A representative of a company that has been carrying out “gray” deliveries to Russia of “iron” of Western vendors for several years, which …

Grey imports of Cisco, HPE, Dell have always existed in Russia. It has grown exponentially in the last 2 months. Details

A representative of a company that has been supplying “gray” hardware from Western vendors to Russia for several years now, which has now received the official name of parallel import, told CNews how this process works. In addition, he described the situation in which integrators now find themselves, having already paid for the supply of equipment from foreign companies that have left our country.

Parallel he is gray import

As it became known to CNews, the so-called gray imports of hardware from Cisco, HPE, Dell and other foreign vendors to Russia have grown at least two to three times since the start of the well-known events in Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Such an assessment in a conversation with the editors was given by a representative of a company built into the gray scheme for supplying equipment to our country, primarily Cisco.

The expert confirmed the identity of the concepts of both gray and parallel imports. Recall that at the end of March 2022, the Government legalized the parallel import to Russia of sought-after original foreign-made goods without the consent of the copyright holders. Prior to this, the law obligated such importers to destroy goods imported without the permission of the copyright holder and pay compensation to companies in the amount of up to 5 million rubles.

In April, the Ministry of Industry and Trade compiled a list of goods that can be imported into Russia on the principle of parallel imports. This list includes the equipment of the most popular brands in the country, many of which preferred to leave the Russian market or reduce the shipment of their products to Russia: Apple, Asus, Samsung, Nokia, Sony, Siemens, HP, Huawei, Lenovo, Intel, Panasonic, etc.

The document is not yet publicly available. The sources citing him did not directly mention the Cisco brand. However, the document is still being approved by the Ministry of Justice, that is, it may change, and it is quite logical to assume that in the future the list will be supplemented depending on the economic situation.

Cisco White and Gray Supply Plans

As the interlocutor of CNews told, before the termination of work of Cisco in Russia at the beginning of March, 2022 the white scheme of acquisition of the equipment of the company by IT integrators looked as follows. Integrators contacted authorized Cisco distributors, in particular, OCS, RRC, Comptek, etc. Those, in turn, contacted Cisco account managers (they were divided into the Russian office in the following areas: energy, oil, medicine, etc.). d.).

After that, the managers placed orders for the production of equipment at the manufacturer's plant in the United States or another country (the largest volume of production of hardware by Western vendors is in China, the expert notes).The deadline for the execution of such an order is about 30 weeks. Special conditions, both from the point of view of terms and prices, were provided only by the largest corporations, such as Rosneft, Gazprom, Atomflot, etc.

Now this chain breaks off on Cisco managers – the company has left Russia, although not quite clearly (more on that below). Now the only possible scheme for the acquisition of the iron of foreign vendor is gray. The integrator within the framework of this scheme can turn (directly, but wiser through a specialized gray intermediary) to the so -called brokers abroad.

As the interlocutor of the editorial office explains, the broker differs from the distributor in that it does not work with the manufacturer directly, but buys equipment on the market – usually the remains of end consumers. Thanks to this, the brokers in the warehouses are already finished equipment, it is not necessary to produce it, therefore, the delivery time is reduced to four to six weeks. The price of such equipment, as a rule, is significantly lower than produced to order (see tables). The expert was difficult to call any average percentage of savings in a gray scheme. According to him, it all depends on specific equipment; Sometimes savings may exceed 50%.

If there were no finished equipment (although the gray scheme allows you to work at once with several brokers at the same time), then you can directly contact the foreign distributor, which will order the production of goods at the factory in the United States. True, in this case, price and temporary advantages are lost.

As before, now Cisco gray equipment in Russia cannot be put on official technical support. This used to happen, because the Russian office built such a scheme: bypassing it with its unintelligible system of authorized partners, America with Russia did not work, while in other countries it provides support simply upon the legality of equipment production. Now – because the work with Russia has been officially stopped.

At the same time, according to the interlocutor of CNews, in Russia there are companies that are ready to provide technical support for Cisco on their own. As an example, he cites AST (AST – Advanced System Technologies).

The expert says that gray equipment, as before, can now be bought in China, Europe and the United States, but now the buyer should not be officially from Russia and is not purchased in the interests of Russia, otherwise he will be refused (see Fig. 2).

