DCL Fulfillment Blog

Introducing our Inside Sales Guy…if you haven’t heard from him, there’s a good bet you eventually will.  Mike Finney is our new Business Development Manager with a focus on Inside Sales.  Mike brings over 10 years of sales and business development experience to DCL.  His spirit and unbridled enthusiasm to the role are unmatched and he passionately enjoys discussing supply chain strategies with companies.  Mike is an avid Angel’s hater and when he is not working it’s a good bet that you can find him at an A’s game.  Give Mike Finney a call if you are interested in talking about DCL’s services: 510.651.5100 x292

A common question that is often addressed to us is “who does DCL compete with?” The answer is not so simple. By itself, “pick, pack and ship” can be offered by nearly everyone. Depending on the opportunity, DCL sees competition from freight forwarders, CD replicators, packaging suppliers, ecommerce companies, warehousers,  call centers and traditional 3PLs.

Just as DCL started as a diskette duplicator a quarter century ago, other companies are experts in their core competencies but have extended their offering to include fulfillment. My advice to companies looking at outsourcing their fulfillment: look beyond the website and the marketing brochures, do your homework and dig deeper into their core capabilities.  Remember, anyone can “pick, pack  and ship” a product, but how many can ship accurately, on-time, and within a short time frame?

It’s hard not to know about the difficulties of our current economic environment. If we haven’t been personally affected by it in some way, we hear about in the daily media and it’s standard water cooler discussion these days.  All companies are feeling the affects of this recession, but how does this economy influence the current fulfillment industry.

It’s very simple actually. The state of a fulfillment company is actually more reflective of the overall economy than looking at the state of a specific company by itself. You see, if you are looking at one company, you could be looking at a relatively small slice of the entire demographic pie - one market segment, one socioeconomic class, one ethnic group, etc.  In general, fulfillment companies such as DCL can service many customers across a broad spectrum of industries, which is probably a more accurate reflection of the economy as a whole.  Here at DCL, we service approximately 40 customers across the consumer electronics, software and healthcare/medical industries. Some customers are struggling in this environment while others are growing by leaps and bounds. We must manage our business like a portfolio of stocks with one important thing in mind: diversification. You always plan to bring on new customers with winning products in any industry, however, you expect that some customers (for whatever reason) will just not make it.

Today especially, companies are analyzing outsourcing within the context of their strategic direction. With the debt markets tightening, companies that are straddled with any types of debt and fixed costs are having challenges and are seriously considering a variable cost model. More than ever, DCL is uncovering situations where companies have been operating in-house for years and are finally considering outsourcing as a strategic option.