Expansion and Awards!

2008 concluded with Able being recognized for several high profile awards:
- Inc. Magazine’s “Inc. 5000”
- The Chandler 100 Distinguished Anchor Businesses
- Arizona Fast 15 Awards
- Arizona Companies to Watch

Able has expanded to Texas!
Building on our prior success we have opened a new branch office in Corsicana, Texas!

Consignment Inventory: What is it and When Does It Make Sense to Use It.
By Stephen Brown, Purchasing Supervisor, Able Information Technologies, Inc

Let’s start with a simple definition: Consignment Inventory is inventory that is in the possession of the customer, but is still owned by the supplier.
In other words, the supplier places some of his inventory in his customer’s possession (in their store or warehouse) and allows them to sell or consume directly from his stock. The customer purchases the inventory only after he has resold or consumed it.
The key benefit to the customer should be obvious; he does not have to tie up his capital in inventory. This does not mean that there are no inventory carrying costs for the customer; he does still incur costs related to storing and managing the inventory. So what’s in it for the supplier? This is where the benefits may not be so obvious—or may not even exist. Some areas are reduced freight costs, packaging and shipping materials.

During October of 2007 Able began discussions with four key Strategic Partners to put consigned inventory that they owned into Able’s warehouse. Although Consigned Inventory isn’t a new concept it was in the market that Able served. The following are key points and issues that were reviewed and discussed before implementing the program.

Many faces of consignment inventory.
Below are some examples of the variety of approaches to consignment.

Consignment transfer of ownership models. Pay as sold (real-time) Pay as sold during a pre-defined period. Ownership changes after a pre-defined period. Order to order consignment (when next consignment order is placed, previous is billed).

Agreement Issues
Both parties need to clearly understand the terms.

	Real-time sales or period-end sales.
	Time limit (must be purchased or returned within specified period).
	What is the freight policy?
	What is the return policy?
	Who holds responsibility for damage or loss while in customer’s possession?
	What are the Insurance implications?
	Exactly how and when is data exchanged? What data is exchanged?
	How are miscellaneous transactions processed? Cycle count adjustments, Customer Returns (does a return initiate a credit from the supplier?) Scrap

Other Considerations

Ideally, Consignment inventory should be invisible to most workers (warehouse, manufacturing, sales order processing). If these people need to process consignment inventory transactions differently from non-consignment transactions, you can expect to have problems. These problems can range from minor annoyances and delays in processing transactions, to very serious data integrity issues when transactions are improperly executed.

When demand is reasonably known and stable, consignment inventory is not recommended. If a customer is pressuring consignment to reduce his costs, you may be better off offering longer payment terms rather than consignment inventory. This should achieve the same objective without creating the added burden of managing consignment inventory. Just be careful that you don’t end up giving him consignment inventory AND longer payment terms.

If you would like to learn more about Consignment Inventory and how it can help your organization and fit your needs, please contact your sales representative or call Able directly at 888-918-2637.

• BICSI re-writing the NFPA fire code.
  The NFPA 72 committee is making large changes to the fire alarm code to be released in 2010, this update reflects the changing demands of Mass Notification Systems (MNS). Familiarity with fire code changes and MNS, will be essential to solution providers, facility owners and installers
• LEED and the Stimulus Bill
  On February 19th President Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 which includes billions for Green building initiatives. Understanding the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System will help your organization when exploring stimulus package possibilities for your industry. Visit http://www.usgbc.org/ for more info.

Fiber Demand is up!
Fiber to the classroom and other end use points is now becoming a fast preference to traditional CAT 5 and CAT 6 solutions. This shows the final evolution of fiber from the backbone to the desktop. The end result is fiber to the PC for Gigabit throughput on a per station basis, a significant increase over previous end user speeds!

Other benefits of fiber include new Multi Ply Fiber which is now virtually industructable, especially when compared to the highly fragile fiber solutions that existed before.

Another benefit for building owners is Blow In Fiber. This advanced yet simple solution, allows fiber strands to be quickly and easily replaced either for repairs or for future upgrades, a worthwhile investment for future considerations.

Private Video Direct eXchange (PVDX) is now in demand across the education market
With servers placed off-site, classrooms are able to direct teacher chosen streaming content directly to a students desktop or to a classroom projection system on demand all over the existing IP network infrastructure.

Able has upgraded to Fluke cable testing!
This has improved Ables testing capability and by upgrading to Fluke cable testing methods and equipment we can test our installations faster and provide better end customer reporting statistics.

The True Costs of IP Video Surveillance
By Dr. Bob Banerjee, IP video product marketing manager, Bosch Security Systems, Inc.

For most organizations, cost is one of the primary factors that influence the selection of one bid over another in the purchasing process of a video surveillance system. And while the acquisition expense is significant, there are other factors, such as ongoing maintenance, that impact the cost of the system over time. Only by understanding the different components of the system and their associated expenses, can you truly comprehend the total cost of ownership (TCO) of the system.

This knowledge is particularly important as security personnel are increasingly working with their IT colleagues in selecting vendors and designing systems, as well as sharing departmental budgets. IT is accustomed to reviewing and studying TCO with their systems and will want to be able to measure security investments in the same way.

Estimating TCO involves understanding the initial acquisition cost, the operating requirements, labor for installation and maintenance, and exposure to risk or liability – such as fines for non-compliance with regulatory requirements for video surveillance in certain industries. Time savings and efficiencies achieved must also be considered in the equation.

Some design choices only impact the acquisition and installation costs of a system.  For example, in installations where Ethernet cabling is already in place, the choice of IP cameras over analog cameras can help to decrease costs by eliminating the need to run coaxial cabling and by using Power over Ethernet instead of added power supplies for the cameras.

Other options can impact manpower needs. For example, video content analytics will alert system operators to video where an alarm is raised. This addition to the design can help reduce the number of personnel required to monitor the system or make the existing personnel more efficient and effective.

However, the greatest impact to TCO in large video installations comes from the recording and storage technology. It is common for storage to make up the biggest share of the capital expenditure – often 50 to 80 percent of the cost – and the recording technology chosen can greatly impact maintenance costs over time.

There are three main reasons for high storage requirements for modern CCTV systems: a large quantity of cameras; recording at a very high video quality; and/or retaining video for a long period of time – months or even years. If any of these descriptions fit your needs for video surveillance, then you will want to understand how different approaches to IP video recording and storage can impact the TCO of your system.

For more information, call Able at 888-918-2637 to learn more about the ‘The true costs of IP Video Surveillance' and the solutions offered by Bosch through Able.

Texas Office
220 E 3rd Ave
Corsicana, TX 75110
Phone: 877-872-0337
Fax: 214-594-9779
txsales@ableinc.com

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