Earnings Labs

CDW Corporation (CDW)

Q3 2020 Earnings Call· Mon, Nov 2, 2020

$132.96

-0.11%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the CDW Third Quarter 2020 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions]. Thank you. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today Brittany Smith, VP of IR and FP&A. Please go ahead.

Brittany Smith

Analyst

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Joining you remotely today to review our third quarter financial results are Chris Leahy, our Chief Executive Officer; and Collin Kebo, our Chief Financial Officer. Our third quarter earnings release was distributed this morning and is available on our website investor.cdw.com along with supplemental slide that you can use to follow along during the call. I'd like to remind you that certain comments made in this presentation are considered forward looking statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Those statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Additional information concerning these risks and uncertainties is contained in the earnings release and Form 8-K we furnished the SEC today and of the company's other filings with the SEC. CDW assumes no obligation to update the information presented during this webcast. Our presentation also includes certain non-GAAP financial measures, including non-gap operating income and non-gap earnings per share. All non-GAAP measures have been reconciled to the most directly comparable GAAP measures in accordance with SEC rules. To find reconciliation charts in the slides for today's webcast and in our earnings release in Form 8-K we furnished the SEC today. Please note that all references to growth rates or dollar amount increases are our remarks today are versus the comparable period in 2019 unless otherwise indicated. In addition, our references to growth rates for hardware, software and services today represent U.S. net sales only and do not include the results from CDW U.K. or Canada. Replay of this webcast will be posted to our website later today. I also want to remind you that this conference call is the property of CDW and may not be recorded or rebroadcast without specific written permission from the company. With that, I may turn the call over to Chris.

Chris Leahy

Analyst

Thank you, Brittany. I'll begin this morning with an overview of third quarter results and drivers of performance. I'll provide our perspectives on the current macro environment, its impact on our customer end market and how we are responding. Collin will then take you through a more detailed look at our third quarter financials, as well as our liquidity position and capital allocation strategy. We'll move quickly through the prepared remarks to ensure we have plenty of time for questions. For the third quarter net sales were $4.8 billion, 3.1% below last year and down 3.3% in constant currency. Non-GAAP operating income was $386 million, an increase of 1.5%. Non-GAAP net income per share was $1.83, 8% above last year on a reported basis and up 7.7% in constant currency. The quarter demonstrated the balance and strength of CDW's business model. The diversity of our customer end markets served as well. For our most impacted customer end market the rate of decline stabilized and generally improved in the quarter. Trends for a more resilient customer end markets continue to be strong. Our value proposition really resonated with customers this quarter. There was a flight to quality as customers start to de-risk projects in their technology investments. Our teams are trusted strategic partners to our customers. We compete on value and advice, not on the price. We helped customers this quarter across a spectrum of IP priorities. Customers were focused on remote enablement, optimization, cost reduction, security, and leveraging technology for better customer and employee engagement through digital transformation, with an increasing focus on cloud. Customer demand for software-as-a-service increased almost 50% quarter-over-quarter. Customers leveraged our cloud solutions capabilities further bolstered by our acquisition of IGNW at the beginning of the quarter. Our solutions business strengthened this quarter as some customers…

Collin Kebo

Analyst

Thank you, Chris. Good morning, everyone. I'm going to provide more detail on our third quarter results, liquidity position and capital allocation priorities. Turning to our third quarter P&L on slide 9, consolidated net sales were $4.8 billion down 3.1% on a reported and average daily sales basis. In constant currency, consolidated net sales declined by 3.3%. On an average daily sales basis, Sequential Sales increased 8.9% versus the second quarter. This was higher than historical seasonality primarily due to the adverse impact of COVID-19 on second quarter results. Our customer channels generally performed consistent with the demand and writings commentary shared on our last earnings call. Pockets of supply dislocation continued in the quarter, and we leveraged our distribution capabilities and strong vendor partner relationships to procure the IT products and solutions. Our customers needed for remote enablement, operations continuity and resource optimization. Gross profit for the quarter was $826 million, an increase of 1.1%. Gross margin was 17.4%, up 80 basis points over last year. The better than expected gross margin expansion was driven by product margin and mixing into netted down revenues primarily software as a service, which more than offset mixing into public. Turning to SG&A on Slide 10, our non-GAAP SG&A increased 0.7%. The increase was primarily driven by higher payroll costs from the acquisitions of Aptris and IGNW and COVID-19 expenses to safeguard and compensate frontline co-workers partially offset by continued savings, measures including decreased travel and entertainment and hiring restrictions. In September to ensure the alignment of our cost structure and resources to best position CDW for future growth, we've reduced our workforce by approximately 2%. Our realignment measures enable us to continue to evolve with customers' most important priorities ensuring capacity in high demand areas to support future growth and to continue…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions]. Your first question comes from Tim Yang from Citi. Your line is open.

