eBay Franchise Drop Stores - Why They Failed

As a former official eBay Trading Assistant, Trading Post owner and master franchise representative for an eBay drop store franchise chain. I would like to weigh in on the subject of franchising and stand alone eBay drop stores or consignment locations.

My experience on both sides of the fence has revealed certain truths, and since I was at one time a proponent of the franchise model, I believe my views could be helpful to anyone considering the purchase of a new franchise eBay drop store. These views are my own opinion and do not reflect upon eBay any eBay franchise drop store chain in particular or upon eBay consignment as an addition to any other type of business. I am simply expressing my views regarding the stand alone drop store franchise model and why it has failed.

The Promise:

eBay drop stores came upon the scene with a great fanfare and promise. Initially it was considered a unique and interesting proposition by both business pundits (Entrepreneur Magazine) and investors alike. The promise of the initial drop store franchise operations seemed limitless and they expanded like weeds across the land. Soon it would be difficult to pick up a newspaper or read a business magazine without seeing some reference, either advertisement or article, about the eBay drop store franchise revolution. It was an exciting time...

These franchises promised individuals an easy way to be in business for themselves - a way to "have a store without investing in inventory" by offering a simple effective solution to everyone in America's battle with clutter. People heard the story and they believed; they read about eBay's fabulous growth and the amount of merchandise sold every moment on eBay and they felt it was a sure thing. If any franchise could work for them, this type would because it was easy and it was new and customers would clamor over themselves to get in the door. And really it was a "cheap" franchise to buy....

The Deal:

The deal was simple.

Anyone could own a store if they agreed to the franchise terms. Most of these terms included a simple up-front franchise fee of about $25,000, an added expense for signage and fixtures of anywhere from $5,000 to $25,000, plus a continuing monthly national advertising fee and a royalty fee on all sales of about 4% (of Gross Sales), some with a cap at $1,250.00 per month but most with no cap on the royalty fee.

Once "accepted" into the franchise, the new store owner would be "helped" in finding a suitable lease for a prime storefront (its all about location). These prime retail locations usually were recommended to have a footprint in excess of 2500 square feet. (The storefront itself did not require more than 300 square feet, but storage would be large consideration). Usually the overhead numbers involved with operating a 2500 square foot space in prime retail locations were not stressed to the new store owner, but it would be mentioned to cover the basic requirements of disclosure.

Every franchise must comply with the U.S. government rules regulating franchises and they do so with a document called the UFOC. The UFOC is a very verbose & complicated document which provides both parties in a franchise transaction certain definitions, disclaimers and disclosures. The document can reach 400 pages in length or more and is simply not easy for a layman to understand or evaluate. The U.S. government requires this UFOC document, but they do not provide a course in how to read it. I will say that it is intended to provide many worthwhile protections for prospective franchise buyers, but since most of those same people do not read the document, these protections are rarely understood.

The Process:

A new store owner is first given a training course, usually lasting approximately 7 days. This course is given by the franchise at a franchise designated location (travel expenses are not included in the up-front franchise fee). The course is designed to teach the standard methods and practices of the franchise methodology of drop store operations. The class will also include many details about eBay rules, eBay practices and eBay listing procedures. Very little time is usually devoted to the calculation of eBay fees. Intake, Description, Software Operation, Photography, Storage & Inventory, Shipping, Customer Service (both store front and online) and numerous other topics are covered in this 7 day course. It really is a lot to absorb, especially if the new store owner has never sold an item on eBay before.

The Program:

The newly trained store owner is then released to complete his store construction phase according to franchise regulations. Counter colors, sign placement, numbers of computers, placement of interior walls and paint colors all are defined in the materials given to the new store owner. He has bought into a "proven" system and he must follow the franchise specs.

Once the new drop shop franchise owner's store is complete, he is ready for business. Some franchises will use a portion of the "National Advertising" budget to send out flyers and possibly buy a newspaper ad or a radio spot for the grand opening of the new eBay drop store. Initially the store owner is pleased with the small amount of initial business which results from this advertising push because he and his staff (usually 4 or more employees to start) need to get up to speed on all of the procedures of both eBay and the franchise and they need to learn each step of the process. The store owner is responsible for training his employees or he can send them to the franchise corporate headquarters for a training class at his own expense. Usually it is a trial and error method with the new store owner teaching his staff as much as he can remember from his short training class.

