Technology shortage hits towns, businesses, consumers

SALISBURY, Md. – Microchip shortages across the country have resulted in high prices and long wait times for electronic devices like computers, laptops, servers, network switches, and their components.

Salisbury technology solutions company Inacom tells us for consumers, the best approach is to ditch brand loyalty and work with whatever product is compatible and in stock. However, for businesses and critical infrastructure systems, parts are highly specific, low in stock, and on a long delay.

“We have power supplies and batteries that power the server arrays that went down, we are running a backup at the police department, and those are all critical servers,” said Salisbury Director of Information Services Bill Garrett.

Garret tells us many infrastructure systems in Salisbury, are facing the same challenges, and are forcing the town to rely on supply reserves and contingency systems to keep them online.

“We had a battery array that went out at one of our water plants, we are still waiting on the delivery of those they are guessing sometime around January, and in the meantime, we have had to dip into our only backups,” he said.

Garrett tells us the shortage has also affected the supply of workstations for the city government, with the city only this week receiving 39 computers that had been on backorder for 3 months. The 50,000 dollar order dates back to 2020, and would have likely cost up to 20 percent more had it been ordered more recently Garrett said.

He says the town was able to use legacy equipment during the delay period, but that too comes with a cost.

“These machines that are supposed to be decommissioned at the end of their life, we do have the ability to leave them limping along until replacements come but it is a strain on both resources and to our inventory,” Garret said.

But it’s not just governments and localities facing a shortage, businesses wanting to upgrade server systems or workstations are facing longer waits and a closing window for tax incentives on technology upgrades that must be operational by the end of the year to qualify.

Inacom in Salisbury works to provide those services for businesses, building workstations, servers, and switches for businesses to run onsite. Executive Vice President at Incaom Travis Fisher tells us, the wait time for those services has shot up, due in part to just how many different components they require.

“We may need 8 hard drives we may need 6 sticks of RAM, we might need two processors, and if we can’t get those parts the new computer isn’t going to work,” Fisher said, adding “Years ago we could get equipment the next day if we needed to, it wasn’t a big deal, but now for some projects, we are spending three to four weeks assembling equipment.”

Fisher tells us, that while long wait times might dissuade customers and businesses from upgrading, it’s actually the best reason to order new products. He says you don’t want to be caught with a broken machine, and potential weeks before services are restored.

He says his company has been purchasing as much inventory as possible to accommodate emergency situations like that. “The most expensive computer to replace is the one that died so it is absolutely essential that we can replace a system for some on the same day,” Fisher said.

For consumers, Fisher recommends value shopping and buying equipment to have the most performance. He says it’s a way to ensure the technology will be “future-proofed” for the next 3 to 6 years worth of workflows.

He says Black Friday can offer a great way to pick up those products, as retailers have also been trying to keep stock up as much as possible in anticipation of the holiday rush. He expects the hottest items to be Lenovo and HP workstations.