Putting stock in third parties

A third party that performs its warehousing and distribution allowed Sun Microsystems Inc. to offer faster parts delivery service to its clients and at the same time reduce costs. The company chose USCO Distribution Services Inc., an asset-based third party logistics provider, because of its systems capabilities, warehousing management strategy and network of facilities. USCO's initial step was to assume control of Sun's two large distribution centers to monitor field inventory.
Sun Microsystems developed a two-hour parts delivery capability. But they had to go outside of their company to do it. Sun Microsystems had a problem. 'We had to come up [...]