Notice of Supply Chain Disruption

 

To: Our Valued Clients

RE: Notice of Supply Chain Disruption

Dear Valued Appel Technology Solutions, LLC Customer:

Due to unprecedented market conditions, we felt it necessary to provide you this notice about the current state of the global supply chain for technology related products such as networking devices (routers, switches, wireless access points, CCTV, etc.), Audio/Video devices, and computing devices (PCs, laptops, printers, etc.)  in particular. As part of our mission to be a partner to our clients, we are sharing these updates with you in the hopes that they will assist you in making important decisions. Drastic and rapid changes in our industry are taking place that have the potential to impact your business. Because of this, we are advising clients to review their project planning, anticipated quote requests, and expected lead times with other members in their organization. We will continue to share information as the situation evolves.

We are experiencing a global supply chain crisis in our industry that we have not seen in the history of our company. The domino effect of shortages in manufacturing capacity along with the global freight and logistics disruption is impacting our ability to supply some products to our clients on a timely basis – the two main effects of this disruption are price increases and extended lead times. While Appel Technology Solutions, LLC does work closely with our vendor-partners to optimize our inventory, negotiate pricing, and manage logistics to the best of our ability, changes and increases are happening so rapidly, and without notice that we are unable to control these issues to the extent that we have in the past.

Almost daily we are receiving notice of price increases, force majeure declarations, and extended lead time notifications. The price increases we are seeing on some available items are as high as 25-50%. Lead times are being extended to 4-8 weeks on many products and in some cases more. Our contacts have informed us that supply levels may not stabilize for months and that the current best guess is the 2nd or 3rd quarter of 2022 until things begin to ease. I have no doubt we will continue to receive such notifications from other suppliers in the coming weeks.

Please be assured that we are doing everything we can to obtain the necessary inventory to keep our customers operational. Specifically, we are attempting to increase inventory levels on core items, negotiating with suppliers, and will be proactively contacting our clients for project planning forecasts when possible. Please contact us if you have any information about your forecasts or if there are any other impending changes to your buying patterns that can help us be prepared. Until the price volatility changes, all quotations (that we are able to provide) will be valid only for 24 hours, as we are unable to guarantee pricing or availability for longer periods.  We appreciate your patience and collaboration as we work through these challenges together. 

Please note – you will experience no impact on your managed services contract support, consulting support, or software acquisition / licensing. Our support team is ready and able to provide any assistance by phone, email, or on-site.

If you have any specific questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Sincerely,

 

 

 

Patrick A Appel

President – Appel Technology Solutions, LLC