Security Sales & Integration June 2022 - 19

marketing & business development, Southwest
Automated Security; Brian James, vice president
sales, networking & security, ScanSource;
Clint Choate, senior director security market,
Snap One; and Tara Dunning, vice president,
global security, Wesco. They detail how their
organizations continue to bring value regardless
of volatility.
How have supply chain issues impacted
your business and integrator customers?
Rob Aarnes: At ADI, we have a strong supply
chain and logistics operation and we're focused
on providing our customers with access to the
products they need, when they need them. And
as our industry continues to experience supply
chain shortages, like most markets right now,
we are committed to working closely with our
supplier partners to work to maintain appropriate
inventory levels. ADI carries products from
more than 1,000 suppliers globally, giving customers
a wide array of choices and alternative
options. We've been working closely with our
customers to forecast their needs and are encouraging
them to order now and stock up. This will
help ensure they have the products they need
and may minimize any additional price increases
from inflation. Additionally, on larger projects
we're encouraging our customers to get our team
involved as early as possible, so we can help them
secure all that is needed for the specific project.
Jorge Hevia: In some respects, supply chain
issues have increased our sales, because we have
superior levels of inventory versus some other
distributors and dealers are calling around
to see who has inventory of their products of
choice. Another impact has been that dealer/
integrators are willing to look at substitutes for
their preferred product lines they install, if they
can't find them in stock anywhere. This probably
will pose a challenge to manufacturers, in
the long run, as it has incentivized trial of competitive
product lines. Manufacturers that have
been and will be out of inventory for a long
period of time will probably lose market share
by the end of the supply chain shortage period.
Dan Wild: A shortage on key components and
necessary accessories, such as mounts for cameras,
has led to delays in project completions. In
some cases, a shortage can cause a job to be lost
to a competing vendor, which could result in a
loss of revenue for the partner and the distributor.
securitysales.com
Jake Voll: We've had to increase inventory on
hand to give us more of a buffer. And we've
advised our dealer partners to do the same.
But even with the best planning, it's impossible
to avoid stockouts and backorders altogether.
We saw some products on factory
backorder for months - some without comparable
alternative products. A huge percentage
of our sales team's time was spent communicating
with our dealer partners to advise
them of delays and ETAs.
Shawn Nichols: Product availability and lead
times have been the most problematic issues. We
have always offered our customers solutions, but
usually they knew what answers they were looking
for. As a result, we have had to pivot to identifying
products with the shortest lead times that
can suffice for an opening. It has been less challenging
on our internal teams but a significant
challenge to our business and, ultimately, growth.
Clint Choate: Availability, cost and customer
demand have been a challenging trinity the past
JUNE 2022 Security Sales & Integration
19
Southwest Automated Security
(SAS) has added four new
branches since late 2021 as
well as 25 new vendor partners
to its line card.
COURTESY SOUTHWEST AUTOMATED SECURITY
http://www.securitysales.com
Security Sales & Integration June 2022

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