Year-long lead times still blighting some hardware projects, Adept warns

Supply chain woes dent Avaya, Microsoft and Apple partner’s H1

Some of Adept's supply chain partners continue to advise lead times of up to a year, the managed services provider said after supply chain woes dented its H1 revenues.

The public sector-leaning IT and comms specialist partners with the likes of Openreach, Vodafone, Virgin Media, Avaya, Microsoft, Dell and Apple.

It posted flat revenues of £34.2m in its fiscal first half to 30 September 2022, with half of its haul drawn from the public sector and healthcare customers.

Although its managed services revenues grew three per cent, this was offset by continued structural decline in its legacy telephony sales.

But the LSE-listed outfit's H1 tally was also hit by global supply chain shortages, which continue to blight the channel. Delayed projects forced it to push back £1.1m of secured orders into its second half or next financial year.

The hardware required for more complex projects has been particularly in the firing line, Adept noted.

"Some supply chain partners are still advising of lead times between 9-12 months for certain equipment," it added.

Canon fodder

Although Adept admitted its short-term outlook remains "challenging", it is pinning its hopes on four specific initiatives to help drive short-term revenue growth.

This includes a strategic alliance with Canon, inked in October, as well as a new partnership with Sage Intacct.

Adept also recently secured its first projects under the £150m ‘Connect the Classroom' initiative announced by the government in March, adding that it is also targeting business under a new £78m fund to help digitally enable GPs.

In July, it dished out a final £4.3m payment for its acquisition of SD-WAN, cloud and security provider Datrix last April.

"Whilst headwinds remain, constraining organic growth, the Group has made good strategic progress and there remains a strong pipeline of opportunities across the public and private sectors, driven by macro technology market trends, and helped by specific government initiatives relating to education," chairman Ian Fishwick (pictured above) stated.

"The long-term prospects for AdEPT remain as strong as ever."