The Grind:

Now that everyone is all "trained" and the initial "ad buy" is over, the store owner is now looking for ways to drive business into his new store. He has more overhead than he initially had envisioned so he must get to work. Staring at a monthly nut to crack of nearly $8,000 on average, most store owners realize fairly quickly that they need items to sell on eBay. Where to get them? Some store owners simply advertise the store and wait behind the counter for customers to stream in. In certain areas of the country and in the early days of drop store operations history, this "tactic" did work. It is less likely to work each and every day however.

The average customer of an eBay drop store, franchise or not, is someone who is not tech savvy, has no internet access, is elderly or is wealthy and has little time. Initially the pool of prospective customers was much larger than it is today because more people now have internet access, more people are familiar with eBay and eBay has made it much easier for people to list a single item on their own. eBay classes are taught by certified eBay education specialists at retirement centers nationwide and these classes are sometimes free. People would rather realize 100% of net profit from a sale than 60 or even 50%.

The drop store owner is now on a mission to bring in customers.

He/She must have products to sell. If it become apparent that advertising and location simply do not provide the traffic he needs, the store owner will try different tactics. Sometimes the franchise will offer assistance in the form of "outside sales" seminars, conference calls and the like. These sales ideas are offered as a way to show that the franchise is on the side of the store owner. (To be honest, most employees of franchise operations are honest hard working people who want nothing more than to help the store owners).

In the end these outside sales ideas boil down to selling cars, RV's and boats - all of which are now precluded by eBay and some States as being illegal or unacceptable without special licenses for each. The franchise failed to mention that a store owner may need a car dealer's license and a boat broker's license or an auctioneer's license to operate a eBay drop off store and sell these types of items. Business-to-Business is another source of income promoted by franchises, but rarely do other businesses wish to split profits in the manner required to make the deal attractive for the drop store owner. This leaves only household merchandise, collectibles and toys, generally creating a garage sale type of atmosphere.

Processing becomes the key - reduce processing time, become more efficient, write shorter descriptions, shoot less photos and speed up the process for each item. This only serves to reduce the final sale price of those items.Store owners soon realize that selling any item worth less than $100 is not worth the expense of processing that item. They react by turning customers away with low value items. This is not always the wisest course of action because that customer will never return and one never knows - they could have been just trying you with a small item before bringing in a diamond ring.

Those rare occasions that high value items are presented are exciting to the store owner and stressful at the same time. The store owner knows the customer will want what he/she has been taught that diamond ring is worth. Unfortunately used diamond rings or other high value items are not always worth what some may think they are. We all like to buy low and sell high but when we buy high we really hate to sell low. eBay has a way of bringing reality to the equation. The store owner must now attempt to coerce the customer into selling a high value item with a low starting price and no reserve. Why no reserve? Because the store owner soon learns that items placed on eBay with a reserve price rarely reach the minimum bid and the number of bids on items with undisclosed reserves are are less than on items with no reserve at all. On eBay the game is to start low and hope to sell high. The store owner must get his customer to buy in to that theory.

Some eBay drop stores do survive with perseverance, skill and entrepreneurial spirit...

These stores would have survived and possibly thrived without a franchise but going in, the store owner did not know that he would have to find ways to make it work on his own. He purchased a franchise and this usually implies the investment in a proven system which will yield dividends if the system is followed. In most cases, in the eBay drop store business, if the franchise model is followed and the store owner does no more than what the franchise recommends, the store will not be profitable. The overhead, eBay fees, insurance, lease payments, employee costs and advertising costs are a tough enough nut to crack on a net of 30% of the net profit from used merchandise. Adding in a franchise fee, national advertising fee and royalty fee just makes the entire business model collapse upon itself.

Franchises sell a name and a brand in most cases.

In this case the franchises were selling someone else's name - they sold the name and brand and the cache of eBay. They did it with eBay's blessing in most cases, but they did it in a way which was not exactly providing the value of a franchise.

When one purchases a franchise like McDonalds, they are reasonably assured that people driving down the road who see the franchise sign will be familiar with that brand. When one purchases any eBay drop store franchise, no matter the name, they are not assured of the same brand recognition. They perceive a brand recognition for the eBay name, but that has little to do with xyz franchise signage. The franchises usually tried to capitalize on the eBay brand with similar color schemes or even by using the eBay logo in the franchise brand logo. This still does not make the consumer recognition for that brand any stronger than it would if a store owner who did not purchase a franchise used the same logo trick (which is not allowed by eBay) in their own non-franchise store logo.

