MARKIT SOLVING IT SHORTAGES FOR THOUSANDS OF PUBLIC & PRIVATE ORGANISATIONS GLOBAL IT NOW is Markit’s new tool helping to solve IT hardware and accessory shortages for thousands of European companies during the crisis. Hundreds of IT procurement departments in international companies and government offices across Europe have become Markit clients since the start of the crisis. This is unsurprising given the huge increase in demand for remote working and collaborative communication equipment and Markit’s ability to provide transparent availability, price and delivery times for millions of IT devices. In response to the COVID-19 crisis, we have released GLOBAL IT NOW, an extensive online IT sourcing catalogue to help companies find available IT products anywhere in Europe. "In response to crisis-related challenges being faced by many of our 9500 clients in 34 countries, we developed GLOBAL IT Now, in less than two weeks, which is incredibly fast. GLOBAL IT NOW is a special online IT products catalogue that combines the stocks of close to 200 leading IT distributors from more than 20 countries across Europe,” said Andres Agasild, CEO at Markit. “Now our clients have a choice of over 1 million unique IT products with real time visibility of stock availability, price comparisons and delivery times estimates for local or cross border orders anywhere in Europe. We have around ONE BILLION IT hardware and accessory devices available for delivery today.” CORONAVIRUS AS AN INNOVATION DRIVER Remote working, cloud & collaborative communications, and security products shortages, especially for notebooks/laptops, webcams, microphones and anti-virus software were particularly acute in Europe in March. Rising demand largely followed the path of the virus with Italy being first hit extremely hard. With manufacturing in China effectively at a standstill, and stocks running low in distribution channels many businesses who relied on single source suppliers were forced into the marketplace anew to scramble to find devices for their remote working teams and employees.GRAPH SHOWING: IT purchasing data from 6,150 companies in 20 European countries in Markit’s free report "SOLVING THE GLOBAL vs LOCAL SUPPLY DILEMMA IN INDIRECT IT PROCUREMENT" shows significant category demand increases in Q1 2020.ROUND THE CLOCK DEMAND FOR DISTRIBUTED DELIVERY OF IT DEVICES Chief Procurement Officers (CPOs) responsible for IT need more than access to an enormous IT product catalogue. Based on the feedback from Markit’s clients, which include 20% of the Forbes Global 2000, what CPOs especially value during these difficult times are reliable and tested suppliers who can deliver quickly across Europe, direct to the homes of affected workers with dedicated support in local languages. “It’s hard to put into words – it's both inspiring and humbling too. We really are part of the solution, and in this pandemic, where any good news is welcome, we are pleased that Markit’s world class and award-winning IT procurement solution is helping so many companies succeed in quickly solving their IT sourcing challenges,” stated Margus Vahemäe, Markit’s Head of Sales. “I must also pay tribute to our developers and 65-strong team in account management and client support who have been working round the clock to get vital equipment to companies, hospitals, governments and charities all over Europe. There are so many heartwarming stories we could tell.” The industry standard and widely used customer satisfaction and loyalty metric Net Promoter Score is 65%-and-rising for Markit.