Global Expansion of Service Logistics

Don’t Let Global Service and Support Challenges Squelch Your Global Expansion Plans

Six moves. That’s what it took for chess grandmaster Alonso Zapata to defeat future world champion, Viswanathan Anand, in 1988. Zapata’s ability to think ahead, plan for contingencies, and act boldly enabled his amazing feat.

What’s true in chess is valid for the global expansion of service logistics. With the ability to anticipate customer service needs, a plan to answer each of them quickly, and a system that enables you to do it anywhere, amazing things are possible.

The world is waiting.

It’s a good lesson for any tech company that’s succeeding at home but hesitant to enter the world stage while the pandemic is still going on. Now might actually be the ideal time to take your company to the next level internationally. The world’s demand for new technology has never been higher and Flash Global provides the critical missing piece you need—global spare parts management—to seize opportunities anywhere.

Time to pull back the COVID curtain.

The global pandemic crippled capacity and seized supply chains for a time, but it didn’t cancel global trade—far from it. The demand for modern technology around the globe actually has grown during the pandemic. In fact, innovative technology spending worldwide expanded 16% in 2020 compared to 2019, according to International Data Corporation.

What’s more, as countries everywhere modernize, they demand technology in every sector for endless uses. Think of it this way: there’s a global population of 7.8 billion people today living in 195 countries, and there isn’t a single one of them that isn’t looking to upgrade to the next thing. For many, it’s just faster internet connections—or even first-time connections. For others, it’s edge computing—which by 2027, according to Grand View Research, will be a $43.4 billion global market—one that intertwines with growing markets in data storage, networking hardware, and cybersecurity.

Service and support is the name of the game.

This may sound surprising but selling into new markets is the easy part. Providing replacement parts requires a lot more thinking, planning, and doing. Whether you make servers for telecom networks or inverters for solar systems, your customers must have a fast fix when things go wrong—usually next day, often same day and sometimes in just 2-4 hours.

How are you going to do that if your customer is in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, or Abuja, Nigeria? Answer: you work with a service supply chain partner, like Flash Global, that can store your spare parts in strategic locations near your installed base around the world. Think of it like mobilizing your pawns with a mission to provide safe passage for the queen.

For lynchpin technologies, the service level agreement and warranty are just as important as the product. But you don’t have to worry about that. With Flash, the hardest part becomes easier.

It’s time to take the game to your customers.

Let the market dictate your expansion plan, not your comfort zone. Anyplace you can sell it, Flash can support it. We’re not saying it’s easy. We’re just saying we have the international presence, the technology and the expertise to make your impossible, possible.

Global expansion to just one new international market would require significant CAPEX from you. Think about it: lease, staff, inventory, and security all require a big upfront investment when you go it solo. Better to leverage our more than 630 forward stocking locations (FSLs) in 140+ countries and local personnel resources.

Create a plug-and-play global service supply chain.

Consider how many countries and companies could use the products you create. Don’t let warranty and service level agreement (SLA) obligations affect your global expansion plans. Our solutions design team will create a tailored service logistics program to serve every customer base according to your standards. Through network modeling, we’ll help you optimize your service level agreements (SLAs) and your installed-base locations to our forward stocking locations (FSLs), distribution centers (DCs) and global service centers (GSCs) for efficiency and economies of scale.

Your future customers are excited about your products. Flash has created the global supply chain of DCs, FSLs, and GSCs to enable those sales because you can support them anywhere in the world.

Learn to say ‘success’ in any language.

Expanding from the home base and outside your comfort zone can be intimidating, especially if you are going it alone. Cultural differences are confusing, constantly changing trade rules and restrictions are enough to make any company think twice about expanding globally.

With Flash’s service parts logistics solutions, you won’t think twice about it. We ensure your spare parts are delivered to your global installed base through strategic coordination of a complex mix of services that includes warehousing, distribution, supply chain modeling, asset recovery, transportation, trade compliance, and technology.

To help customers successfully navigate today’s trade compliance challenges, we offer importer and exporter of record (IOR/EOR) services in over 110 countries. That advantage enables our customers to export warranty or replacement inventory to countries where they do not have an established legal entity.

Ready to expand? Ask our solutions design experts for the plan.