Buying a franchise is a big step, one which should include a great deal of your own research and numbers crunching. Even if the idea of owning a franchise seems comfortable, be aware that it is not a guarantee of success. Many people who have purchase eBay drop store franchises feel as thought they were deceived into a purchase of a business model which never worked.

On the surface this is the truth, but it was not always the case. In the early days of the drop store boom the concept did work and store owners realized gross sales months as high as $200,000 or more. These numbers were widely leaked by the franchises because they helped sell franchises...and because at the time they were the truth. Leaking these numbers was a big risk. As a franchisor it is unlawful to share these numbers, but it was done on a consistent basis.

Times have changed for the eBay consignment business, the market has shifted, customers are smarter and eBay is easier to figure out. Retail lease space costs have increased and insurance premiums have doubled or more. The cost of doing business as a stand alone eBay drop store is just too high. It is no longer a viable franchise model and only in very rare cases will it work for non-franchise store owners with no other retail income.

What Will Save The Day?

Think long and hard about investing in this business model. If you currently own a franchise drop store, you need to seek other opportunities, find new ways to bring in income, reduce your overhead or increase your revenue per item. There are many options available but most store owners are swamped with the grind of maintaining the process of eBay consignment to fully explore these options.

For the owners of franchise eBay drop stores - only they can save the day. But if the franchise will not budge on the fees or on restrictions regarding secondary - or actually primary - retail solutions such as cellular (another iffy proposition) or some other form of retail, there is little hope of digging out of the trap. The current situation was not foreseen by the store owners or the franchisors, although the franchisors saw it sooner than the store owners in most cases. The situation remains, in either case...

eBay consignment can work as a tool for another business. In my view, it is not a business model which can support itself without some other form of business income. As a part of another business, eBay consignment can be a very attractive addition to the overall picture. By using eBay and consignment sales to boost revenue and provide customer service for another business entity while increasing the worldwide exposure for that business through eBay stores listings and auction listings of consigned or inventory products, eBay consignment can be utilized as a very good tool for marketing. eBay consignment, if used as a draw to get new customers in the front door, advertise an existing business in a new and interesting way, and to transition a brick and mortar operation to Internet sales can be a very nice marketing program for almost any existing business.

As a hobby or part time income producer, selling for neighbors or friends, eBay consignment can be fun and rewarding. But as a full time stand alone business model with no other income streams, your efforts and money could be invested more wisely elsewhere.

Written by: Scott Pooler - All Rights Reserved - All Business Auctions

Scott Pooler

[http://www.allbusinessauctions.wordpress.com] - eBay Trading Assistant Journal

http://www.allbusinessauctions.com/blog - All Business Auctions eBay Business Blog

http://internetbusinessmentor.wordpress.com - Internet Business Mentor

Distribute Your Product to Convenience Stores

Article also includes:

-Description of various organizations typically found in an inventor's distribution channel.

-Explanation of how to find a distribution channel for your product.

Many inventors have small novelty products where they want their products sold to convenience stores. This has been a difficult market for inventors because the distributors are typically rack jobbers who actually own the merchandise and buy at 40 to 45 percent of retail. The distributors can be hard to find as they don't have a Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) dedicated to them, and most operate on the office supplies distributor SIC code.

Recently on a project though, I can across a great source, Mr. Checkout. According to the website description "Mr. Checkout is a national organization of (DSD) Direct Store Delivery Wagon-Jobbers, Distributors, Retail Merchandisers and Wholesale-to-Distributor Warehouses servicing Convenience and Grocery Stores in the US since 1989. Our DSD / Full-Service Merchandising Distributor Members call on c-stores weekly." The site has a large of services including a Walgreens merchandising program and a product placement blitz service. Everyone should check this site out if you have a product for drug stores, convenience stores or grocery stores. I can't vouch for the association but I did find the site had a great deal of helpful information.

Over the years I have found that inventors are unfamiliar with distribution, which is the channel that a product follows to take to market. Often products are handled by your own direct sales efforts, reps (also called manufacturers' sales agents), brokers, specialty distributors, wholesale distributors, other manufactures with complementary lines, and rack jobbers all who may play a role in selling a product. The path your product follows to market is called a distribution channel. For example you may sell a product through a rep to a rack jobber distributor who sells to convenience stores who then sells to the consumer.

Description of terms often used when discussing in the distribution channel:

Direct sales: Indicates that sales are handled by the selling company's own sales force.

