AI-Driven Planning Connects StarTech.com to Supply Chain Clarity
StarTech.com, which offers hardware that helps information technology professionals solve connectivity and business challenges, has grown during all but two of the 40 years it has been in business. “We’re optimistic about the future,” says Ted Wenger, the company’s vice president, operations.
THE CUSTOMER
Founded in 1985, StarTech.com manufactures a broad portfolio of connectivity accessories—docking stations, display adapters, video and audio cables, network products, ergonomic furniture, and mounts—for IT professionals. The company maintains operations in 26 markets worldwide across five continents.
THE PROVIDER
John Galt Solutions provides supply chain planning software to help businesses optimize demand forecasting, inventory management, and production planning. The company serves a diverse range of industries, from manufacturing to retail and consumer goods.
As StarTech.com has grown, so has the size and complexity of its global supply chain. The company turned to the Atlas Planning Platform, a cloud-based solution from John Galt Solutions, to help drive the digital transformation of its supply chain, enabling the company to provide effective support to its expanding operations around the globe.
The company’s tagline, “Hard to Find Made Easy” sums up the mission of StarTech.com, Wenger says. He and his colleagues try to strategically procure and deploy products so clients can readily access them and, in turn, meet their customers’ needs.
Made for IT
Among the 3,500 to 4,000 stockkeeping units (SKUs) that StarTech.com offers are docking stations, display adapters, video and audio cables, ergonomic furniture, and mounts. “We are designed for the IT pro,” Wenger says. StarTech.com rigorously designs and tests its products to ensure they perform to the specifications most IT professionals require, he adds.
From its headquarters in London, Ontario, Canada, StarTech.com currently offers its products through 55 partner warehouses across 26 countries. Because the mix of items held at each warehouse can vary, the range of SKU combinations across its network of warehouses currently tops 70,000, says Mark McQuade, director of supply chain.
Small but Critical Products
In each market, StarTech strives to ensure it has the products customers need, in the quantities they need, when they’re needed. Its products often are a small but critical part of larger technology solutions.
For example, an IT manager at a mid-size company may be deploying a new server solution to thousands of employees. Most likely, they will focus on the larger equipment investments and spend less time thinking about docks or cables. “We always envision that person waking up in a cold sweat saying, ‘Oh no, I forgot to order cables,” McQuade says.
At this point, timely delivery of the cables is critical, to both the IT manager and StarTech.com, which may lose the sale if it can’t promise that delivery.
StarTech.com’s multi-faceted distribution approach makes its goal of ensuring its products are available when and where they’re needed more challenging.
The company operates out of four facilities, which are located in the United States, Canada, the UK, and Japan. It deploys primarily through a channel-based strategy, working with partners that have large footprints in different countries. The partners help facilitate StarTech.com’s 24-hour product availability to its end customers, the IT professionals.
Along with many small- and mid-sized businesses, customers also include Fortune 500 enterprises. “Our market intelligence tells us nearly 90% of the Fortune 500 have a StarTech.com product in use,” Wenger says.
Supply Chain Planning Evolves
John Galt’s Atlas Planning solution accounts for varying lead times to ensure StarTech.com’s connectivity accessory products reach customers quickly and accurately.
As StarTech.com grew and its supply chain became more complex, it needed a planning system that could keep pace. The solution had to be able to manage its go-to-market strategy of working with different partners in different countries, help it navigate geopolitical and other events, and enable it to remain ahead of advancing technology cycles.
“Our system had to evolve and be nimble enough to adapt to quickly changing market conditions,” McQuade says.
The Atlas solution from John Galt helps StarTech.com meet tight delivery timelines by identifying the optimal inventory level for each SKU, at each location. For example, when StarTech.com launched its Hong Kong warehouse, which has since moved to Tokyo, it was venturing into a new part of the world. Company leadership needed to manage and plan inventory through its channel deployment model, ensuring it was placing the right inventory in the right amounts in the areas where opportunity existed, and where it would be likely to grow.
At the same time, it had to factor in parameters such as manufacturing and transit lead times. Including manufacturing and transportation, the average lead time is about 120 days. While not the primary reason for StarTech.com’s vendor selection, it does influence it, Wenger says.
Predictive modeling enables StarTech.com to keep ahead of changes far enough in advance that management can take action. For instance, it helps management place inventory in areas where they’re confident the market is headed, and to identify how technology is likely to evolve.
