Network outages can appear out of the blue and no matter what level of pre-planning has been implemented, if the needed equipment does not arrive promptly, a company's current and future reputation is at stake. While Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) and their channel partners may do their level best to rise to the occasion missing the delivery date can result in severe side effects.
This is where the market for pre-owned networking equipments comes into play. Whether one is looking for extended network capacity, disaster recovery relief or network spares, the secondary channel has emerged as a viable cost and response savings alternative due to its wider inventory and lower cost option.
According to Glenn Fasset, general manager of Network Hardware Resale (NHR)--a player in the pre-owned networking equipment space— for the Asia Pacific region, 80 per cent of IT managers say that pricing and a good warranty are the two most vital factors that influence a decision to purchase networking products.
Speaking to SDA Asia exclusively, Fasset said that NHR currently maintains an extensive inventory of pre-owned Cisco, Juniper and Extreme equipments and although it may, at times, be plagued by the negative stigma that comes with the notion of “pre-owned”, the organisation--which has been around for some 21 years--has been able to turn this around by embracing more stringent procedures and offering more than most OEMs and distributors do to ensure product quality and authenticity and ultimately, remain competitive.
The California based organisation offers a myriad of secondary network routers, switches, access servers, IP telephony and a range of disaster recovery, testing and sparing, for up till 90 percent off the price an OEM would offer.
However, low prices does not always equate to low value.
Fasset said that the company maintains its standing as a reputable re-marketer by embracing more stringent procedures that include a one year warranty which can be extended up to 5 years for a fee, a faster response time of within 24-48 hours instead of the typical four to six weeks, a one year advance replacement offer option and a newly implemented Asset Recovery initiative.
The asset recovery and reseller agreement which NHR entered into with Force 10—a pioneer in Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet switching and routing— last October, sees NHR paying high market value for its partners’ surplus and outdated equipments and providing de-installation and shipping services.
Evidently the industry must be gaining momentum seeing that NHR reported its total revenue at USD 138.2 million in 2006 and recently opened a Singapore office to support its rapid expansion in Asia.
According to the Gartner Group, the secondary market for networking equipment is an estimated 2 billion dollar industry.
NHR has some 10,000 customers worldwide that include small and mid-sized enterprises, government entities, educational institutions, healthcare organisations and telecommunications service providers. It is currently expanding its distribution facilities in the US, the Netherlands and increasing its presence in Asia Pacific in order to focus on providing optimal support for its worldwide customers. |
