Equipment planning is a high-pressure business. With purchasing spend to manage, critical spares to review and sitting inventory volumes to maintain, you’ve got many parts at play, and only so much time to contend with them. Which is why we’ve made it as simple as can be for telecoms networks to become their own biggest supplier, slash spending, miximise budgets, join the circular economy and create planet benefits with our all in one procurement platform – MarketPlace!
How do you keep track of your inventory, budget, suppliers, price changes, lead times and logistics, and still have time to breathe?
If you’ve found yourself thinking the telecoms procurement process would be easier if you weren’t so reliant on the whims of the open market, you aren’t alone. In fact, over the last decade, we’ve helped many networks to take the weight out of buying hardware, solve the biggest issues internally and slash spending by becoming their own biggest supplier.
The strategy is simple – here’s how you do it…
1. Set policies that embrace reuse
With the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) becoming mandatory in Europe, the Middle East and Africa next year, and the telecoms industry’s general global push to get greener, telecoms networks are adopting reuse far more readily than ever before. If yours hasn’t yet, now’s the time to remove the barriers and get comfortable with the concept of reusing network equipment.
Now this might require some buy-in from stakeholders, in which case shareholders and leadership teams need to be educated on the reality of reuse. The truth is, it’s usually more reliable and quicker to source – and always more cost-effective to buy used telecoms equipment – and you can read or share this article to debunk the myths surrounding used network kit.
2. Commit to redeploying decommissioned assets within your group
Redeploying excess hardware from within your own group elsewhere in the network isn’t just greener, it retains virtually all the value within the group too! Telecoms equipment can frequently be difficult to find and costly on the open market, but by redeploying assets from your own telecoms network, you can often find what you need more quickly and less expensively.
Reusing your network’s own equipment does, of course, require a complete and transparent product inventory of all the available excess hardware. Does that already exist in your network or your global footprint? If not, that’s where you start and Shields can offer help there too.
3. Technical teams refurbishing and testing decommissioned equipment
Reusing your network’s excess equipment is all very well and good – so long as it works! Statistics show that reused equipment usually has a longer lifespan than new hardware bought directly from the OEM, but telecoms networks need to know that’s the case before they redeploy anything.
That’s why testing is such a crucial part of the circular economy. It ensures that hardware isn’t just redeployed, but it’s redeployed with a MarketPlace Approved seal of quality, guaranteeing its functionality and reliability. Robust testing enables the circular economy to come into play within equipment planning; breathing new life into old hardware, reducing e-waste, filtering out unusable kit and contributing to a more sustainable future.
Win win win win!
4. Access real-time volumes of the assets available in your network
To make in-network asset redeployment work practically, you need software that shows you what’s available, and where, within your group. Your software should indicate the different types and volumes of excess hardware in stock and available for redeployment but currently might not.
Ideally, your software will give you clear breakdowns of the carbon, CAPEX and OPEX savings your network is making, to support corporate sustainability and financial reporting. As a plus, it should also show you where you’re generating revenue by moving on surplus stock to the wider telecoms market. Sound great but you don’t have access to this info? Get Started today with our easy to use all in one software solution MarketPlace!
5. Partner with a green company who can take care of steps 1-4 for you
Our telecoms asset redeployment platform MarketPlace provides the transparency your network needs. It’s not just the world’s biggest inventory of used telecoms equipment, it also has the ability to smart-scan and auto-list your own networks’ excess hardware for reuse within the group. Stock volumes are shown in real-time, prices are low, and local assets and group assets are prioritized over the equipment available on the wider market (though the wider market is accessible on MarketPlace too).
That means that wherever possible, your network can quickly and easily source quality telecoms hardware without needing to move it across any borders to keep costs and carbon footprints low – often while retaining the value within the network too!
We send every single piece of decommissioned equipment that comes into the MarketPlace warehouses through our global test labs, to ensure telecoms networks never have to sacrifice quality when buying used (unlike OEMs, who only test every 100th piece of kit going out the door).
On the software front, you get everything you need too. And with bespoke reporting breaking down your greener processes, monetary savings and revenues generated, your network doesn’t just become greener, it has the numbers to prove it too. Which is especially helpful for those networks who will need to introduce these reports anyway to comply with the upcoming CSRD next year.
If you want your network to become its own biggest supplier, while protecting your brand, maximising budgets and achieving ESG goals with ease, use MarketPlace!
With full visibility on the quality used telecoms hardware that’s available locally, within the group and from the wider market, MarketPlace provides networks with a full supply hierarchy of options to get what they need at the best prices and in the greenest way.
The platform was born out of decades of experience helping operators clear the hurdles of managing their biggest assets, while putting the environment first. We’re always here to help networks source smarter, greener and more cost effectively. So if you’d like to talk more about how MarketPlace can help your telecoms network easily become its own biggest supplier, please contact your Account Manager or reach out to us for more information or to request a demo.
Find out more about MarketPlace here or book a demo here.