How Horizon helped one technology services provider unlock the value of its returned parts and excess inventory.
How much untapped value do you have sitting as excess inventory in your loading dock? That’s a question Horizon helped one leading technology services provider answer.
As businesses ramp up their investment in IT infrastructure, the volume of unused or excess inventory on their books inevitably grows.
However, few organizations, even those who spend every day helping others manage IT services, recognize the value in the data center hardware sitting idle in their loading bays and warehouses.
That’s where Horizon comes in. In this case, the relationship began with Horizon selling enterprise storage drives to the client at significant cost savings.
“They were small but growing,” says Jayme Moffi, Horizon senior global account manager, of the client. “They were buying a lot of drives but did not have the economy of scale back then to be really impactful with the manufacturers and distributors.”
IT Asset Recovery
As the company rapidly expanded, it realized something needed to be done with its growing piles of excess inventory.
“They just kept having these drives coming back from the manufacturer and didn’t know what to do with them. Literally and figuratively, they kept piling up.”
“They then had to allocate resources to going through them, finding which ones were still in warranty, sending them back to manufacturer, and then the manufacturer sending them back factory recertified. They realized at that point there was a significant amount of value in these used drives.”
The client also realized that IT asset recovery was not in its core area of expertise. Horizon worked with the customer to develop a custom process for returns management, based around robust workflows and real-time visibility.
“They were comfortable with our process, which was key for us: we had such a detailed and specific process in place,” Moffi remarks.
“A lot of it had to do with record keeping, the security of our systems, the competency of our process, and the competency of what we were and who we were.”
Return Parts Management
Once the IT hardware comes back from field, Horizon receives the equipment, checks and categorizes by serial number, and returns to the OEM any units still in warranty.
Otherwise, fully-sanitized hardware is remarketed at industry-leading prices under a revenue share agreement that returns money to the client’s IT budget.
“They were very impressed at the level of technically savvy that we have, and the detailed reports we are able to run from the moment the drive comes in to the moment the drive goes out,” Moffi continues.
“Each of the drives we serialize, and from that point each unit can be detected where it is in the testing process and what the results are.”
“The client can take all of those data points and run whatever models they want to, based on specific drives, which helps them model equipment and drives going forward.”
At all stages, Horizon aligned the process closely to the client’s actual working practices, including the creation of a custom SOP.
“You want to work with a partner that is trusted, and that has industry-specific knowledge and a true understanding not only of your business but of the global marketplace and where they will be selling their assets to help maximize value recovery.”
“I think the client was impressed at the amount of revenue they were starting to see. Once they finally got some numbers based on a couple of quarters, it went from a project that takes a burden off their plates to something that is a revenue generator.”
“At the end of the day, they knew this would generate revenue for them. However, I don’t think they had any idea how much revenue was sitting there in their loading dock,” Moffi concludes.
Learn more about how Horizon can help recover value through excess inventory and return parts management.
