions and invoicing in the correct local currencies, including US, EU and APAC.
Once the order was confirmed, we shared a live global order tracker with the client team, which provided real-time updates for all orders across all regions. We were able to share this with the customers’ local resource teams to confirm receipt and begin internal distribution. We also shipped key items direct to employee’s homes.
The order consisted of monitors, peripherals, chargers, stands for monitors and other remote working items. Volumes and requirements for each location were agreed on with the client, taking into account specific changes in part numbers/SKUs across regions for the same products and ensuring compatibility with all deployed hardware.
The procurement team engaged with vendors and distributors to ensure deal registrations and vendor support could be obtained on a global level and that the client would benefit from the commercial advantages of placing a large, global order. This resulted in the best possible unit pricing for the client in each location.
We were also able to leverage our distribution and vendor relationships to place holds on stock while orders were collated and approved - this proved to be essential given the global stock constraint on particular items.
Being a global entity, we were able co-ordinate finance related requisitions and invoicing in the correct local currencies, including US, EU and APAC.
Once the order was confirmed, we shared a live global order tracker with the client team, which provided real-time updates for all orders across all regions. We were able to share this with the customers’ local resource teams to confirm receipt and begin internal distribution. We also shipped key items direct to employee’s homes.
Results:
All items were delivered within 3-5 business days in each region, exceeding the expectation from the client. Collectively, we completed a seamless global shipment to ensure all staff had the equipment they needed to continue working from home successfully.
