IT Procurement Management Eliminates Loss Due to Theft and Vandalism

One of the most vulnerable times for a company to suffer loss to theft or vandalism is during the construction of a new facility. Our soon-to-be client, the IT manager for a large, multi-state entertainment organization, knew that all too well, as I found out when I happened to place one of my routine calls to her a few years ago.

I say “soon-to-be client” because she had not yet given MicroAge a shot at earning her trust. She was using another source for her IT needs, but I would call her regularly to see if there was anything I could help her with. When I called on this particular day she had just learned that $50,000 worth of servers had disappeared from a location they were building. To say she was upset was an understatement! The theft was going to push back their planned opening date by an entire week while they got the equipment replaced.

I learned that the other IT source would simply ship the equipment directly to the location it was to be installed, even if it was a construction site. They did not offer any type of materials management or security. And we’re talking technology and equipment from hundreds of manufacturers—simply dropped off like the daily newspaper.

Quickly offering my assistance, I told her that at MicroAge we think outside the box and come up with creative ways to help our clients. And in this case I knew immediately what we could do to make sure this never happened again. The solution was to have all IT equipment shipped to the MicroAge logistics center for staging until the moment it was ready to be installed.

The IT manager was intrigued. Could we really do that? She has a very limited IT staff and the idea of removing the worry about getting the right equipment in the right place at the right time, eliminating the chance of another $50,000 loss was a winner for her.

So we gave it a try. She provided me a laundry list of every piece of hardware needed to bring up a new location. And as I mentioned, this entails hundreds of items, including point of sale (POS) terminals, servers, five racks, switches, miles of cabling along with multiple printers, monitors and security cameras, from many different manufacturers including NCR, Cisco and American Dynamics. We sourced it all, had it all shipped directly to MicroAge, where we inventoried and cataloged every item, imaged it, asset tagged it, and then palletized and shrink-wrapped it. We held the palleted equipment until the time it was ready to be installed at the new location.

To further reduce chances of loss, we arranged for a private trailer to transport the pallets directly to the new location site. No stops. No other freight on board.

The procurement and delivery went like clockwork. The equipment arrived in its entirety at exactly the time my client requested just in time for the installation crew to get to work.

The IT manager now knows she can count on MicroAge every time she has a new location to bring online. She sends me the list with the planned install date and I do the rest. If construction is delayed, no problem, we just hold the pallets until the time is right. This process has made the IT manager’s life easier: we have reduced their IT deployment time by a solid week and not a single piece of hardware has been lost.

I approached this client’s need the same way I do for all of my clients: I put myself in their shoes and think about what I would want from an IT solutions provider. I can do that for you, too. Just give me a call.