SPL is known as Africa’s biggest IT parts distributor, with accreditations for brands spanning the alphabet, and known for the #TrySPL campaign promoting SPL’s ability to find “anything”.
Now – SPL is offering refurbished IT equipment at huge discounts from new (typically between 30%-70% cheaper), with their own SPL flavour – meaning attention to detail on quality, and a very staunch warranty – all equipment comes with a minimum of one-year warranty, and everything can be upgraded to at least a three-year onsite warranty, with servers, storage and networking equipment qualifying for five years or more.
Why warranty matters (and how SPL is getting it right)
The biggest impediment to almost all customers in buying used isn’t that the device will be “slow” – most users buy hardware that is hugely over-specced for their requirements, especially in the business space, but even in the home arena. In fact, unlike in the used vehicle market, old computers can easily and affordably be upgraded.
The biggest impediment is actually that customers don’t believe that a refurbished piece of equipment is going to last them the journey home, let alone three years, without breaking.
SPL addresses this concern head-on by being honest about it and bringing their unique intellectual property, skills and price advantages from the parts world into this challenge. “We can comfortably offer a three-year warranty on just about anything, because we know that even if the spares are EOL with the manufacturer, we can still source them – and that’s been our core business for 30 years,” says Christopher Cox, SPL’s Managing Director.
“We have over 180 000 machines under our warranties for customers, ranging from the country’s biggest names in managed IT, to tier one hardware distributors, to leading retailers… that’s our skill set. When you put that together with 30 years' worth of relationships with suppliers around the world, we can source laptops in volumes – even now, in COVID-times – and we can support them. It’s a strong offering.”
SLAs on warranties are also available for business customers, which range from manufacturer-equivalent, to guaranteed next business day, to guaranteed four-hour call-to-repair. The actual servicing of the equipment is done by a network of SPL’s customers, which develops win-win relationships from which all parties benefit.
But why buy certified re-marketed hardware? (aka “refurbished, but better”)
SPL calls its unique blend of quality control, warranty and service 'certified re-marketed' as an indicator of trust.
In the vehicle market, used vehicles outsell new by a ratio of more than 2:1 according to Business Tech, and in some months even reaching 3:1. Let’s explore why that is the case?
Two reasons: (1) Lack of credible support for the hardware, which SPL believes it has addressed; (2) Inconsistent supply of goods, which through SPL’s wide and deep brokerage networks has been overcome, with thousands of units of a model available on short lead times.
“And, it is for these reasons that we believe we’re going to see the newly price-sensitive post-COVID customer moving to and asking for certified re-marketed hardware in 2021. This is not a blip – this is going to be a lasting trend, and we see the resellers who are able to capably provide both new and re-marketed options to their customers as being the real winners in the hardware space in 2021,” according to Cox.
To get more information on this offering, contact marketing@spl.co.za or speak to your dedicated account manager at SPL.
