By
13th Dec 2021

You may have seen in the media  that the issues with stock availability for ICT equipment remain, with some ICT product areas harder hit than others. The market is a constantly changing one with the impact felt from the  chip shortages  and the Suez Canal situation previously reported.  There is also the  added transport disruption due to a shortage of containers to ship materials around the world and a shortage of HGV drivers throughout the supply chain.  

Stock in the market 

New products are coming to the market including Intel’s 12th generation chipset and the new Apple products which launched recently, however these too are in constraint. 
 
A number of CPC suppliers do hold stock, plus they will work closely with their vendors and distribution channels to source products and where they are unavailable, will look at alternative products to meet your requirements.  
 
Notable constraints reported include Network Switches and Graphics Cards which are becoming increasingly difficult to source with lead-times on some Stock-keeping Units (SKUs) unknown. The constraint on motherboards is also impacting All-In-One computers and the constraints on desktop and laptops remain. 
 
CPC are continuing to work closely with our ICT framework suppliers to provide you with guidance and regular stock updates - the latest is available to download from the  ICT Hardware and Peripherals Equipment  framework page. 

Advice for CPC members 

The advice from our framework suppliers is to be placing orders now for any requirements this side of March 2022 and plan your requirements now for the rest of 2022. Flexibility with your specifications will improve the chances of your requirements being met. Also engage with framework suppliers early as this will benefit both you and the supplier in sourcing the stock. 

CPC have developed a pre-market engagement template letter to help you inform the market and undertake any premarket engagement with suppliers. You can issue your letter via the  CPC Quote Tool  which will ensure all the suppliers on the Lot you are looking to purchase from  receive a copy, so providing a transparent route for your requirement. The template letter is available on page 9 of the User Guide available on the ICT Hardware and Peripherals Equipment  framework page. 

For further details on any of the ICT framework agreements please contact Jane Edwards on  [email protected]