"On time fulfillment is the cornerstone of what we do," says Nelson. "But it's not always that simple to execute. When it comes to logistics, you always have to balance quality of service or speed with cost."

In Nelson's view, winning at logistics comes down to three essentials:

1. Having an agile and efficient organization, with easy-to-adapt processes.
2. Working closely and collaboratively with customers to identify opportunities for greater efficiencies.
3. Hiring people with deep but diverse skills, so they can step in when and where they're needed.

"Flexibility is critical," she adds, "especially when it comes to managing your resources. As a service provider, you can't always schedule projects to fit your own internal timetable. We have three new customer solutions going live this fall, for example, and we often have to be ready to ramp up on fairly short notice."

The ultimate logistics challenge

Imagine the complexity of a supply chain that today supports more than25 million customer connections across Canada, bringing together traditional telephone service with wireless service, high-speed Internet capabilities and satellite television. Of course we're talking about Bell Canada one tough testing ground for the third-party logistics approach.

Behind the scenes, Bell Canada draws on a wide variety of inventory parts , including more than 50,000 product and service items. Then there are the multitude of business partners/suppliers and more than40,000 employees who team up to make a complex business run like clockwork.