Trend towards fewer suppliers

Finally, there is the important, and within the technology industry widespread, trend among
OEMs and tier-1 suppliers to rely on fewer suppliers. Although this can form an obstacle for
new suppliers trying to enter the market, it also creates opportunities for companies that can
provide a wide assortment of products, either independently or in partnership with other
suppliers.

Many companies with a wide product assortment that they manufacture in different
establishments still have separate marketing strategies for the individual products. The end
customer has to deal with different sellers, receives invoices from different establishments
and has to contact different people in the event of problems with deliveries.

Component suppliers that are able to design their internal processes in such a way that the end customer
has a single point of contact will benefit from the trend among end manufacturers to use fewer
suppliers.