In the business of broadband
PROJECT PARTNERS
In the business
s of broadband Written by: John O’Hanlon Produced by: Richard Durrant
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LIBERTY GLOBAL
Liberty Global may not be immediately recognised by the man in the street, but the chances are that he has a close relationship with the biggest international cable company on the planet, with operations in 14 countries, 12 of them in Europe and two in Latin America
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iberty Global was founded in 2005 and operates through brands that will be much better known however, brands like Virgin Media in the UK and Ireland, UPC in Poland, Ziggo in the Netherlands, Unitymedia in Germany and many more. In ten of its European markets, including the UK and Ireland, Liberty Global is the largest cable operator. But despite its growth and success, it remains very much an insurgent, challenging the incumbent telcos in each of its markets. It is predominantly a triple play operator, providing broadband as its core offering, adding fixed line voice and TV, and in some markets venturing into quad play as a mobile operator. Mobile for example is a strong part of the Virgin Media business. A group that has been formed out of existing companies invariably has to face issues around synergy and disparity. Each constituent company
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Key Personnel has its own suite of equipment, its own processes and its own structures, and all that presents an interesting challenge in the sphere of supply chain management. Steve Rounsley and Willem Vesters are challenged to deal with this situation and turning it to the advantage of the business. As they see it, logistics optimisation is one of the biggest vehicles through which Liberty Global can keep its cost down and deliver the service that its customers expect. It’s a road paved with opportunities. Rounsley is Vice President for VP Global Logistics and Vesters for Global Supply Chain Planning. The former looks after the warehousing and movement of goods while the latter leads the planning, streamlining and restructuring of these processes: needless to say they work very closely
Steven Rounsley VP Global Logistics
Willem Vesters VP Global Supply Chain Planning
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$18bn The amount of revenue generated by Liberty Global
together. The hardware in the chain falls into two broad categories, says Rounsley, customerpremised equipment or CPE, and network equipment, which covers everything required to lay fibre optic cables and connect them to the end user. “CPE includes set top boxes, broadband routers, and of course mobile phones. The logistics function we manage supports all twelve European countries in the consumer and B2B market. It includes all product categories, fixed line to broadband, TV and mobile, in all countries, in all consumer and B2B markets. E pluribus unum On the planning side, Vesters explains, it is essential to work with vendors on future requirements: “Lead times vary from a couple of weeks to 16 or 18 weeks so the planning function works out what we will need, where we need it and when.” Gathering all of this equipment into distribution centres and dispersing it to the national businesses based on customer and consumer demand calls for liaison with the sales and marketing departments on campaign activity, he adds. “We do this on both the CPE and the network equipment side of things.” Each of these has its own particular set of problems. Both Steve and Willem are looking after a large number of different countries which have their own legacy systems in place, all at different stages of development. For example, he says, network planning in the UK is somewhat ahead
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of the other European markets. “The challenge is to get them all to the same level so that we can talk at a holistic level to our vendors to assure the supply of material across the board.” Beyond the exacting job of stitching together twelve separate supply chains across Europe Liberty Global has stepped up to the challenge of extending the fibre network in a number of European economies. In the UK for example this is the first time major step in the 20 years since the UK government fudged the roll-out of a national cable network in the 1990s. An investment of £3 billion announced by Liberty Global in February will redraw the competition map in the UK where Liberty Global’s brand Virgin Media faces competition notably from BT. The investment marketed as Project Lightning will bring ultrafast broadband to a total of 17 million homes by 2020, reaching four million more
“The challenge is to get them all to the same level so that we can talk at a holistic level to our vendors to assure the supply of material across the board” – Willem Vesters, VP Global Supply Chain Planning
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Regional Depot
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Home Regional Depot
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Home Regional
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Pioneers in Set Top Box Test Technology and Refurbishment The founding principal of our Home Entertainment Business is focused on delivering what our customers need to deliver to their customers both now and in the future. We take the view this means developing objective and automated processes that deliver fantastic products and services to the market at optimised capital and operational cost.
