Support in a Flash

Blue chip brands around the world rely on Flash Global for seamless, invisible, and impeccable service supply chain support

The retail sector has demonstrated the transformative power of delivering anything and everything right now. As a result, there’s not an industry on the planet that’s immune to this new world order. Downtime is verboten; non-productive time is a KPI-killer no matter the industry. In this new era of commerce, service supply chain management has never been more crucial. And for Flash Global, that is a very good thing.

With its roots in the traditional third-party logistics (3PL) space, Flash Global designs and executes fully customized, end-to-end service supply chains for a host of the world’s biggest and fastest-growing high-tech firms. Flash Global enables these companies to scale as efficiently as possible, no matter where they are located.

The Mountain Lakes, NJ-based firm takes a full stack approach to the service supply chain, delivering a comprehensive suite of integrated services through its expansive network of global service centers, distribution centers, and forward stocking locations. With roughly 700 locations in over 140 countries, Flash Global maintains an intricate commercial life support system for some of the most important enterprises on the planet, operating as an extension of their customers’ own infrastructure.

“We continually deliver on a global footprint that allows us to, at any time, give to our customer the same visibility, the same envelope of satisfaction, and the same care no matter where we are in the world,” explained Matt Zimmer, Flash Global COO.

Flash Global employs five best-in-class strategies to assist its customer base: solution optimization, flexible design; in-region presence, local expertise; technology and systems; proactive account management; and compliance and trade management. The company uses cutting-edge software and technology solutions to help their customers maintain the efficiency and reliability they need to preserve their brand identities as they grow.

Simplicity of One

Members of Flash Global’s elite network of in-country partners operate under a unique single contract system, a bold departure from supply chain firms with multiple account teams, service level agreements and other kinds of competing internal systems. The approach is designed to ensure consistency throughout their worldwide service area.

“It’s absolutely imperative that the customer sees no difference between Flash and a partner, and the best way that we do that is through our Simplicity of One system. That’s the single system that all of our partners around the world are mandated to use, and we do that under a single contract anywhere in the world,” Zimmer said.

“Offering the services of a large technology company all under one roof, with different services built around a single system, with a single view, in a single operating methodology was a very clearly defined strategy,” he added. “We went out and said, “We want to build a service supply chain company that's different from the rest.’ We all come out of the service supply chain space, so we knew what worked and what didn't in the industry, and as an executive team decided to build it the way we've always wanted it to be.”

Having found their sweet spot in a highly pressurized competitive environment, these days Flash Global is in the desirable but unenviable position of managing their own rapid growth while shepherding the growth of their clients.

“We are trying to step up our business and get better on top of it while our customers increasingly need to grow, grow, and grow,” Zimmer stated. “We are growing the organization in ways that have the most impact to our customers’ needs. We spend a tremendous amount of time in front of our customers, understanding where they are going in every region around the world. Being able to do some logistics in Japan is vastly different than doing a repair in Colombia, for example.”

Laser focus powers the company’s upward trajectory. “There are 20 things that could make our company better tomorrow. We know that. The key is figuring out the three or four things that actually make the biggest impact across the board on our employees and on our customers. As the business keeps changing, so do we.”

A Matter of Trust

As stewards of their customers’ brand integrity, Flash Global is in the trust-building business. “When an organization entrusts their technology to a company, they trust the design, the intellectual property, and more importantly, the service behind the scenes. They trust that you are going to be able to take care of them in their time of need,” Zimmer pointed out.

“Truly, that's what differentiates the best companies. Knowing how we will respond in a customer’s time of crisis is the big differentiator, especially in the technology industry,” he added. “If we can help those customers to build their brands by being able to offer more aggressive service level agreements in all of the countries around the world, if they can upsell contracts to companies that no other competitor can, that drives a lot of brand awareness.”

In that vein, as part of their end-to-end suite of services the company recently added equipment screen and test services, which Zimmer describes as a robust and growing part of their authorized OEM service portfolio. These in-country services save time and money, eliminate the needs for parts to be shipped offshore for testing and repair, reduce inventory cost and import/export fees, and provide data to help improve products and lower failure rates.

“We make sure that our entire global organization gets truly on board with whatever it is that will satisfy the customer. We align with their business, their real needs, and with the urgency they are living under each and every day,” Zimmer noted.

Reinforcing the value of the firm’s employees has been integral to its success, and Zimmer spends a great deal of time and energy connecting with staff around the globe. “I want our employees anywhere they are in the world to understand who we are, what we're doing, and that we can never do this without them.”