Global hardware refreshes

Global hardware refreshes are essentially large scale procurement, logistics, and deployment projects – especially if you’re an enterprise. It becomes much easier for teams to execute on a global rollout if they can centralize the procurement and management of the hardware. Why? Because all of the asset tagging, configuration, and inventorying of the equipment can happen in a single place instead of across a dozen countries or more. This makes it easy for project managers and IT teams to coordinate and deploy a standardized set of equipment to all of their sites. Consolidating the procurement of these devices is typically the easy part, the difficulty comes when teams have to deploy the hardware.

What makes rolling out a global hardware refresh difficult?

All of the difficulties that apply to shipping infrastructure to global data centers and offices as one-offs also apply to global refreshes: you have to manage import / export compliance, commercialization, customs clearance, permits, licenses, etc. But what makes global hardware refreshes even more complicated are the project management requirements.

When you’re doing a global hardware refresh, you need to organize resources and plan for your internal resources to accept delivery and manage installations, across dozens of countries. Above all, this means that project managers need to have properly calibrated their logistical timelines so that they can line up their resources to deploy the hardware.

FGX Go, in addition to providing our clients door-to-data center capabilities for shipping their infrastructure, assigns large projects with a dedicated project manager. The dedicated FGX project manager will ensure that all of the logistical timelines and bottlenecks are constantly communicated to your team’s stakeholders so that they can roadmap their deployments with accuracy.

What is FGX Go?

FGX Go is our turnkey, door-to-door shipping solution that’s built for companies of all sizes and industries. Whether you’re looking to refresh hardware in one or dozens of sites, we’ll manage everything from the time you order the equipment from your reseller or OEM to the second it’s delivered to its destination.

How does FGX Go work?

FGX Go is a service level that enables our clients to obtain quotes on a shipment-by-shipment basis, and doesn’t lock you into any contracts, allowing you flexibility to scale up and down as needed. When we provide our quotes, we’ll also do an import check to make sure that the equipment is eligible for use in the country you’re looking to ship to. We’ll also let you know what we’ll be executing on your behalf (for example, applying for permits, funding international deferment accounts, etc.) and how long it’ll take so that you can plan your deployments in advance.

What’s special about FGX Go is that our quotes take into account your company’s international footprint to look for cost reduction and operational efficiency wherever possible. For example, the reduction or elimination of import VAT in certain countries or the capability to reclaim it in others.

After a shipment’s quote is approved, FGX will prepare all of the documentation and licenses, perform all of the necessary compliance work, fund duties and taxes, etc., prior to anything being shipped out. By doing so, we limit the amount of time your hardware is sitting in international customs, thus reducing uncertainty and risk in the process. Once all of the documentation and pre-shipment work have been approved, your equipment will be routed via our private supply-chain to its destination’s port of entry, where our in-house customs brokers take over.

During customs clearance, officials may inquire about the import by asking questions, requesting backup documentation, and more – all of which FGX will manage on your behalf. After customs clearance has been completed, we’ll arrange for the shipment to be delivered via a direct drive to the data center or colocation site and provide you with a POD (proof of delivery).

How much work will I have to do?

As little as possible. There are, however, situations where our clients want to commercialize their shipments in a specific way and in order for FGX to make that happen, we have to work with their international counterparts. In cases like that, our clients have to do a bit of administrative and communication work, but throughout the entire process, FGX acts as the project manager and takes ownership over moving things forward. But in 99% of shipments, FGX is able to manage all of the shipments with zero end-user interaction.