Increasing Diversity at Every Level of the Supply Chain

At Comcast NBCUniversal, diversity in our supply chain extends to direct vendors (Tier I) and subcontractors (Tier II). We’re expanding relationships with our direct vendors and identifying potential subcontractors to increase diversity at every level of the supply chain.

Comcast was introduced to Telamon, an Asian-owned minority business enterprise, in 2012 at a national supplier diversity conference.  At the time of the introduction, Telamon supported Comcast indirectly through our vendor relationship with Cisco. The subcontracting relationship with Telamon continued for over two years, but Telamon is now one of Comcast’s direct vendors for Ciena’s cell backhaul and metro Ethernet business services equipment.  This equipment allows businesses to expand their network bandwidth to handle the increase in demand for smart phones, wireless air cards, and 3G/4G connections to their network.  As a value-added reseller of cell backhaul and metro Ethernet equipment, Telamon has the ability to streamline logistics and provide Comcast with efficient equipment solutions.

"The Telamon partnership is special because the procurement team challenged the direct vendor, Ciena, to examine opportunities within our broader supply chain and help us to increase diverse spend," said Jay Burks, Comcast Cable, Senior Manager for Supplier Diversity. "We hope that other Comcast teams can begin to work with their direct vendors to propose innovative strategies for enhanced partnerships with diverse vendors."

Since launching our Tier II program in 2012, we’ve spent more than $250 million dollars with diverse suppliers through subcontracting.  And, when Tier II suppliers have access to capital and can scale their business to meet our needs, Comcast will negotiate a direct partnership, as was the case with Telamon’s transition from subcontractor (Tier II) to a direct (Tier I) vendor.