Supply chain disruptions have become the norm over the past couple of years, creating challenges for everyone from individual consumers to corporations. But through trying times, there’s always a team you can count on to navigate through the rough seas of shipping delays and limited inventory with resilience and patience. Today, we go behind the scenes and sit down with our Director of Procurement Wayne Shipman and Procurement Specialist Erick Salinas to get a glimpse at what’s going on in the IT distribution channel. Let’s dive into this year’s forecast.

1. What is a Distribution Channel and who does the IronEdge Procurement Department work with primarily?

The traditional Distribution Channel is made up of intermediary companies that work between manufacturers and its resellers. The distributors provide warehousing for the manufacturer’s products worldwide and assist the resellers with the various programs and certifications needed. With the growing list of cloud service offerings, new types of distributors called cloud aggregators emerged. Traditional distributors have also moved into cloud aggregation services offering a one-stop-shop for resellers to transact these services.

2. What goods, products and services does the IronEdge procurement department specialize in?

The IronEdge Procurement team specializes in working with manufacturers and software vendors to find business class solutions for IT hardware and cloud services.

3. What does the procurement process look like at IronEdge?

The Procurement Department oversees everything related to technology purchasing decisions. On a typical day, you’ll find our team managing inventory, handling incoming quote requests, checking order statuses placed through distribution, receiving incoming orders and ensuring purchasing orders are correct. Our team also monitors the programs offered by manufacturers and software vendors to make sure we’re meeting their partner tier levels. This may include new hardware, software, or cloud services webinars. With the current supply chain challenges, the IT procurement process tends to require more time but know that our team is working hard to ensure our clients receive the best goods and services with the quickest turnaround time that the current environment allows.

4. What is the greatest challenge the Procurement Department faces in 2022?

The COVID-19 pandemic along with global supply chain disruptions has impacted many businesses, an impact that has forced us to become more creative and flexible than ever before when it comes to procuring IT equipment. This year will still likely feel the rippling effects of these disruptions. We can expect to see an ongoing chip shortage and logistic issues from sea freight that’s making its way to distribution centers, local hubs and to the buyer’s front door. To help alleviate this, our team has increased the amount of inventory we stock so we can be prepared for the unexpected and adapt to the new changes that come our way.

5. What are the top three most in-demand products or services right now for the Procurement Department?

Security and networking appliances along with work from home peripherals have been in high demand. You’ll always find items like firewalls, switches, docking stations, webcams and monitors on our ordering list—just to name a few.

Thanks to Wayne’s and Erick’s incredible work, IronEdge Group is able to provide the best products, tools, resources to our clients. Even when challenges with supply chain delays surface, our team is constantly hunting for the best way to leverage new tools and find the most in-demand items, so our clients and their IT environments are able to thrive.

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