The recent supply chain upheavals have made predictive modeling even more essential. Companies that don’t anticipate potential changes and how they might respond are already behind, Wenger says. In contrast, organizations that can look ahead and prepare often enjoy an advantage over their competitors, he adds.
Leveraging AI
John Galt—the name is drawn from Ayn Rand’s novel, Atlas Shrugged—provides an end-to-end supply chain planning solution. The Atlas Planning Platform leverages artificial intelligence (AI) planning capabilities and machine learning to help organizations dismantle business silos, boost visibility, and optimize demand planning, inventory management, and supply chain performance.
Artificial intelligence capabilities such as causal modeling link demand drivers to outcomes. Together, these can boost the speed and quality of decision-making.
Because the Atlas solution is a “low code to no code application,” implementations tend to move relatively quickly, says Matt Hoffman, vice president industry and product solutions at John Galt Solutions.
This approach prioritizes configuration over customization, streamlining implementations and offering scalability and flexibility, he says. The Atlas solution can continue to add value, even as organizations grow, or their mix of products or sales channels changes.
John Galt and StarTech.com initially connected in 2017, through a request-for-quotation process. StarTech.com had settled on Microsoft as its primary ERP platform. Management was looking for a planning solution and partner that was nimble enough to move and grow with StarTech.com, which was a smaller player in the Microsoft universe.
“We appreciated that John Galt was open to managing our unknowns at the beginning,” McQuade says.
In addition, John Galt embodies the same entrepreneurial drive found within StarTech.com. “Even though we’ve been in business for 40 years, there’s an entrepreneurial spirit about StarTech.com,” he adds.
The initial implementation took about two years. This included the time required to cleanse the data, establish the parameters the models would use, and test the solution. StarTech.com employees worked directly with the John Galt team on the implementation.
More recently, StarTech.com, working with the Atlas Planning Platform, moved its supply chain planning function to the cloud. Among other benefits, this boosted StarTech.com’s ability to act nimbly, McQuade says.
Making Informed Decisions
For example, StarTech.com can more efficiently conduct “what if” scenarios, such as assessing the impact of product lead times jumping by 10%, or the effect on purchases and cash flow if the company decides to double safety stock coverage from 28 to 56 days. This information allows for more informed decisions.
The Atlas Planning solution can account for differences in product lead times, which vary depending on where items are coming from and going to. Understanding the differences helps in distributing products so they can meet customers’ needs quickly and accurately.
Through Atlas’ advanced scenario planning and analysis capabilities, StarTech.com has gained increased visibility into its supply chain. It can better assess the impact of decisions across the company’s extended value chain.
Among other benefits, order fulfillment has improved. “Our order fulfillment is mid-90% every week, which is amazing,” McQuade says, The company has been successful in regularly keeping inventory levels where they need to be, he adds.
One goal of many companies moving to the cloud is to tie together strategic and tactical plans, Hoffman says. They then can better model their end-to-end supply chain to hit their business goals. For example, businesses may try to meet a goal of boosting market share by ensuring they have sufficient inventory on hand. For a distributor of technology products, historical data might indicate that they need to carry more USB chargers.
However, the growth actually is in the USBC market, Hoffman notes. AI-driven insights and composable workspaces allow all Atlas users, not just data scientists or planners, to understand the how and why of purchasing recommendations or changes in demand.
Going The Extra Mile
Throughout their partnership, John Galt has gone above and beyond, Wenger says. At all levels, StarTech.com is able to connect and collaborate with John Galt for information and answers, he adds.
StarTech.com plans to continue its partnership with John Galt, given the importance product availability plays as a differentiating factor in its market, Wenger says. John Galt continues to help StarTech.com position inventory so that it captures revenue without carrying excess stock.
In addition to the technical capabilities John Galt offers, StarTech.com gravitates to business partners who “truly want to be a partner,” Wenger says. “It’s not a one-way street. They accept feedback from us just as we accept their feedback.”
Optimizing Growth
The Challenges
StarTech.com needed to improve supply chain visibility and ensure continued, accurate product availability across its network of distribution sites, even as the company grew.
The Solution
Implement the Atlas Planning System from John Galt Solutions.
Results
The ability to more quickly and easily conduct what-if scenario planning. Order fulfillment now regularly hits about 95%.
Next Steps
Continue to partner with John Galt to ensure effective inventory positioning that enables StarTech.com to capture sales without holding excess products.