The United Network Equipment Dealer Association (UNEDA), an alliance of more than 300 pre-owned network equipment dealers worldwide, has released the findings of a survey which reinforces several key buying trends and issues facing providers in the secondary market as they accelerate business growth and gain traction as alternate sources for affordable, highly-available network switches and routers.
Nearly half of UNEDA's membership from around the world responded. They represent a cross-section of small to large organizations with annual revenues of less than $5 million to more than $100M. More than 86 percent reported business growth in 2007. The survey tabulations reveal primary factors driving purchase decisions and the most popular gear sold in the alternate channel.
Some of the significant trends and results are:
More than 95 percent of respondents can deliver equipment within 24 to 48 hours.
While nearly 90 percent sell equipment to small and medium-sized businesses, nearly 72 percent sell to large companies with multiple locations.
Telecommunications tops the list of vertical markets served, according to 98 percent. High-tech companies are another major segment, based on a 71 percent response.
90 percent cited responsiveness as the major reason customers buy from them, followed closely by product availability (87 percent) and rapid delivery (86 percent). Savings over OEM pricing were cited as a major reason by 79 percent.
For nearly half, business from existing customers represented between 51 and 74 percent of sales while one-third calculated that at least 75 percent of their sales involved repeat customers.
Network expansions led the list of uses for pre-owned products with 97 percent, followed by production networks (89 percent) and network sparing (78 percent).
Nearly 50 percent of the respondents joined UNEDA to more effectively address the presence of counterfeit goods in the market. Almost all participants also cited the ability to operate in a safe, secure trading environment as a major reason for becoming a member of the alliance.
61 percent offer 90-day warranties while 36 percent include one-year warranties on all equipment sold. Overnight delivery was available from 99 percent.
"Providers of secondary network equipment answer a need for quality products at reduced costs," says Eric Goodness, research vice president at Gartner. "As a result, this market is growing in size and legitimacy as managers increasingly understand the viability of having an alternate procurement channel to meet a wide variety of production network, sparing and disaster-recovery requirements. The secondary equipment market is also providing a strong challenge to OEM maintenance and support in terms of quality and cost."
For more visit uneda.com.