CURVATURE HARDWARE SOLVES GLOBAL IT PROCUREMENT GAPS AMID SUPPLY CHAIN CHALLENGES

Leaders in enterprise IT, sales and procurement report companies are increasingly incorporating pre-owned hardware into 2022 buying strategies

CLEVELAND, March 17, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Curvature Hardware, Park Place Technologies' new and pre-owned hardware sales division, established its position in the global enterprise IT market as the leader in attainable, reliable and cost-effective hardware solutions that have proven resilient to the ongoing supply chain disruptions. Seasoned executives in enterprise IT sales and procurement predict the business arm to grow 15-20% in 2022 as CIOs and CEOs incorporate pre-owned hardware into long-term buying strategies in order to maximize flexibility and cost savings.

Enterprise IT teams started to witness first-hand the very real effects of the pandemic on the supply chain in Q2 2021. Original equipment manufacturer (OEM) lead times were delayed well into this year, causing IT teams to seek alternative ways to fill in gaps where traditional channels could not deliver the components needed.

"The pandemic and resulting supply chain challenges were catalysts to what we saw as an inevitable procurement shift in the IT industry – supplementing cutting-edge OEM parts with pre-owned hardware for less critical or temporary components," said Sachi Thompson, General Manager of Global Hardware, Curvature. "Curvature was the obvious answer for many when supply chain hurdles cut off IT teams from their traditional suppliers. Once our customers realized the flexibility and cost savings that pre-owned hardware added to their existing environments, they realized Curvature as a long-term partner and started incorporating us into their buying strategies."

In 2021, Curvature saw a 17 percent revenue growth. This year, Park Place is increasing its investment in Curvature through hiring, marketing, IT and facility upgrades to hit its 15-20% revenue growth projection for the business this year.

"At Park Place, we are constantly procuring new and pre-owned parts from our suppliers; in normal times, what we buy is typically out the door in 45 days or less. We saw these parts shortages and logistical issues coming long before enterprise IT teams even started to feel the effects of them because parts were becoming harder to secure through our traditional channels and lead times were increasing." said Joe Spiewak, VP of Supply Chain and Logistics at Park Place Technologies. "In response, we made it a point to ensure that we had ample inventory for our customers as far out as 90 days. This required many phone calls to new and existing suppliers. At times, I felt like a stockbroker on Wall Street speaking to parts suppliers all around the world at all hours. When the supply chain finally made headlines, our business was ready."

Ample inventory and strategic buying tactics are foundational to Park Place and Curvature's business, ensuring resilience against procurement challenges, while also saving money and increasing flexibility for its customers.

"A good indicator of a strong procurement partner is readiness, because that's our business. Not only was Curvature ready to expand service to its existing customer base, but it scaled quickly to manage the global surge in demand for hardware equipment," said Mike Cadieux, Founder and CEO of Procurement Foundry. "IT is critical to the success of every organization. CEOs, CIOs and procurement teams need to work together to create sound tech sourcing strategies that stand up to the economic, political, and social disruptions that have proven to trickle down to our businesses."

Aside from the struggle to find parts, the cost of moving them has soared since the beginning of the pandemic, stretching IT budgets to their breaking points; if digital infrastructures fail, it hinders an organization's overall performance.

"The pandemic created an entry point for pre-owned hardware for both new and legacy customers of Park Place. Curvature offers an experienced team that effectively serves as a consultant for building, improving and optimizing your IT infrastructure, while maximizing cost savings. Between Joe, Sachi, and the Curvature sales team, Park Place has an extremely granular understanding of the IT parts supply chain, what parts are available, where, and how to get them to our customers as soon as they need them," said Chris Adams, President and CEO, Park Place Technologies. "We're seeing incredible rates of customer adoption and retention, a positive outcome for Park Place and our customers."

For more information about Curvature, visit www.curvature.com.

About Park Place Technologies
Park Place Technologies is a global data center and networking optimization firm. Powered by the world's largest on-the-ground engineering team, a robust group of advanced engineers and our fully staffed, 24x7x365 Enterprise Operations Center, we offer a robust portfolio of IT solutions to optimize networking and data center Uptime and performance. Our services include third-party data center hardware maintenance, professional services, infrastructure managed services, network performance monitoring and hardware sales. Through our unique and fully integrated DMSO (Discover, Monitor, Support, Optimize) approach, customers enjoy streamlined infrastructure monitoring and management, cost efficiencies, less chaos, and faster mean-time-to-resolution – ultimately providing the freedom to think bigger. Park Place's industry-leading and award-winning services include Park Place Hardware Maintenance™, Park Place Professional Services™, ParkView Managed Services™, Entuity Software™ and Curvature Hardware sales. For more information, visit www.parkplacetechnologies.com. Park Place is a portfolio company of Charlesbank Capital Partners and GTCR.

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SOURCE Park Place Technologies