Sprint North Supply’s broadly focused offerings, bolstered by the strong reputation of its well-known parent, have brought the organization good graces in the wireless industry among both potential partners and customers.
The company functions as a supply chain integrator within Sprint Corp.’s network infrastructure business segment. The group works with network service providers, manufacturers and resellers in North America to assist with the logistics, engineering, integration and deployment associated with telecom equipment.
As such, it manages, integrates and deploys wireless equipment into Sprint’s networks, which includes negotiating for and purchasing needed equipment, building it into the networks and maintaining them afterward.
For example, while Sprint Sites is responsible for managing the tower portfolio that Sprint owns-some 6,300 towers that are now on the market-Sprint North Supply is responsible for choosing, building and maintaining those sites.
But Sprint is not the sole customer of Sprint North Supply. Indeed, “we do services for a whole host of carriers,” said Brad Clark, vice president of marketing at Sprint North Supply.
Indeed, Sprint North Supply performs jobs from simple equipment-related tasks to turnkey cell-site construction for customers ranging from the top six wireless carriers to Tier 3 players.
Sprint North Supply also works with and subcontracts to third-party construction companies like Black & Veatch Corp. and General Dynamics to bolster its presence and resources in specific regions. The company also counts manufacturers, including Nortel Networks Ltd., Lucent Technologies Inc. and L.M. Ericsson, as customers.
Sprint North Supply is involved in “every piece of the network build,” said Clark.
The company has seven distribution center facilities, totaling 1.3 million square feet, located in California, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, New Jersey, North Carolina and Texas, with corporate offices in Kansas City. Annual revenues totaled $800 million in 2003. The company counts 1,300 total employees.
Going forward, Sprint North Supply is actively developing solutions for its customers based on today’s market trends and demands, and those solutions are catching on. “We’ve had a great year,” said Clark. “Sales are up orders of magnitude.”
Perhaps most exciting of its recently developed solutions, according to Clark, is the company’s cell-site-in-a-box product known as “Express BTS.” Under the model, Sprint North Supply buys each piece necessary to get a cell site up and running, tests it in its warehouse and then sends it in one big “coffin” box to the site. This is no small task, considering materials for one cell site can come from up to 60 different manufacturers, said Clark.
Either Sprint North Supply or a third party then constructs the site and ensures it begins generating revenue quickly. Only then, when it is up and running, is the carrier billed for the total site. “The financial guys love this,” said Clark.
Sprint North Supply is working on similarly “productizing” other applications, based on the same “fast deployment methodology,” said Clark. For example, a similar turnkey solution could be used for migrations to advanced technologies like EV-DO technology or for a microwave backhaul deployment.
In addition, Sprint North Supply is a strong supporter of microwave playing a key part of wireless network backhaul. According to Clark, the need for microwave backhaul solutions is growing, especially as data is rolled out and its users increasingly demand uninterrupted, quality service.
Sprint North Supply is also working to realign its resources and sales force to gain market share on its competition, which includes the likes of Tessco Technologies Inc., Talley Communications and Hutton Communications, said Clark. The company’s goal is to provide sophisticated services to its large Tier 1 customers while also providing smaller Tier 2 and 3 customers with what they need. Clark is confident the strategy will keep Sprint North Supply on top.
