Three Questions – Three Answers
(120 seconds)
Q1: The Corona crisis has really shaken up the memory market. How did it impact your sales team?
A: Within just a few days, we had to deal with a very significant increase in orders (over 300% above normal). As an example, a medical technology manufacturer ordered its usual annual quantity for complete delivery in March so that they could keep pace with increasing demand for their products – and the crisis at that point had just started.
Q2: Normally this would be very appealing to any company – how was it different this time?
A: Our purchasing department had to master a two-pronged challenge: Firstly, balancing the order delays that began to develop in the industries effected negatively by the crisis, while simultaneously expediting the orders flooding in from network and communication technology firms. Secondly, our long-established memory manufacturing partners were also very challenged and worked cooperatively with us to maintain, alter, and expedite deliveries. All said as a company, we experienced net growth and were able to manage it well – and all this of course while working from home. Challenging times staying flexible for our valued customers!
Q3: What challenges still exist?
A: We were able to reduce the delivery times from our manufacturers in East Asia by up to 50%, especially for the strategic supply orders which our customers received from government procurement offices with very little notice, and very tight delivery timelines. On the other hand, many manufacturers were experiencing shutdowns and/or had other raw material shortages. Once the end-products were manufactured, they had to be transported through customs processed further, but that is another adventure ...
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Coronavirus COVID-19 Update
