Taming the IT Supply Chain
It seems like the term “supply chain” is everywhere. Whether it’s your new iPhone, a car, or your favorite brand of pasta sauce, having to manage supply shortages has become a daily task for all of us. When it comes to managing your business, the state of the IT supply chain poses several risks. Common components like laptops and wireless access points have seen lead times go from two days to over 300 days. The good news is that there are steps you can take now to make sure your business has the technology components it needs to thrive and grow.
IT Supply Chain: An Inside Look
To understand how to manage the IT supply chain, first let’s get an inside look at how all the pieces fit together:
In 2019, you would have placed an equipment order for new laptops or wireless access points with your favorite IT vendor, then that vendor would order those from a distributor with fully stocked shelves, and you’d have your IT equipment within a few days. As the pandemic shutdown equipment manufacturing capacity, distributor shelves quickly became bare, and lead times began to soar. Now customers and distributors are both competing for the same equipment manufacturing capacity with often chaotic results.
Organizations that want to own their IT
How do you protect your business so you can focus on profitability instead of supply chain headaches? The first question to ask yourself is whether you even want to continue manually building your own IT. For organizations who do want to continue to own and manage 100% of their IT infrastructure, here are the immediate steps you can take to reduce your IT supply chain headaches:
Budget at least 180 days from the time place an equipment order to the time you receive that equipment.
Have an honest conversation with your IT vendor. Each equipment manufacturer has several distributors. If your IT vendor isn’t using all of them, you’re potentially limiting your options without even knowing it.
Do not issue a purchase order for IT equipment without first receiving an estimated ship date in writing from your IT vendor. IT vendors may not be able to legally guarantee a ship date, but better IT vendors can absolutely provide solid estimates without a purchase order.
Consider alternative IT equipment manufacturers. Your IT staff might love wireless access points from manufacturer A and laptops from manufacturer B, but if you have to wait over a year to get them, you should evaluate competing options from other manufacturers who may have better lead times.
Organizations that want the IT headache to go away
If you read through #1-4 and aren’t looking forward to any of them, you should also seriously consider Network as a Service (NaaS) providers. Public cloud solutions like Microsoft Azure and AWS have exploded in popularity because organizations like yours realized there wasn’t value in maintaining your own data centers or the supply chain headaches that go with them. A good NaaS solution extends the same benefits for the rest of your IT operation. When evaluating NaaS providers, keep in mind that:
Your NaaS provider supplies all of the required IT components like wireless access points, switches, routers, and firewalls which takes the supply chain management burden off of your team.
Your business no longer has to worry about large capital expenditures when IT equipment needs to be replaced. Instead, your IT costs become predictable.
A qualified NaaS provider will back their service with uptime and performance service level agreements (SLAs). You’re no longer buying IT by the box, you’re buying guaranteed results.
Having access to your NaaS provider’s IT skills means you have fewer IT skills to staff in house. In addition to cost savings, this is great news at a time when finding and retaining top IT talent is incredibly challenging.
Successfully navigating the IT supply chain ensures your business has the technology it needs to thrive and grow. At Cadenza, we help a wide range of organizations move from status quo to world class by delivering the highest levels of technical engineering and client service. Have more questions? We’re happy to have a more in-depth conversation based on your specific needs.
Drop us a line below and let’s get started building something great together.