Frontier Computer Corp Reaps Rewards of New Market for Computer Spare Parts

• ShareThis Email PDF Print

We're able to sell off these older parts, reduce the footprint in our warehouse, and make space for new gear without having to spend $1 million to expand our warehouse.

Traverse City, MI (Vocus/PRWEB) December 14, 2010

Each day, Frontier Computer Corporation’s sales staff purchases surplus new and used spare computer parts and enterprise computer systems from companies and small businesses across the globe. An ongoing issue though has been that over time some computer hardware inevitably seems to accumulate in Frontier’s giant Traverse City, Michigan warehouse.

This is often because parts for older computer systems have seen their demand fall as the systems they are compatible with become outdated or replaced with new models. If they cannot be sold to commercial customers, these perfectly good computer parts end up being recycled or scrapped.

Then Frontier had an idea: what if they could find a way to sell these parts to the global community where there still might be demand for older used IBM, SUN and HP spare parts? It was a simple idea that turned out to have an equally simple solution. Frontier Computer Corp turned to the world’s largest online marketplace: eBay.

Frontier CFO John Matthews explains: "In the U.S., maybe you couldn't give a certain part or old computer away, but in Chad or Thailand? There's value and demand, and we happen to have, say, 700 of them. So, we're able to sell off these older parts, reduce the footprint in our warehouse, and make space for new gear without having to spend $1 million to expand our warehouse."

Parts being listed for sale at the Frontier Computer eBay Store include hard drives, memory, servers, power supplies, printers, phone systems, used Sun parts, load balancers and more.

The results for the Frontier Computer Corp eBay store have been encouraging so far. "Financially I'm watching this grow day over day," says Evan Kiley, director of the new initiative. "The page views of our eBay page is growing 55 percent a month," and added that, “once an eBay buyer discovers they're dealing with a global computer systems expert, they often come back for more help or equipment, which is feeding Frontier's other divisions.”

The ability to move older parts out of the warehouse has led to a reconfiguration of the facility. Parts are now being bar-coded, cataloged and stored according to category. This has increased efficiency, leading to faster times locating an item and a 45% savings in warehouse space.

Added Matthews, "This has been like seeing something shiny buried in the sand, doing some digging, and finding out it's actually a new Corvette. We're really onto something here."

To visit the Frontier Computer Corporation eBay store, go to http://stores.ebay.com/FRONTIER-COMPUTER-CORP.

About Frontier Computer Corporation
Founded in 1976, Frontier Computer Corp. is a comprehensive products and solutions provider that helps companies plan, build and maintain their IT infrastructure. Frontier Computer Corp. is proud to offer fully refurbished, professionally configured and tested enterprise level IT equipment to companies of any size. Frontier works with small, medium and large businesses to address their infrastructure challenges and provide successful technology solutions that improve efficiency, reduce costs and extend technology lifecycles. The same prompt attention to detail is given on each transaction to ensure successful delivery and implementation regardless of scope.

# # #

Share: