really stepping up to be a partner with
digital properties and with retail to be the
third major component in the overall cus-
tomer experience.” COVID has pushed
forward T-Mobile’s plans in this regard,
including buy online/pick up in-store,
contactless and curbside delivery, and
same-day delivery. “Customers can now
have options to get their product where,
when and how they want to get it,”
he summarizes.
With such a decisive stance on the
issue, LaValle makes it clear that pre-
existing solutions are often not enough
to realize T-Mobile’s vision. Instead, the
company opts for in-house business
process design to bring specificity and
relevance to its customers. “Digital
transformation enables that flexibility
and ability to achieve exactly what the
business is looking for, instead of some-
thing that comes pre-configured from
a partner vendor.” T-Mobile considers
its supply chain solutions to be truly
meaningful, an attitude that is integral to
producing optimal outcomes. Creating
a bespoke solution might be more chal-
lenging than selecting a ready-made
option, but by forging strong partner-
ships and “sitting at the table” fromthe earliest inception of new initiatives,
LaValle says that his team is able to
gain a deep understanding of desired
business outcomes that helps to define
product options.
At the beginning of 2020, no-one
at T-Mobile could have predicted the
sweeping changes that have affected
national and international supply chains.
With the March lockdown soon followed
by the completion of the company’s
merger with Sprint Corporation in April,
LaValle says that the added challenge142
FEBRUARY 2021T–MOBILE US, INC.