Challenges
Moving Swiftly
The costs and resources associated with managing, storing and handling inventory were detracting the SCC France away from their core business strategy.
As a 24/7 operational business, implementing a solution swiftly with no impact to their current service strategy was paramount. It was crucial that the chosen supplier was able to deliver across the entire contracted inventory within the timeframes provided, such as a 2 hour SLA in place for critical inventory. They also wanted to work alongside a partner that understood the market and could work cohesively in supplementing any new business opportunities.
Solutions
Identify and Prioritise
A key component of the Agilitas solution was purchasing the client’s entire Server and Storage inventory supply. Incorporating the SCC France’s stock into their own infrastructure whilst still remaining operational, was the first step in removing the costs and resources for SCC France of managing their own inventory.
As part of the process the Agilitas’ logistics department carried out profile exercises of SCC France’s existing inventory base to identify and prioritise the stock for transfer schedule. This allowed the smooth transitioning of the inventory without the risk of stock duplication, and interference with their existing service activities. In addition to this, Agilitas also took responsibility for the planning, procurement and stocking of all associated spare parts for the SCC France, to support them in their on-going IT services business across France. The on-going maintenance of the account meant managing the stock levels for high usage parts and enabling the timely replenishment for inbound/outbound inventory.
To meet SCC France’s objectives and short integration time the Agilitas Bid Support and Business Take-On (BTO) team worked to expand and restructure their existing French logistics network in order to cater to the client’s vast end-user inventory base and ensure the delivery of parts within SLA timescales. This involved evaluating the logistics market to procure a larger network of trusted and reliable French partners who added value, coverage and flexibility of their distribution.
To enable service levels to be closely monitored and maintained, Agilitas implemented an on-site video conferencing suite for ease of communication between the UK and French service desk teams. This allowed both parties to discuss reports, escalated cases and any other service related issues on a regular basis. Further to this, and in order to fully accommodate the client’s requirements, Agilitas recruited French-speaking personnel to join their existing customer support team. This overcame any potential communication barrier between the two firms, and enabled Agilitas to easily produce French communication material and supporting collateral.