Contrary to popular belief about secondary routers, the term “gray market” is not the same as “secondary market”. The term “grey market” was originally used in the early-mid 80s as the term developed by the OEM to define technology equipment that was either made in the United States or made for U.S. consumption, and shipped overseas for sale in specific countries; often at much cheaper rates than the equal or similar equipment in the United States. Technology distributors and dealers overseas (whether authorized resellers or not) would then turn around and ship those same goods back to the U.S. selling them at lower prices than the version distributed/sold in the U.S. This not only caused issues for the OEM but also broke several international trade and tariff laws.
The proper gray market definition is:
“…the unauthorized sale of new, branded products diverted from authorized distribution channels or imported into a country for sale without the consent or knowledge of the manufacturer. It is the sale or improper diversion of new products obtained under deceptive circumstances.”
Secondary market equipment, like our Cisco routers, is not gray market nor is it illegal goods. Secondary market networking equipment, including switches and access servers are sourced from legitimate businesses that have excess/de-installed equipment possibly from a recent downsizing of the network, merger/acquisition or a recent network upgrade and want to turn it into working capital or just may have constrained available storage space. In any case, The OEM would like you to believe the secondary market is not a reputable, legal channel to purchase equipment from. This is just not TRUE!
Counterfeiting can be a major issue for organizations who are not trained and experienced in identifying counterfeit equipment. In fact from 2005 through 2008 fifty percent (50%) of Original Equipment Manufacturer’s (OEMs) reported that they had encountered counterfeit products.
However, dealing with a reputable, experienced secondary market supplier will ensure you never receive non-authentic products. Only router and electronic suppliers like Worldwide Supply who have documented procedures and checklists, standard inspection processes, a strict policy and process in place to destroy any counterfeit equipment discovered, certified on-staff engineers, with a state-of-the-art testing facility and comprehensive technical library can guarantee authenticity.
Networking equipment is ever changing. The OEM’s add features and new revisions as quickly as Microsoft develops patches for their software. In spite of the seemingly never-ending number new products available by the OEM, most of the equipment available new is also available on the secondary market within 6 months of its release.
Typically, what occurs is the client will over purchase; simply de-commission a piece of equipment in favor of the newest technology or de-commission equipment due to merger/acquisition, downsizing or real estate consolidation. This is just a few of the many ways supply of the newest product may be available on the secondary market (including routers).
Top suppliers of secondary routers and electronics like Worldwide Supply also maintain extensive inventories of the most popular brands so that requests can be filled immediately. And, due to the “just in time” policy of many of the manufacturers today, new product lead times are extensive in some cases months before a client can receive delivery.
Many people assume that the primary manufacturer of a product is the manufacturer of all of the pieces that make up that product. This could not be further from the truth. GM used Toyota’s hybrid technology to get to the market sooner with a hybrid vehicle. VWs, Audis, Volvos, Mercedes and other vehicles use Porsche transmissions in their AWD cars. And, in fact, Cisco uses memory from NEC, Samsung and others. The memory isn’t inferior; it’s just one piece of the product that Cisco trusts to other experts in that area. These identical pieces are available directly from Worldwide Supply without the mark-up from Cisco and other OEM’s and can reduce your costs by as much as 80 percent.
GBIC’s and SFP’s are also a few of the products in the networking industry that fall into this category. Many OEMs purchase these products from third-party manufacturers and label them with their brand. The OEM would like you to believe you can only purchase these products from them directly at outrageous prices. This is just not TRUE! These products WILL NOT void your existing manufacturer’s maintenance agreement. Worldwide Supply is one of the largest third party suppliers of GBIC’s and SFP’s in the world. All of our products, including secondary routers, are new and come with an unconditional lifetime warranty.
Reputable suppliers stand by their products, whether they are the manufacturer or not. That is just good business. The secondary market is no different and like any other business, reputation is one of the primary reasons clients continue to do business with an organization.
Worldwide Supply offers a comprehensive suite of services to all of our clients. A variety of choices ranging from technical support services, which are available 7x24 by our certified on-staff engineers, depot repair or our most popular program NetGuard (Advanced Exchange) protection program.
NetGuard is the perfect alternative to Cisco® SMARTnet and other advanced exchange OEM programs, what separates NetGuard from all the others is the 50% to 95% cost savings you realize by not dealing with the OEM. In addition, NetGuard provides support for multi-vendor networks all under one agreement. And, NetGuard also includes support for end-of-life products the OEM no longer supports.
Select the services program that best fits your needs. Be rest assured, every single secondary router, switch, access server, CMTS equipment, security hardware, wireless device, IP telephony, optical hardware, etc. purchased from Worldwide Supply can be covered regardless of the manufacturer.
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