2007 Articles
August 16, 2007
Mobile Enterprise: Turning Post-Sale Service Into Profits
Juniper Networks, Avaya and Dell realize profits from an investment in service.
By Michael Barbella
It was never easy to find a part at Juniper Networks. The manual process the company had in place was tedious and time-consuming, and more often than not the parts were not on the shelf.
“We didn’t have all the right parts in all the right places. Delivery [service] was dismal,” says Steve Blaz, VP of global service operations for Juniper, a Mountain View, Calif.–based IP networking provider. “We knew we needed to automate because the manual process we used wasn’t working very well.”
Last winter, Juniper deployed a
service parts management solution from Servigistics, an Atlanta-based firm that helps companies such as Juniper better manage its service parts and improve post-sale service. Once viewed as a “necessary evil,” post-sale service is now being embraced as a revenue generator. “The service [provided] after the initial product delivery is strategic to overall growth,” says Gary Brooks, VP of alliances and marketing for Servigistics. “We’re seeing a fundamental shift. We’re seeing companies starting to invest in post-sales service and looking at it as a new source of revenue.”