Tim Yang

Analyst

Hi, thanks for taking the question. In the past three years your Q4 gross margin was higher than Q3. What do you think about Q4 this year? I think your mix should be better on quarter-on-quarter basis given the recovery. So, your gross margin should be better sequentially. Is that -- like what do you think about the gross margin for Q4 this year?

Collin Kebo

Analyst

Good morning, Tim. Thanks for joining the call. We're not going to provide guidance on the Q4 outlook. I guess, what I would just share on your observation is that historically Q3 has been a seasonally high sales quarter driven by strength in education and government which tend to have lower gross margin. So, I think what's happening historically is coming off of that seasonally high quarter where we mix into government and education you come off of that into Q4 and that's why you would've seen the gross margin pick up historically. I think that given what's happening in the marketplace right now particularly in education, all bets are off on normal seasonality. So I would just offer the response.

Tim Yang

Analyst

Got you. And then regarding your Q4 corporate and SMB writing commentaries, I think you mentioned a decline seeing with your last quarter and the last quarter, I think that the decline was roughly leaping down -- you think year-to-year basis. You obviously -- merchant companies mentioned that projects are coming back. I was wondering, like, why you're not seeing that increments in U.S. SMB and corporate business. Is that more just conservatives -- conservatism or it's just like you're -- your visibility is not quite improving compared to last quarter? Thanks.

Chris Leahy

Analyst

Hi Tim, it's Chris. Good morning. And, yeah, I don't think that we saw a nice increase in our solutions project based business. We have mentioned in the last call that customers had continued to pause on moving forward. They were in planning stages. We did see more customers both in our corporate space and small business space start to move forward on infrastructure projects, for example, in larger projects. I would say, you know, on the corporate side there's still caution and they're not quite as nimble as the small business organizations generally have a lot more kind of bureaucracy and approval to get through. So that seems to be going a little slower but certainly we're seeing some pick up in both of those segments. Operator Your next question comes from Amit Daryanani for Evercore. Your line is open.

Amit Daryanani

Analyst

Good morning and thanks for taking my question. I guess, I have two as well. Just firstly, just clarify the writing discussion. I think what you guys characterize this as from the corporate side things are about stable or they are about what they were in the June -- in the September quarter so far. And in SMB started to improve the pace of decline has tried to ease up. I'm wanting to make sure I got that right. And then any sense on how transactional versus solutions is trending from a writings basis so far?

Chris Leahy

Analyst

Amit, it's Chris. Yes, you read that right. You got that exactly right on the writings the way we described it. But we're not spreading out writings for solutions versus transaction.

Amit Daryanani

Analyst

Got it. I guess, maybe I would ask you a different one then. If you could talk about what percent of your gross profit dollars today in the September quarter are agency based or weaker in nature and as you do longer term it would be really helpful to understand, what is the growth side look like for that gross profit dollar bucket versus the overall company? And then what are the components within this agency and recurring revenue stream that you have?

Collin Kebo

Analyst

Good morning, Amit. Yeah, netted down items were approximately 30% of total growth profit dollars in the quarter which is when the higher numbers we've seen and that mainly reflects the strong mix into cloud specifically software-as-a-service that both Chris and I talked about in our prepared comments. Included in that bucket is cloud security software and other software offerings that net down warranties, those would be the primary things that you would see in that bucket. In terms of, you know, how that trends over time I think, you know, we would expect customers to continue moving into cloud and to -- you know, we expect strong demand for security software. So I think we would expect solid growth in that bucket. I think the wild card again in terms of where it goes and what happens to the hardware part of the business. Obviously, that's been a little bit more challenged in the COVID environment. In the preceding three years, it was very strong. So, I think exactly where that mix goes is probably more a function of how hardware gross profit trends over the next couple of quarters and years.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Adam Tindle from Raymond James. Your line is open.

Adam Tindle

Analyst

Okay, thanks. Good morning. Chris, I just wanted to start on the decision to resume share repurchases and how we should read into that. You still have over 2 billion in liquidity. You're low below your optimal leverage levels and, you know, previous discussions before COVID you were not precluding yourself from a larger sized acquisition, $1 billion plus type of an acquisition. So, I guess, the question would be, wondering if you could maybe share your latest stocks on M&A landscape and how that's evolved?

