West Corporation, a provider of outsourced communication solutions to many of the world's largest companies and government agencies, ships hundreds of thousands of dollars of high-tech and call center equipment around the world to its clients such as AT&T and T-Mobile. David Hybner, director of corporate purchasing at West, says the servers and other IT equipment arrive at its Omaha, Nebraska, facility, sometimes in as many as 20 boxes. West's IT department then needs to break down the equipment and configure it to a client's specifications.
That poses a challenge: how to package and ship the equipment safely to the client, since it can't go in the same boxes in which it arrived.
West has been using outsourcing packaging and handling of its international shipments and large shipments for about five years. Prior to that, West employees packaged the equipment themselves. But as Hybner explains, "We don't have the expertise and capacity to build a specialized crate here for a $100,000 piece of equipment."
Source: Outsourcing Journal, http://www.outsourcing-journal.com