Customers struggling with unsupported kit as replacement hardware faces delivery delays - services firm

TPM firm Curvature’s sales boss tells CRN how the company is helping resellers bridge the gap caused by delayed kit

Channel partners are seeing delays in order fulfilment of up to six months because of the COVID-19 outbreak, according to Curvature's VP of sales Christo Conidaris.

Curvature is an independent third-party maintenance (TPM) firm that also offers new and refurbished IT kit and services.

"Customers have ordered equipment from manufacturers that is being delayed, and those delays are quite extensive," Conidaris told CRN.

"Channel partners will say the same thing, which is that the delays they have been quoted vary from six weeks to as much as six months."

The concern among resellers and their clients is that maintenance deals for old kit will lapse before new kit has arrived, he added.

Curvature is now offering short contracts through the channel that the sales boss said will "bridge this gap" and ensure that the customer's older datacentre equipment will remain "stable and running" and that it will also dispose of the equipment safely and according to legal requirements.

"The problem with the delayed new kit from vendors is that if something goes wrong with the current kit sitting in the datacentre, you could be in a lot of trouble," he explained.

"We will cover that period of time until the new piece of hardware arrives by providing some maintenance services. When the new equipment arrives to replace the old equipment, you won't need that maintenance contract any longer."

In the past week, at least six clients have told their reseller partners to get in touch with Curvature about short-term contracts, according to Conidaris, who added that disties are also now seeking short-term services from the TPM firm.

"These contracts help the channel because it gives them another revenue stream," said the sales boss.

"We would sell through the channel and it would make margin out of the services, and they have a way in which they can counter that initial margin loss until the kit is available to be shipped."

Hardware resellers are in a pressured position at the moment because of the delayed stock, but Conidaris believes that the channel will fare well through this crisis because it is constantly adapting and evolving in "adverse circumstances".

"The UK channel is filled with extremely intuitive and entrepreneurial organisations. The channel works things out pretty quickly and they will make the changes," he said.

"If you look back a few years ago at the cloud migration, and if you look at the channel now, it's quite a different place. There are now a lot of people offering cloud advisory services and people who are getting involved with different avenues within what the traditional resell business is.

"That's the beauty of the channel; it's not a big lumbering, corporate. It can be quite flexible, and can change quite quickly to suit the needs of the customer."