New York �March 22, 2004 �Communications services provider Equant has achieved improvements in inventory accuracy and reduced inventory shrinkage by using third-party logistics (3PL) provider Choice Logistics as part of an initiative to improve its inventory management.

Based in Amsterdam, Equant provides global communications services for multinational businesses, with 10,100 employees operating in about 165 countries and managing more than 152,000 user connections across the world. Equant's majority owner is France Telecom.

Equant faced several logistics challenges and recognized the need for a scalable logistics solution that would provide the inventory movement and available transactional data to satisfy the company's stringent service level agreements (SLAs). The logistics provider would also have to enable inventory reduction, support to field-services and flexible business specific reporting.

The company tapped Choice Logistics for the job, and currently Choice is managing approximately 300 Equant stocking locations globally and over 30,000 disparate part numbers or stock-keeping units (SKUs), while providing visibility to various aspects of inventory movement transactions.

In addition to improvements in inventory accuracy and reduced inventory shrinkage, Equant has also seen improved savings on transportation for returns since it began using Choice.

"The visibility provided by Choice coupled with Choice's ability to consistently meet our one-, two- and four-hour SLAs with a 99.9 percent accuracy rate has had a positive impact on our business," said Bob Wright, purchasing and supply chain management for Equant. "Our customers benefit from our ability to meet their needs by ensuring that we have the right part in the right place at the right time."

Choice's other customers include such companies as Avaya, Cisco, EMC and Hitachi Data Systems.