Security Sales & Integration July 2023 - 15

had never finished fulfilling. We caught it, they
caught it, and all of a sudden we found ourselves
a year out on some projects.
We're now at the stage where customers are
pulling back orders and saying, " If we can't deliver
it, we're going to go pave a parking lot with
that money. " This isn't about postponing anymore.
We're now losing projects to other priorities.
This is not over. It's far from over. We will
probably not be through this until sometime in
the first or second quarter of 2024. We're still
muddling through. It's better. I like better, but
we're a long way from normal right now.
Ford: For us, the silver lining is we gained a lot
of understanding of our processes and things
that needed to change. Early on, the fundamental
mistake with the supply chain was believing
it was an acute crisis and not a chronic new way
of doing business. Cash flow became an issue,
storage became an issue, the space required to
store partially fulfilled orders. Our purchasing
processes - which were ordering it all, getting
it and resourcing a job in fairly short order in
accordance with the contractual requirements
- had to really be turned this year and revised.
We tried to ship when complete, and then
we discovered that was a problem too. Then the
repeated truck rolls, unbudgeted truck rolls to
do partial projects to try to satisfy customers
and get something up and running. We've been
able to take a little time out to regroup and discover
a better way to do it.
On the good side, our customers have offered
a lot of grace on this. I have had very few projects
canceled due to extraordinarily long waits.
I work with the federal government quite a bit,
and the contractual dates get changed frequently
without a problem because I didn't create this
problem. They're hearing it from all vendors,
which makes that conversation less difficult.
They understand that this isn't an integrator issue.
It's much larger. It's a global issue.
We have had to get larger line of credit, get
warehouse space, redesign our inventory process,
our resourcing for projects that are in our
pipeline, and they may sit in the pipeline for
nine months with no action. All of that needed
revision of our processes. I'm grateful for that
opportunity because it's made us a stronger
company going forward.
Bradley: Same here, we're a better company today.
I appreciate you bringing that up because
securitysales.com
we sometimes overlook the positives and concentrate
on the negatives. Most of our business
is new construction. We're not a bid chase company,
we negotiate with our customers. We're
not working generally for a GC or an electrical
contractor; we're working for the customer in
the new construction environment. At first,
people were very accommodating because nobody
could deliver. You couldn't get windows,
you couldn't get steel, you couldn't get wood,
you couldn't get labor. It all went on and on.
That's gone. There is no longer in our world any
patience. The patience left about six months
ago, and we watched it happen fairly drastically.
As some people started catching up, as labor
forces and the ability to build started to come
back, windows started being delivered, etc.
Then we saw we were behind the curve. Our industry
is behind some of the curve in construction.
That is what we have to face, and we've
had to become very clear about expectations.
Our contracts are better. We're striking more
language in contracts from customers than we
ever have. The performance clauses, the things
like penalty clauses, I'm striking them out entirely.
I'm not negotiating new ones. I'm saying,
" I will not under any circumstances do this job
if you're going to penalize us for not completing
on time based upon product, etc. " It's caused us
to really change the way we do business.
Is that going to be permanent? I would like to
see that because there needs to be more working
together and synergy between us and our
customers and even contractors, and appreciation
for what we're all going through. Patience
is long gone and we're back to our people being
yelled at and back to them being put under tremendous
pressure. Phone calls are nasty. Lawsuit
threats are piling up again; " If you don't do
this by then, etc. "
Grover: We have learned a lot from this crisis.
Better management of resources, better management
of funds, but then it also especially
puts a strain on small businesses. Even if you're
in the government arena, they are expecting
projects to be finished. The question is balancing
between the manufacturers and the client.
They've issued a contract, they've got a fixed
price, performance on the fixed price. They
could give you an extension to complete the
project after a certain period of time, but the
price is fixed. Whereas a manufacturer because
of supply chain issues will come back to you and
JULY 2023 Security Sales & Integration
15
If I had a magic
wand, I would
transform our
company into a
truly recurring
revenue model in
the sense that
everybody would
accept it. I
wouldn't have
to explain it.
- Eva Mach, CEO,
Perfect Design
http://www.securitysales.com
Security Sales & Integration July 2023

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