Why Customers Choose Regenersis... Continuous Improvement Part of our DNA Proven track record Focused On Customer Needs Product quality Operational cost Flexibility Business Practices Integrity Open relationships Honesty Financial stability
Experience More than 10 years, 20 million units UK, Europe, USA Average customer relationship - 8 years OEM Relationships Cisco - 8 years Pace - 10 years Samsung - 6 years Vision (Short, Medium, Long Term) Service - keep the box in the home Operational cost – asset utilization, process costs, materials consumption
+44 (0) 1592 774 704 | stuart.williams@regenersis.com
Company Information Founded 1979
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Employees 4,200 Sectors Home Entertainment Information Technology Mobile Communications Industrial Electronics Locations
Our Key Deliverables • Automated Test Systems • Real Time Data Integrity/Reporting • Perfect Product Quality • Supply Chain Efficiency • CSR (Environmental Benefit)
UK Germany (2) Czech Republic Poland (3) Spain Netherlands Belgium USA (3) Mexico Argentina Russia South Africa (2) India
• Asset Utilisation & Recovery • Logistics Integration
www.regenersis.com
SUPPLIER PROFILE
Regenersis is a global provider of diagnostics, repair and data erasure services to the consumer electronics industry, helping our clients and their customers successfully, protect, maintain, and retire technology. Our international network of facilities provides product diagnostics, repair, refurbishment for mobile, home entertainment and B2B products. Our technically-advanced diagnostic are regarded best in class, combining service excellence with continuous gains in cost efficiency. Our industry-leading fault diagnostics and issue resolution technologies include the In-home Tester for set-top boxes, and our SmartChk applications suite for smartphones. These advanced diagnostic platforms improve consumer satisfaction with their devices and support our returns avoidance strategy Partnering with leading insurers, our Digital Care operations deliver innovative insurance and extended warranty programmes for our clients, protecting customers’ investments in mobile products. Blancco is the global leader in data erasure management. Blancco software provides comprehensive data erasure for every type of electronic storage media, ranging from flash drives to solid state drives, virtual drives and cloud storage. Blancco is a vital part of any organisation’s security infrastructure, underpinning data retention policies and ensuring compliance with international regulations. Tel: +44 (0) 1592 774 704 Stuart.williams@regenersis.com www.regenersis.com
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than at present. Virgin Media also calculates the project will generate 6,000 jobs and 1,000 apprenticeships, with an overall benefit to the economy of £8 billion. Not surprisingly this commitment goes down well at government level, with UK Prime Minister David Cameron commenting: “Together with this government’s rollout of superfast broadband which has now reached more than two million UK homes and businesses, this additional private investment will create more opportunities for people and businesses, further boosting our digital economy and helping secure a brighter future for Britain.” The investment illustrates a change in Liberty Global’s strategy as it matures from rapid M&A driven growth to a more sustainable, organic model, and doing this will demand different approaches to supply chain management. “Much of what Willem and I are doing is looking at the opportunity of synergy and consolidation,” says Rounsley, “but we are also creating a planning and logistics infrastructure to support significant new network build in several European countries. That is an exciting and I’d even say unique part of what we are doing.”
“This additional private investment will create more opportunities for people and businesses, further boosting our digital economy and helping secure a brighter future for Britain” – David Cameron w w w. l i b e r t y g l o b a l . c o m
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Making your customers smile is our primary goal
www.teleplan.com
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33 years of supply chain and after-market service experience for connected devices, home entertainment equipment and networking devices
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Leading edge automated objective test solutions delivering consistent results
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Unrivalled test scripting capabilities
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Embedded lean culture and mind set resulting in high customer service program efficiencies
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Strong CSR commitment helping our customers to achieve their environmental impact and carbon footprint objectives
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Our innovative test solutions adapt as your business requirements evolve
LIBERTY GLOBAL
“We are also creating a planning and logistics infrastructure to support significant new network build in several European countries” – Steve Rounsley, VP Global Logistics
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Less is more, in the supply chain Consolidating the supply chain model around best-of-breed partners will be essential to this vision. “We are evolving onto a journey that sees us partnering with genuine global logistics providers and repair partners,” he continues. This will bring in us the scale and the level of innovation that we need to look after our existing business, and we are designing physical infrastructure to support the new opportunities like Operation Lightning.” For Willem Vesters this means stretching the planning perspective progressively. “It’s
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meeting the challenge of Liberty Global’s transition from a company that buys and sells operating companies go to one that commits to being in the communications space for much. The UK is the most concrete and tangible example right now, however our wider ambition is to extend superfast broadband to 10 million homes throughout Europe.” So instead of focusing on the company wide requirements for the next quarter he needs to be planning at least two years ahead. “My ambition is to arrive at a ROI conversation and operationally manage that before we invest w w w. l i b e r t y g l o b a l . c o m
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Vi s i t o u r w e b s i t e : w w w. t e l e p l a n . co m Email: marketing@teleplan.com
Teleplan International N.V. is an industry leader in lifecycle care for aftermarket service, operating in the areas of Computers, Communications and Consumer Electronics. Focussing on Customer Care, Reverse Logistics, Parts Management, Screening & Testing, Repair/Refurbish and Resell/Recycle, Teleplan 33 years of proven performance providing value propositions throughout the supply chain from the point of purchase to the end of life. Teleplan innovate to consistently keep up with the advances in interactive connectivity and communication and our Telemade approach tailors to each individual customer’s needs. Headquartered in Amsterdam/Schiphol, the Netherlands, Teleplan’s service centers have a global reach of over 95 countries and employ over 5000 people.