Chris Leahy

Analyst

Yeah. Sure, Adam. Well, you know the decision to restart our buybacks is a real reflection on both our confidence in our strategy and performance of U.S. going forward in addition, obviously to our strong free cash flow and liquidity position. On M&A in particular, I'll repeat what I've said over the last few quarters, we are actively looking to invest prudently to supplement high growth technology areas. You've seen us do a couple of acquisitions recently, in service now capabilities and cloud native capabilities, both of which has been taken up -- had been taken up very well by our sales organization, and really solidifying our advisor position with our customers. Those are the types of acquisitions we'll continue to look at and do look at. I would tell you, Adam, that there -- that the market itself feels a little [indiscernible]. Organizations are out, open to discussion now more than I'd say they were a couple months ago, but as you know our lenses. We look for those that fit our capabilities, our strategic capabilities, our culture, and operating model, and then ultimately makes financial sense.

Adam Tindle

Analyst

Okay. That's helpful to me. Maybe just as a follow up, I wanted to ask on some aspects, I think, if I have it right, you previously talked about letting attrition run its course. Looks like demand is, kind of, turning the corner a little bit, EBITDA margin was very healthy in the quarter. So I just wanted some more color on why reduce the workforce. I know, it's not a significant number in and of itself, but a little bit unusual for CDW to do that, so maybe more color did expectations for future growth change. What -- why would you ever take that? Thank you.

Chris Leahy

Analyst

Yeah. Adam, it's a great question. And you're right. Those are hard decisions for CDW in particular. It's just the second time in our history that we've produced the workforce, and reduced it by -- that by 2%. But really, this is all about ensuring alignment of our cost structure and resources to best position us for the future. So we really need to ensure we've got the resources to continue to evolve with customers in their most important priorities. We wanted to make sure that there's capacity in the high demand areas to support the future growth and continue investing in those more emerging areas. So while we have cutbacks some positions, we also are hiring in those areas that we think are critical to our future growth.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Matt Cabral from Credit Suisse. Your line is open.

Matt Cabral

Analyst

Chris, you mentioned a lot of moving pieces out there from a macro standpoint in prepared remarks and clearly spent a year that's below trend from an IT spending point of view. I guess, just thinking about looking forward curious if you think customers are sitting now at this point with a meaningful amount of pent-up demand as we head into next year as to maybe help turn things around, or if there's a risk of this more sluggish demand environment continues as we start getting into the next year?

Chris Leahy

Analyst

Yeah. Good morning, Matt. I think is it possible to have both, I would say yes to both. Why do I say that? Because, I think, until this medical problem is resolved, it's going to have -- it'd be very difficult to have a closer trajectory of the economic environment and that has an impact obviously on uncertainty and actions that our customers are taking. So it's just murky, and that murkiness makes it very difficult to project. I certainly think that we have two things. We have pent up demand and we have customers who are frankly pressing advance, if you will, buying technology and implementing technology at a higher pace to press their advantage. But as far as pent-up demand, I think, the real question becomes when our customer is feeling -- when are they feeling comfortable enough to make larger investments and I just think that's incredibly difficult to predict. What we're doing is staying closer to customers, if you've heard us talk about the complete spectrum of IT that we're providing and we're just making sure that they get what they need, when they need it better than anyone else in the industry can do it. But it's hard for me to predict the future, given the murky nature of this current outlook.

Matt Cabral

Analyst

And then looking by vertical education was clearly the standout in the quarter. Why don't talk a little bit more about just what you're seeing there and how sustainable you think those headwinds are just particularly relative to the ability to actually get enough supply to meet demand going forward?

Chris Leahy

Analyst

-- :

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Ruplu Bhattacharya from Bank of America. Your line is open.

Ruplu Bhattacharya

Analyst

Hi. Thanks for taking my questions. And congrats on the quarter. Just wanted to ask a high level question first. As we see new restrictions and lockdown measures in Europe, can you just give us your thoughts on that? And also, how many -- what percent of your workforce is now working from home? And do you think CDW is in a better position to handle if there's a resurgence in COVID and lockdowns?