Reps (manufacturers' sales agents): Independent contractors that promote a Company's line, but have very limited authority to commit a company to any but its standard sales terms. In effect a salesperson that represents a variety of companies with non competing product lines. They typically call on a specific industry, and carry product lines where the sales volume isn't large enough to justify a direct salesperson. Reps don't take title on a product and work commonly on a 5 percent to 20 percent commission.

Brokers: Brokers are similar in some respects to a rep, they are independent from the companies they serve and receive a commission but they are more oriented towards the buyer than the seller. A rep will not carry competing lines and will have a wide range of products. A broker has a narrow range of products and many of them compete. An insurance broker, for example, carries lines of insurance from many companies, and will chose the company that is best for his customer. An insurance agent carries only one company's products, and tries to steer everyone to buy those products. A clock broker, for example, might have three stores as customers, and have access to many lines of clocks. He would then offer clock lines to his customers so they would have a constantly changing variety of clocks. Reps are far more common than brokers.

Private label: This is a practice where a company makes a product that it sells to another company that markets the product under their brand name. For example, a toy company might make a toy that is sold under the Toys R Us label. Or it might make a toy that is sold to Play School and then Play School would sell it under its label. Private labels sellers own the rights to the product and develop and produce the product to their specifications. Toys R Us might also create a develop toys that they have produced by a manufacturer. That manufacturer would be a contract manufacturer, rather than a private label manufacturer, because it didn't create the product and it doesn't own rights to the product.

Specialty retail distributors: Distributors serving small markets, for example baby stores or bike shops. These distributors take title to the product and promote the product and typically carry many products from one product inventor oriented companies. They are a key component in most inventor companies' distribution plans. They typical mark up (raise their price by) is 35 to 40 percent before selling to retailers.

Industrial distributors: These companies typically sell directly to industrial companies, versus selling to a retail store. Graingers and Fastenall are examples of industrial distributors that sell a wide range of products to companies. You also have specialized industrial distributors. Some examples would be a pump and compressor distributors, a distributor that sell products for high temperature furnaces, or a company that supplies safety equipment. These companies typically have a high level of technical support to help chose the right products and then get the products to work effectively for them.

Trade distributors: These are distributors that deal with tradesmen versus industrial or consumer oriented accounts. Plumbing distributors, wood products distributors that sell to contractors, auto parts distributors that serve car repair shops are just a few of the types of distributors that sell to various trades.

Wholesalers: Wholesalers are also a distribution point between manufactures and their customers. While distributors provide promotion and service, wholesalers typically don't. They also rarely carry products from inventors as they purchase very large stocks of products and serve markets like grocery stores. Like distributors they take ownership of the product, but typically only mark the product up 15 to 20 percent.

Rack jobbers: Rack jobbers are a specialty type of distribution. Most distributors take title to the product and then sell it to a store or industrial company that takes title. Rack jobbers instead rent portions of a store, which might just be a section of a rack, or endcap positions at the end of the store aisles by the cash registers. Durable hair care products (brushes, combs and other product related hair care products) at drug stores are a typical rack jobber item. The rack jobber owns the merchandise in the store, replaces it and is only paid for the merchandise when it is sold by the store. Typically rack jobbers raise their purchase price 50 to 75 percent and then the stores mark the product up an additional 50 percent.

Selling through other manufacturers: One of the reasons companies use reps is that they don't have enough sales volume on their own to justify a direct salesperson. Those companies are often willing to pickup a line from another company if it puts them in a position to have their own direct sales force.

How to find agents and distributors.

Step 1: Start by looking for trade associations, trade magazines and trade shows. You can find associations and trade magazines with Google searches if you are lucky, or by going to one of your larger libraries, where you can look for The Encyclopedia of Associations by Gale Research, and also Gale Research's Directory of Magazines and Broadcast Media. Both of these directories have a wide range of groups for even thee smallest trade associations and trade magazines.

Once you find a list of associations and trade magazines you should go to their site and look for a list of manufacturers' representatives or distributors. For example I went to look for products for the baby industry in Gale's Encyclopedia of Associations. I found the association Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association. When I went to the web site, jpma.org, I found they had a list of manufacturers sales agents. Often the web sites will also have a list of distributors, similar to the Mr. Checkout web site.