Our philosophy is simple – create the most optimized solution designed around our customers. Every solution design starts with a series of comprehensive discussions with the customer to understand their business drivers, strategy and learn what works well and has proven to work less effectively from their after sales experiences so far. This process is led by our team of solutions architects who specialize in selecting the right approach to get the necessary insights which will help our customers the most. We understand that different customers have different needs, which is why at Teleplan, no two solutions are ever exactly the same. We are proud to play a vital role in managing the environmental and social impacts of the computer, communications and consumer electronics industries. Our business is the provisionof repair services and, in the instance when a repair cannot be made, the recovery, reuse, recycling or safe disposal of products. The efficient and effective delivery of our services, enables our customers to manage faulty, damaged and waste products in order to reduce waste and prolong the life of the product. Our engineers at our Innovation Center in Tallinn, Estonia lead the development of next generation technical solutions.
They also leverage and coordinate our global engineering community on key projects. Teleplan has introduced many test solutions to support our customers with their lifecycle care needs in radio access networks, smartphones, tablets, notebooks, cameras, HDDs and set-top- boxes to name a few. We recently opened our first Customer Experience Centre in Roseville, California, USA, offering a new way for customers, prospects and business partners to engage with and understand Teleplan better a notable industry. The customer experience center will help visualize Teleplan’s range of end to end innovative supply chain capabilities, from product return to end-of life recycling, in a single location and will unlock new business opportunities. The center showcases many of the innovative and value added services Teleplan provides, including: Revolution, the after-market service industry’s first fully automated multi-brand smartphone tester; 3D printing for hard to source parts; and demonstrations of the way Teleplan’s first class reverse logistics capabilities have been used to support some of the world’s largest sporting events.
We are passionate about delivering great service
Sky Italia is synonymous with quality and customer satisfaction and to guarantee we deliver on our promise we are constantly looking for innovation. By introducing test automation and well controlled repair and refurbishment operating processes, Teleplan is instrumental in ensuring that every set-top box we deliver back to our customers has the highest standards. Matteo Pecci, Head of Supply Chain & After Sales, Sky Italia
Teleplan International N.V. World Trade Center, Schiphol Boulevard 201, 1118 BG Schiphol, The Netherlands
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in specific European areas. Return on investment should be factored in at the very earliest point, as we begin to extend our horizon and work with a larger project funnel, and a wider innovation funnel.” In order to develop this kind of capability we use knowledge partners like EY to get there. A leaner logistics operation will play its part here, suggests Steve Rounsley. “Our vision is to become intensively partnering so that a small team of Liberty Global people will set the tone and direction, and manage the relationships with a small number of key strategic outsourcing partners.” He does not need to run warehousing, product customisation or transportation, things better done by specialist logistics service providers, distributors and repair partners. There are two concurrent dynamics at work
27m Number of customers subscribing to Liberty Global’s communication network
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Virgin Media’s logistics operation means handling anything from smart-phones to set-top boxes. With cabling, consumables and critical parts in the logistics mix – Kuehne + Nagel provide everything required to ensure Virgin Media roll-out their next generation optical fibre network. From our 500,000 sq. ft. NDC in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire – Kuehne + Nagel are proud to serve 3,800 Virgin Media technicians and a field-store network of over 50 locations across the UK with 24-hour access to critical parts.