Chris Leahy

Analyst

Good morning, Ruplu. Thank you. Good to hear from you. Yeah, I think that we have to be cautious in all the locations where we start to see more restrictions and lockdown. And for a couple of reasons and for a couple of segments, I think, in the U.K., as you know, we have some government stimulus money that is rolling off and that is tending to have an impact that we're seeing. Add to that lockdowns and the economic commercial impact that has, we do worry about that. That said, we still have customers, as I said before, who are digitally advanced and really pressing their advantage and absolutely moving forward with some larger projects. Across the U.S., I would also say that cautiously if you look over the last week or so and the trajectory an uptick in cases is worrisome as different states potentially are moving backwards in their restrictions and lockdown. So look, as I said, I'm so encouraged by the team and the execution and the performance of this team. But I'm highly cautious about the excess exogenous factors that we can impact. As far as work from home, look, the team settled in. This is a performance-oriented organization and they -- everybody went home, we got ourselves set up and we're off to the races. I think our co-worker services and sales leadership a huge kudos for figuring out very quickly creatively to drive productivity, connectivity, and human touch both across our sales organizations and with our customers. And they've been doing just great.

Ruplu Bhattacharya

Analyst

Great. Thanks for that. And appreciate all the color there. Chris, I wanted to ask you also on the device-as-a-service project, now that the census project is coming to an end. What's the plan for those devices and can you reuse them in some other program? And how do you see the device-as-a-service business going over the next couple of years? Thank you.

Collin Kebo

Analyst

Good morning, Ruplu. I'm going to take that one. Yeah, so we are winding up the device-as-a-service offering to the census, those devices are coming back to CDW for decommissioning. And what we will do then is turn around and resell those to our remarketer and we have plans in place to go ahead and execute against that. In terms of devices and services and offering, I think that will continue to be an opportunity for CDW. Clearly, we have competitive advantages in our ability to bundle integrated solutions across multiple vendors, integrating services, as well as our logistics capabilities. And I think what we're doing for the State of Mississippi Department of Education is just another flavor of our ability to deliver that value to customers. And in a world where being able to work productively, remotely from anywhere is becoming increasingly important, I think that's going to be an important part of our growth drivers going forward.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Shannon Cross from Cross Research. Your line is open.

Shannon Cross

Analyst

Thank you very much and good morning. I'm wondering about the customer demand for SaaS. And specifically -- or actually just netted down revenue in general, how much of this revenue is coming from sort of application versus utilization of the cloud for data storage and processing? I'm just trying to figure out where our customers are in their cloud progression, and then I have a follow-up. Thank you.

Chris Leahy

Analyst

Yeah, Shannon, I guess, let me start where customers are in their cloud progression and I would say that it's a full spectrum. We don’t break all applications versus consumption usage in those numbers. But I would just tell you that we have customers that are across the full spectrum. Small customers fully on cloud, high consumption, medium and large customers who are dealing with heavily cloud-oriented applications but on-prem legacy obligations such as on working the cloud and we're working this in terms of modernizing their data center infrastructure to create one cloud environment, if you will, between their public on-prem private and on-prem legacy work. So it's really hard I think to say where customers stand because they're on quite a spectrum but what I can say is they are all moving to some form of cloud environment. And when I say cloud environment, I don’t mean landing in the cloud because, you know, the cloud is not a place. It's more an operating system. It's a pattern, not a place and it delivers an experience, not a destination. So what we see ourselves involved in is the planning and design accelerated by this accelerated digital environment to determine what that cloud environment works for a customer taking into consideration not just the benefits of a cloud-like environment that agility, susceptibility, scalability but also the cost issues and the legacy technology that they have to deal with. So I'm sorry that's a long-winded answer but we're selling the spectrum. We're helping customers with the spectrum and our comprehensive suite of capabilities allows us to do that wherever a customer is on their cloud journey.

Shannon Cross

Analyst

Okay. Thank you. And then maybe on a segment basis, can you talk about where customers are versus, like, new projects versus continuing to work remote enablement and continuity. I know you mentioned with education, you think it's going to kind of wind up by the end of this year and then or at least hopefully get -- you know, be done pretty much by then. But SMB and maybe enterprise, are you seeing customers still really focused on just making sure their employees have end devices and connectivity or do you feel like that’s kind of done and now people are moving back to, I don't know, prior investments or new opportunities? Thank you.