It is the ability to purchase so that a broker or a foreign distributor does not suspect anything, and is a unique trade advantage of gray intermediaries. “Old Russian distributors do not know how and cannot work according to the gray scheme,” says the interlocutor of CNews. “They don't have competencies for this.” As an example of an organization that has similar competencies, the expert called Buycisco.

Distributors surveyed by CNews did not answer the question of potential readiness to work according to the gray scheme.

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Let's summarize. Despite the disadvantages of the lack of technical support, before the gray scheme of buying Cisco hardware was attractive with financial savings and the ability to receive goods in less than 30 weeks. Now it is the only one available, and with the same pluses.

Of course, the question remains whether the gray suppliers will be able to cope with the volume of orders that may await them in the future. “Alternative channels for parallel imports to Russia do exist, but their available capacity is far from the real needs of the market, they will not be enough for everyone,” a participant in the Russian hardware market said in a conversation with CNews.

Problems of integrators who have already paid according to the white scheme

As the editorial interlocutor notes, further growth in the volume of gray deliveries to Russia will depend on the scale of new IT projects. Now growth is constrained by the fact that many integrators have paid for, but not delivered, hardware for old projects, and they are waiting for it. In the case of Cisco, the situation is complicated by the fact that the company described its departure somewhat vaguely.

On the Russian website of the vendor, you can now find an appeal Chuck Robbins (Chuck Robbins) is a member of the Board of Directors and CEO of Cisco Systems. “We are terminating all business operations, including sales and services in Russia and Belarus, for the foreseeable future,” he says. To our customers and partners, please know that the Cisco teams are working tirelessly on your behalf and will do their best to answer your questions and provide updates as this situation evolves. If you have urgent questions, please contact your Cisco customer service department or email [email protected] or click Contact Us below.

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White price list for Cisco equipment (for review; not an official offer from the vendor), $

The site also notes: “We are rapidly considering the implications for our business and are working on the best ways to support our customers and partners in the region. We will continue to monitor and evaluate the situation and will keep you updated as more information becomes available.

Price list for Cisco equipment from one of the gray suppliers, $

At the same time, the company, as it turned out, did not leave clear instructions to Russian distributors.At the disposal of CNews there is a fragment of correspondence of one of the distributors with its client.

“In response to your request for the distribution delivery (status of the order for delivery) of CISCO equipment according to the contract, as well as the subsequent application for the return of funds paid as an advance payment, I inform the following,” the distributor writes. – Account … corresponds to orders for equipment and license for Cisco Systems software with a supply period of 48 weeks from the moment of prepayment. The order for the supply was placed and accepted into production by Cisco in January 2022. This equipment and license were supposed to be delivered by the manufacturer … 2022. However, in connection with the events in Ukraine, the Cisco manufacturing company suddenly stopped working in Russia and Belarus. No legally significant notifications and official refusals of the supply of the Russian division of Cisco Systems, Sisco Coolushens LLC, authorized to make all business operations in Russia under the trademark and on behalf of Cisco Systems as part of partnership agreements with Russian companies, did not send any clarification does not give.

The distributor emphasizes that he, like everyone else, has only information from the aforementioned statement by Chuck Robbins. “At the same time, it is impossible to determine whether these changes are temporary or acquire a constant (unleasable) character,” the distributor continues. – It is also impossible to determine how the situation will develop as a whole. Currently, there is no actual grounds for canceling orders with the deadline for delivery in November 2022. ”

“All shipments to Russia are frozen, Western manufacturers do not work with the Russian market, so a sufficient number of contracts are under threat of non-fulfillment,” the deputy general director of the import substitution of Marvel-Distribution said in a conversation with CNews Mikhail Volkov. – Nevertheless, we propose to replace foreign vendors with alternative options now available, including Russian -made equipment. For example, most of the infrastructure projects can be assembled on the solutions of our F+ Tech brand, which are already able to replace what American manufacturers – servers and stages, network equipment, peripheral, and mobile corporate class devices. There is also a proposal of Nekhiroko famous Chinese and Asian manufacturers. ”

The rest of the distributors surveyed by CNews did not comment on the situation.