ABOUT KUEHNE + NAGEL With over 66,000 employees at more than 1000 locations in over 100 countries, the Kuehne + Nagel Group is one of the world’s leading logistics companies. Its strong market position lies in the seafreight, airfreight, contract logistics and overland businesses, with a clear focus on providing IT-based integrated logistics solutions.
www.kuehne–nagel.com
LIBERTY GLOBAL
EUROPE
here, he points out. “On the one hand we are consolidating and using our skill to work with a smaller number of suppliers to advance the strategic goals of the business. On the other, there’s convergence within the supply chain itself; the number of true global or EU scale logistics providers is shrinking. As their clients we will pick the best global players to achieve the economics of scale.” And to work with a global company such as Liberty Global it is no longer enough to have a wide but patchy presence – they need to be strong in all territories. The consumer the final judge Perhaps its most important benefit is that the evolving model helps maintain focus on the
“On the one hand we are consolidating and using our skill to work with a smaller number of suppliers to advance the strategic goals of the business. On the other, there’s convergence within the supply chain itself; the number of true global or EU scale logistics providers is shrinking. As their clients we will pick the best global players to achieve the economics of scale.” – Steve Rounsley, VP Global Logistics
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LIBERTY GLOBAL
XPO Logistics team is proud
to support
Liberty Global with added-value
solutions
in Europe
Liberty Global relies on XPO Logistics’s proven e-commerce expertise, flexibility and capability to deliver high level supply chain services with the aim to bring satisfaction to the end-customer at European level. Order preparation, next-day delivery, reverse logistics, our teams develop and manage tailor-made solutions supporting the expansion of Liberty Global’s activities in Europe.
CONTACT US: info.log.nl@xpo.com nl.xpo.com
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#1
in e-commerce logistics in Europe
Added value services:
Co-packing, automation, returns management, reverse logistics, control quality
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customer, whose expectations and desires are higher than ever. Over-the-top content must be delivered seamlessly, wherever, whenever and on whatever device the customer chooses. “Everything we do must be reliable and predictable, especially in the mobile arena: people’s mobiles are their best friend! Our job is to ensure their equipment and devices, can be upgraded or changed, kept going and repaired.” Liberty Global’s ‘halo product’ is broadband, he says, just as important to the household as gas or electricity. Ensuring the network is up and running is a minimum expectation. Another expectation is that they can choose the level of service they are comfortable with. Across Liberty Global customers are able to choose single to quad-play services. Increasingly,
SUPPLIER PROFILE
XPO LOGISTICS
XPO Logistics is a top ten global provider of cutting-edge supply chain solutions to the most successful companies in the world. The company provides services for less-than-truckload transportation, truckload brokerage and transportation, last mile logistics, engineered supply chain solutions, high-value-add warehousing and distribution, ground and air expedite, intermodal, drayage, global forwarding and managed transportation. XPO serves more than 50,000 customers with a highly integrated network of over 84,000 employees and 1,469 locations in 32 countries.
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the self-install model is being chosen, people receiving equipment like modems and set top boxes through the post (to the home, a pick-up point a Liberty Global store, or to a workplace) and installing it themselves by following simple instruction. Others prefer to have them installed by a professional. All the complexity is at the back end. “We have to be able to cater for all those different needs. The days of ‘one size fits all’ belong in the past!” The final expectation is that the product (or service) will be delivered fast, and that it will work. 22
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While developing a more standardised product suite is inevitable, and can be achieved as equipment is replaced, with post production customisation addressing local variants, to call in everything in a single operation would be a mistake, even if that would simplify the supply chain. “We are in the happy position that our technology is continuously evolving to keep up with technology that evolves according to Moore’s Law!” Willem Vesters concludes. “Today’s high speed broadband is tomorrow’s low speed, and speed is the lever that moves the market on to the next generation of products. Legacy thinking can be an existential threat these days, however great the legacy offering,” he says. It’s easy for a company growing this fast to overlook its societal impact but Liberty Global is too dependent on its communities for that. Apart from its headline mission of Promoting A Digital Society, which can be seen as part of the day job, and which it fulfils by supporting initiatives like the European Commission’s Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs, it puts sustainability at the heart of it operations, not least the supply chain. “Take just one example,” says Rounsley. “The recovery, reuse and disposal cycle used to be a cost to the business. Now we work with innovative partners to extract value at every stage. The programme has not only become self-funding, it is a revenue stream for the business – and we have achieved zero landfill in the UK. I am very proud of that.”
“Today’s high speed broadband is tomorrow’s low speed, and speed is the lever that moves the market on to the next generation of products” – Willem Vesters, VP Planning and Supply Chain
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LIBERTY GLOBAL www.libertyglobal.com