Chris Leahy

Analyst

Yeah, Shannon, it's a mix across segments. If you look at corporate, for example, we had seen the work-from-home moderated a bit and what I mean by that is the -- you know, the notebook devices and the rush to get everybody working from home. I suspect in that segment, for example, we're going to have to see what work in the future looks like and when and how customers start going back to the office and then they make their decisions, you would expect to take off then in terms of things that help optimize either to work from home or the work in the office now or the hybrid place that they land. But it has moderated a bit in the corporate space. Small business, we continue to see strength in work from home. Now, that could be in some part because small business were a little later to get there than maybe the larger businesses. And so it's really, it's really different across segments. Healthcare really rushed to the front end, they were obviously a high priority from an allocation perspective for us and others. And so that's moderated in the healthcare space as well. So we're really seeing education, K through 12, higher ed, as the primary drivers of continuing work from home, as well as federal. I would say that the government space as well as been continuing to be fairly robust in work from home support.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Katy Huberty from Morgan Stanley, your line is open.

Katy Huberty

Analyst

Colin, as we think about the census project wrapping up over the next quarter and one less selling day, is it possible that the revenue declines doesn't improve in the fourth quarter or do the improved SMB writings create a tailwind that we continue to see a lesser decline trajectory like what you use on the third quarter

Collin Kebo

Analyst

Yeah, Katy, we're not going to give a specific guide on fourth quarter sales. So what I would say is we do have one fewer day, we report sales on an average daily sales basis. So that would normalize for that. The 200 basis points is really a comment about the impact it has on the bottom half of the P&L, as we get a little bit of deleverage year-over-year. As it relates to the census, I would expect the census to provide solid contribution to the fourth quarter; it is going to provide a benefit. Again, as we look at last year's overlap, most of it was in the third quarter. So it will contribute incrementally year-over-year. And then, I think, as it relates to the comments on writing, we are back to the wild cards and I think particularly on the commercial side of the business, how those customers choose to react to the election, and what impact the virus and potential additional shutdowns has on their spending plans as we come into the end of the year.

Katy Huberty

Analyst

Okay. Thank you. And then just on third quarter margins, you mentioned that product margins were better in the quarter, in addition to the mix shift in netted down revenue. Can you just talk about what drove the better product margins? Is that a mix shift away from client and starting to see some growth again in some of the infrastructure areas like servers and computers?

Collin Kebo

Analyst

Yeah. Katy, I would say it was a combination of things. There was some mix within products, so, for example, desktops were pretty soft as notebook has become the form factor of choice, desktops tend to have low margin. So that helped the product margin a little bit. But I would say that this pandemic and economic shock is a little bit unique compared to other recessions or slowdowns that we've been through. I think one thing that's different is you have supply-demand imbalance occurring at the same time. And so that supply imbalance, I think, has provided a bit of cushion on the margin. And then I think that the second thing that's unique is just how important technology is to being a part of the solution here and customers focus on getting things done with partners they trust, and that can manifest itself in speed, level of service, logistics capabilities, but I think what we're seeing is customers just want it done, they want it done quickly, and they want it done right. And maybe we're not going to go through another round of bids through the procurement department or whatever it is, and that that has played into, I think, some of the product margin durability that we saw in what you might think would be a period of compassion on the on the product margin.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Matthew Sheerin from Stifel. Your line is open.

Matthew Sheerin

Analyst

Chris, in your commentary, you mentioned some customer engagements including some new customer wins due to your capabilities. Can you just talk about that competitive environment? Are you seeing the acceleration of new customer wins due to that, and due to the fact that customers need more help?

Chris Leahy

Analyst

Yes. Good morning, Matt. You know, I won't repeat everything that Collin just said, but when I think about what customers feel today, technology is more critical, technology is more complex, and they need a comprehensive solutions to the issues they're trying to solve. And so with a valued trusted partner like CDW, they're more inclined to start leaning into CDW versus, for example, local vendors. So what we're seeing out there as well as a competitive environment, certainly from a pricing perspective, the value that CDW brings to their -- to customers would become more important. I mentioned their de-risking their investments. They want to ensure that they are getting the full suite -- comprehensive suite of advice, because of the complexity of choice that they're facing, and the stakes are high that they get technology right and get it to work for them. So the value that CDW brings is resonating very well in this environment. We are seeing new customers and winning new customers and growing those customers frankly, pretty quickly. And we're also seeing vendor move -- a quicker move to vendor consolidation, that's always been a value is brought to customers but it's -- that's ticked up significantly in the environment that we're in across all of our segments, frankly.

