VARs' kit shortage woes continue
Vendors and VARs bemoan continuing components dearth
Short supply: Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson have become the latest vendors to complain about the effect of the network components drough
The channel’s struggles with product availability continue, with vendors still lamenting components shortages and VARs claiming low-end Cisco kit remains in short supply.
Last month, Ericsson chief executive Hans Vestberg claimed a dearth of network components had wiped up to £350m off the vendor’s top line in the second quarter.
“Sales were affected by continued industry component shortages and supply chain bottlenecks,” he said.
Ben Verwaayen, chief executive of Alcatel-Lucent bemoaned the shortage as his firm posted a year-on-year revenue decline of 2.4 per cent.
“The components industry will not be able to solve this issue within a 90-day period,” he said.
Chris Davies, UK and Ireland general manager at D-Link, said his company launched an initiative a year ago to ensure accurate forecasting and minimise the risk of a shortage.
“If a customer is running a project worth a lot of money, it would be foolhardy not to double or triple check that their channel partners have at least a forecast in place on their behalf, or have purchase orders placed,” he said.
Some channel onlookers continue to report problems obtaining low-end Cisco kit, including Wi-Fi routers.
John Massey, managing director of VAR Actimax, said: “There has been a real shortage of 3G routers. We have had to go to [rival vendor] DrayTek.”
David Galton-Fenzi, sales and marketing director at Zycko, said getting Cisco kit either side of the firm’s fiscal year end on 31 July has always been problematic.
"Cisco usually ships very little in August," he said.
D-Link’s Davies added: “I hope at least this will cause users to think twice before locking themselves into a technology that allows little room for choice.”
In a statement to CRN, Keith Goodwin, Cisco’s senior vice president of worldwide channels, acknowledged lead-time problems “have not been easy for partners”.
“As a result of several actions we have taken, we have seen significant improvement with many affected product families,” he said.