But warehousing and inventory costs aren't the only culprits. Figure 1 shows the estimated hidden costs for the shipment of a single router. Also, there are up-front investments not factored into these figures, such as hiring and training workers to configure routers, as demand for services increases and decreases. The cost of rapid growth is expensive, but time to market is key for service providers. This gives service providers the opportunity to grow in primary markets while opening the door to new markets by the reinvestment of those cost savings.
Cost savings are capital to invest in future business opportunities.
Cisco Configuration Express Configuration Express from Cisco Systems removes the delivery, warehousing, configuration, packaging, and reshipment of routers to subscribers from the service provider. Cisco employs a networked supply chain to streamline business operations, handling nearly 90 percent of its sales and 75 percent of its customer support activities on-line. Fifty percent of these online sales orders never touched an employee's hands. Once a customer places an order over the Web, that order initiates an online process that directly engages production and fulfillment. Configuration Express lets Cisco customers phase out costly manual operations, warehousing, and inventory, and helps them create a scalable, cost-effective process to distribute CPE routers.