Integrators, What Do You Do With Products That You Buy But Do Not Use?

#1, thanks for asking this. I've made this its own discussion so more people can provide input.

I don't know of any industry-specific marketplace.

I've also queued this up for a future survey question as I am curious what integrators do generally. I bet there is a fair amount of product never used (probably low as a percentage but it builds up over time).

As a part of my consulting practice, I do a several "pro-bono" security assessments per year at no charge for worthy charities and non-profits. Recent ones have included a day care center, battered women's shelter, and a church. These organizations desperately needed help with security, but had no way of paying my regular fees.

I would encourage integrators who have extra equipment to consider donating it to worthy organizations as a way of giving back to their community. Ask one or more of your installation crew if they would like to come in on a Saturday and install it as a community service project. Doing this type of thing can be very satisfying and can generate positive publicity for your company.  

There are usually lots of simple things such as staff training, procedures, and changes to lock hardware, landscaping, lighting, etc. that can be done relatively inexpensively. Only after these basics are covered do we start to look at systems.

This is a challenge we face as well. I have 20 or so cameras that are new in box, in their final year of warranty, and really have no use on the type of customers I am allocated currently. Right now I have to pay for a storage container to house these units. I have held onto them for the past 9 months presuming that some project will occur that I can transfer them onto at effectively zero cost which would greatly enhance my margin. In the interim, I have done everything I can including proposing to clients at cost. No buyers yet. It's only a matter of time until we determine that the cost of retaining these items is greater than it is worth.

If there was a more refined method to sell equipment integrator to integrator beside eBay or Craigslist I would definitely make use of it.

John - I think I asked this question once before and I think you said no but I can't remember now why, so I'll ask it again since its pertinent to this discussion.  Would IPVM consider adding a feature that introduces buyers/sellers of this kind of overstock sales?  It could even be a new revenue generator for IPVM.  I'd gladly pay a % of sales or an annual "marketplace" membership or something along those lines for a feature like that.

There are some facebook groups for buying/selling fire and security equipment. 

This is a challenging part of maintaining excess inventory. I always try to know what we have left over from projects so we can use the leftover inventory instead of buying new. Now you always have warranty issues with this type of equipment. If you have customers with full service contracts then you could use the older equipment as you are covering the warranty under the service contract anyways.

Depending on the parts that are leftover from a job sometimes it is better to take the 25% re-stocking fee than eating the entire cost of a piece of equipment. Problem is you always think you will use that part in the near future but never end up using it and at some point it is either outdated or the supplier won't accept the return anymore. It is a fine balancing act that's for sure.

Also if you have multiple people that order equipment it is hard to get them to make sure and check your overstock you have on hand. Typically you end up with a 100 extra whatever is no one ever checks the overstock and just keeps ordering the same part that is often not even needed on the job or maybe you just need a few. For instance say gimbles for motion detectors or back boxes for cameras. Sure when you quote the job it appears you will need all those extra pieces but you often end up not needing as many as you thought, thus extra inventory.

In my exposure to these fairly new field of security for me, I have seen the rural part of the country...is lagging behind in most cases in terms of technology.  This is even more true in the developing countries.

I see a pattern where the outdated products are being sold to those installers in the country sides and far away places through a network of installers and/or association (if any exist), nowadays they just posted in WhatsApp group in our cases....so we can sell the unused products at whatever rate we want as long as the buyer is interested.

The buyer is usually also aware that these are not brand new from the factory kinda thing and they expected that by the way. But all in all it's a different world and different system.  Just sharing my 2 cents.

I am always looking for CCTV equipment for testing in the lab! Please send me a message with the specifics