Step 2: Develop a list of manufacturers in the industry. You can find lists of manufacturers in the trade association and the trade magazines web sites. Trade magazines will also have a list of trade shows. If you go to the web sites for those trade shows you can usually get a list of exhibitors. You can make the list more complete by using your library again. Most bigger libraries have a service called Reference USA in their online services. You can also use the service at home once you have the library password. Go to the site http://www.referenceusa.com before going to the library to see what information you will need. Then look up the SIC codes for a few companies on the site. SIC stands for Standard Industrial Codes, and typically most companies in the industry will have the same code. Once you have the SIC Codes you can do a search based on SIC codes and get a list of many of the companies in the industry.

Step 3: Go the web sites of companies in the industries. Some of the companies will list distributors, and others will list manufactures representatives. Other companies will be looking for representatives or distributors. Often it pays off to call those companies and see if they would like to partner with you in marketing your products. This is a tactic to consider because often manufacturers reps and distributors don't want to carry a line that is too small. You and your partner company might have enough volume together to entice distributors or manufacturing reps to carry your product.

You can also find representatives at the manaonline.org, which is the site of the manufacturers' agents' national association web site.

Success Tip

If you are a minority or women-owned business you might want to check out the site http://supplierregistration.target.com/Supplier/supplier_registration.aspx to get idea of the information you need to know to become a supplier for a leading store.

Don Debelak is a well-known invention expert who has worked with new products and inventions for over 25 years and is the author of four of the best-known invention books of the last 15 years. Don runs the One Stop Invention Shop, http://onestopinventionshop.net, with a team of expert associates. The One Stop Invention Shop provides great service along with lots of free information to help inventors.

Point of Sale (POS) Printer Rollout Study For Grocery Stores

If your company has experienced complications and hardship trying to roll out new technologies to several locations across the country, you may benefit from this article. As you would likely agree, communication and constant attention to detail are vital aspects to a successful roll-out. Problems can arise at any moment during a nationwide roll-out with obstacles at each unique location and difficulty coordinating each step of the process.

A Global Provider specializing in "customer driven marketing" for international grocery, drug and mass merchandiser stores, was in need of an organized and meticulous management team to complete a project requiring service at over 1,500 different site locations. This Provider/Customer distributes printed coupon advertisements at point-of-sale checkout counters in over 23,000 grocery, mass merchandise, and pharmacy stores nationwide. The Customer was looking to upgrade their point of sale hardware in various stores from black & white to high-speed point of sale color printers.

The job required installation of upgraded infrastructure cabling in over 8,000 lanes at stores owned by 11 large supermarket chains. The Customer needed to ensure that the new data cabling, which would accommodate incoming point of sale color printers, was properly installed and functional before distributing the new printers to the respective locations. The project was expected to be costly and complicated because of the vast number of unique locations.

Multiple challenges were identified for the customer in this case, but with no clear way to solve them simultaneously.

1. Customer needed custom cabling designs for multiple locations due to the different layouts of the stores.

2. Customer needed a way to coordinate and organize the on-going activity and installation at each individual site.

3. Customer needed to find contractors at each location who were qualified to complete the installation, without detracting from the quality of service provided by each contractor.

4. Customer had to ensure that the cabling installations would not cause the stores to close for installation nor would it be bothersome to the shoppers.

5. Customer had to verify that the work was completed in a timely and high-quality fashion with the system being fully ready for implementation with the new printers.

With all of these evident challenges to the job, this Global Provider chose to enlist A National Project Management and Cabling Contractor to complete the multifaceted project.

After receiving the contract from the Customer, the National Contractor initiated its standard procedures, as follows:

1. Identified the scope of work.

2. Met with the customer to discuss the criteria of the job and the specifications of the installations

3. Visited a pilot site location to obtain a visual understanding of the project.

4. Met with a subcontractor who was familiar with the typical grocery store layouts to gain an outside perspective on the best pathways to use for the cabling.

Following this diagnostic process, the Internal Team collaborated to establish two viable options for the cabling installation, to overcome the issue of various store layouts at the site locations. This solves the first challenge mentioned above because the National Contractor produced custom designed methods for the cabling to be installed.

The actual work to be completed was the removal of old cabling from the stores' infrastructure and the installation of new CAT5 data cables at each checkout lane in every store. The National Contractor produced two options for the installation depending on the layout of the store. If the pathway allowed for it, the "Homerun" option consisted of running cables from each of the lanes directly to the Communications Room. If there were space limitations in the pathway, a second solution was created in which the cables would be condensed at a midpoint and then two new backbone cables (a primary and a backup) would be run to the Communications Room. One of these two options would be suitable for every location and The National Contractor began checking the floor plans of each site to determine which option should be used.

