'The lack of information is shocking' - Resellers and MSPs call for distribution service improvements

Many reseller bosses have taken to social media recently to highlight their frustrations with distributors

Reseller and MSP bosses say they are experiencing a 'shocking' lack of communication and information from distributors, alongside continued delays to orders.

UK-wide and global issues such as COVID-19, chip shortages and Brexit have all posed significant challenges for distributors, limiting the amount of stock they can secure and provide to resellers and MSPs.

Dozens of reseller and MSP bosses have taken to social media platforms such as LinkedIn recently to vent their frustrations about what they see as a drop in service levels from their distributors.

Chris Deeley, the manging director of Elementary Technology, an audiovisual reseller which focuses on the education sector, told CRN that he estimates 60-70 per cent of the company's orders from distributors have been delayed during the summer holidays - its busiest time of the year.

"One of my biggest issues with the channel is that the big distributors have decided to get into very specialist areas, such as AV, but they're applying the same mentality to these specialist areas [as their core business] where it doesn't matter if a day slips by, as long as it gets there within a couple of days, it's fine," he told CRN.

"Whereas, actually, if you've got an installation engineer on site and the kit doesn't get there and you've got someone paid for the day, customers are unhappy because it's not been installed in time.

"We're dealing with a lot of schools, which are our prime market, and if it's not ready for the new term then that's got implications.

"There seems to be a real lack of understanding of how big the issue is when something slips by a day or two."

The start of the pandemic saw the demand for hardware rocket, particularly for PCs as vendors wrestled with the mass shortages of key components like semiconductors, which has had a knock-on effect for distributors, resellers and their customers.

But while acknowledging that many of these issues are outside of the control of distributors, the CEO of Nottingham-based MSP Reformed IT, Joe Burns, said a lack of accurate communication is making it difficult for businesses like his to plan ahead.

"We had 50 or so laptops for a customer. We checked with distribution and there was stock. And then the client placed the order with us, we then place the order with our distributors, and there's no stock," he said.

"And then the other thing is estimation of dates as well. With some of them, they tell you a date and so then you go back to your customer and say ‘this is when we expect to have it'.

"And then it just gets pushed back and pushed back into an almost never-ending cycle of ‘we don't even know if we're going to get these', because you don't get the confidence from distribution that they're actually going to get the stuff that they promised to get.

"Last week, I spoke to three different major Microsoft disties with exactly the same question about the exact same product and you get three completely different answers and all three of those answers contradict what Microsoft themselves say. There's a bit of a lack of trust, I think, that we're getting the right advice from distribution."

Burns is not the only one to highlight communication issues as a problem. One reseller boss contacted CRN with proof of emails which showed a large distributor had told him his order had an ETA of four to five days, before later being told the company had a shipping delay of 15 days.

Deeley also pointed to poor communication among distributors as an issue, adding: "The lack of information from distribution is shocking.

"We just cannot get accurate data about delivery dates, stock levels, and I can kind of forgive some of that, in the respect that they're reliant on manufacturers who've got a multitude of issues getting kit into the country and around the country, I do get that.

"But what I can't really understand is why they can't just give us their latest information and say, obviously, that it's subject to change. It's just the complete lack of information at all until we ring them, and there's no proactivity around the account."

Despite dealing with some manufacturers directly, Deeley said the role of distribution is still vital when it comes to the operations of Elementary Technology and others due to the logistical challenges of moving stock around the country themselves.

And while Burns and Deeley both accepted that service levels improving will depend on the easing of global supply chain shortages, they highlighted better communication and customer service as two ways distributors can mitigate those difficult circumstances.

"Proactive account management, that's the biggest issue for us, somebody actually picking up the phone and managing our accounts," Deeley said.

"If we could get somebody managing our account, proactively telling us what the right information is and being honest with us, that'll be the key thing."