As mentioned previously, some of the concerns about executing a multi-site technical roll-out are the uncertainty about the quality of work that you will receive from each individual technician and whether or not they are qualified to do the job. Without any prior experience, you never know exactly what kind of service you will get from the various contractors. Thus, an established National Contractor has an in-depth procedure for selecting and qualifying technicians as well as a comprehensive process to ensure that your installation is performed in a professional and customer-friendly manner.

Labeling oneself as professional is one of the most typical ways a company can project an image of qualification. As the customer, you don't want to discover after-the-fact that the contractor you hired is not only careless, but difficult to work with. With this Global Provider facing a project with coordination of over 1,540 sites, the National Contractor selected two experienced Project Managers (PMs) to supervise the job from start to finish. Once the scope of work was established, the Project Managers searched in its large database for qualified technicians near each location who were experienced in infrastructure cabling installation for similar marketplace buildings. The National Contractor also calculated optimum driving routes for the techs to minimize travel time and be more cost-efficient with the installations.

Another challenge with this point of sales printer project was that the Customer did not want the stores or its customers to be affected by the cabling installation. Thus, the Project Managers confirmed with the selected technicians that they were willing to work after-hours to do the job to maintain activity in the stores. The National Contractor was able to accommodate the after-hours request, and corresponded with the Customer's on-site representatives to ensure access to the stores at night. The store managers also had input in this planning and The National Contractor adjusted its time schedule around the busier days for the store such as blackout dates (i.e. double coupon promotions). This flexibility of work hours made it convenient for the Customer to upgrade its systems while the stores remained open.

A common cause for costly delays at the beginning of a large rollout is the absence of supplies that the technicians need to install the cables. To avoid this problem, The National Contractor's PMs ordered bulk materials to help save the Customer money and followed a strict schedule to have all necessary installation materials available before the techs arrived at the locations. While some companies suffer from the confusion of task scheduling with multiple sites, this National Contractor uses its signature management tool, Advantage®, to monitor and update the activity occurring at each site on a daily basis. Using the Advantage® System, the PMs were able to keep track of where installations were occurring every single day.

During the installation, the Customer did not want the in-place coupon printers to be inactive so The National Contractor devised a plan where the technicians installed the new cables before removing the old ones. Thus, the printers were always online and operating during the installation period, until the new cables were installed and ready for use. This type of quality assurance demonstrates this National Contractor's ability to customize its plans to the requests of the customer on any given job.

The Customer's initial apprehension about the quality of work was put to rest when The National Contractor explained the steps that each technician would take with the installation. Upon arrival, the selected tech would administer a "Pre-Installation Survey" to verify that all the printers were up and functioning properly. Then, the tech would confirm with the Project Manager which installation option to use at the site and install the new CAT5 data cables from the lanes to the Communications Room. For a typical contractor, this would be considered a completed job and the technician would leave, sometimes without notice, assuming that everything was working fine. This National Contractor, insists on active communication between the Customer, technician, and Project Manager to assure the techs sign-in and sign-out with the store manager each day on site.

As the customer, it can be very frustrating and often costly for an installation to be completed without checking to make sure everything is working as expected. The National Contractor's quality assurance program includes that technicians at every store conduct a "Post-Installation Survey" where the new CAT5 cables were connected to the current printers and tested to make sure it was working. The Customer's plan was to install the new point of sale color printers after the cabling was completed and The National Contractor made this much easier by providing cabling that was tested and functional, so that the new printers simply needed to be shipped to the locations and plugged in.

The new printers rollout consisting of 1,540 store installations for the Global Provider was completed in approximately nine months, within the estimated time frame. All challenges identified by the Customer, including quality assurance of installation and supervision with each store location, were completed in an organized and efficient effort by The National Contractor team. Accomplishing a project of this magnitude can often be costly and complicated which is why The National Contractor can benefit companies by providing ease of mind that the desired outcome will be achieved in a methodical and cost-effective way. For this Global Provider, The National Contractor was able to offer a more competitive price by supplying bulk materials at a lower average cost and with a more efficient Management Team. The decision process for selecting a suitable, yet competent contractor can be hectic and time-consuming. The National Contractor team strived to make the entire duration of a project as painless as possible for the Customer with the belief that through efficient management and by utilizing the right tools, any job can accomplished at a superior level.

For more information on national technology rollouts and/or to consult with one of our experts please call Celergy Networks Toll Free: (877) CELERGY (235-3749) or visit our website at http://www.celergy.com.