Matthew Sheerin

Analyst

Okay. Thanks for that. And then I just wanted to ask again on the client devices, particularly on the commercial side where you talked about it being down. You did have some commentary about trends you're seeing. But I just wanted to see if you're seeing basically that upgrade cycle we saw last year and obviously crept into this year due to work from home. Are you just seeing signs that that's sort of ending and you're going to be faced -- facing some tough year-over-your comps in next couple of quarters on the client device side?

Chris Leahy

Analyst

Yeah. Matt, what I'd say is, look, we get -- when we were coming into this year, we thought we were in the late innings of client device, refreshing growth is moderating. Now what picked it up early this year, work from home, obviously, learned from home, we're seeing new cases in the digital world, think of retail organizations, et cetera. And certainly, we might start to see some more pickup and refresh from the 2017 period. But yes, you're right, the overlaps that we're facing from the growth of last year and that pull forward at the beginning of this year and the education et cetera, as I said. And then you layer on that just the economic environment employment, it's hard to say what to expect going into next year. That said, work from home does have a lot of requirements to make it work effectively. So we continue to help customers even in the mid large space with their security needs, for example, with their collaboration needs, with their productivity suites that they're working through. So even if we don't see notebooks as robust right now, it's the whole solution, work from solution, including the accessories and the services and the collaboration, et cetera.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Keith Housum from Northcoast Research. Your line is open.

Keith Housum

Analyst

Good morning, guys. Hey, I want to explore the supply constraints challenges in the quarter. I think it's well-known one of the challenges getting the Chromebooks in the door. But pressing for rather the commentary, did you see that's easing at all during the end of the quarter? And then are there other areas of this analogy is that you see having also some supply constraints that can help out in the fourth quarter?

Collin Kebo

Analyst

Good morning, Keith. Yeah, I think the constraints within Chromebooks are well-documented. I don't know that I would say it eased as we exited the quarter, I think it's going to be tight for a while here. Now, obviously, our scale and the fact that we work with multiple OEMs will hopefully help us manage through that and get at least our fair share, as Chris has talked about earlier. In terms of notebooks in general, I would say again, high demand. And we're just seeing longer lead times than normal. We are hearing about component shortages for things that go into Chromebooks and Notebooks, things like panels. In terms of other parts of the market, I would say on the solution side of the business the supply environment is maybe a little bit better than it was a quarter or two ago. In other areas where we see pockets of dislocation or delays with the other remote, more mission critical categories, like collaboration, hardware, headsets and webcams.

Keith Housum

Analyst

Got you. Is it possible to quantify what the supply shortage is perhaps costing business in third quarter?

Collin Kebo

Analyst

Boy, it would be really difficult to put a number on that. I mean, I could say our backlog is up meaningfully in the Notebook category over where it's running -- where it's run historically.

Operator

Operator

And your last question comes from Paul Coster from JP Morgan. Your line is open.

Paul Coster

Analyst

Yeah. Thanks for taking my question. I'm wondering, Chris, if you could just elaborate a little bit on the uncertainty you're seeing. I think we all understand the weather and when part of it, but I'm wondering that how is this part of the uncertainty as well, given that COVID seems to have been an accelerant, as you've described, of change in digitalization, in particular, how many of your customers just feel unsure of what to invest in, given the change to their processes and sort of infrastructure paradigm?

Chris Leahy

Analyst

Yeah. That's a great question. I think here's how I would answer it. Their -- projects that many customers had into, they're rethinking what those little like now, infrastructure projects, for example, in particular. The good news is we've got that capability to sit down and work through that design with them. And in last quarter's earnings call, I mentioned that that had ticked up. We thought we were starting to sit down and help customers design for a new world. Every customer understands the criticality of technology and the need to get it right and how different it is today than it was literally just 12 months ago, the acceleration of digital, not a new trend, but an acceleration. So we see that as an opportunity to help our customers get the other side of this stronger than ever. leaner:

Paul Coster

Analyst

Got you, and one quick follow up for Collin. The -- can you, sort of, quantify the revenue headwind associated with the netting down effects of the cloud revenue with the cloud contracts?

Collin Kebo

Analyst

Yeah. I mean, Paul, what I would say is we have historically seen netted down items growing faster than full revenue items. So in normal periods of time, I would say that impact has 200 basis points impact, so a little bit more than that, given the acceleration of it.

Operator

Operator

There are no further questions. I will turn the call back over to Christine Leahy, CEO. Please go ahead.

Chris Leahy

Analyst

Thank you, Jaclyn. I want to take a moment to acknowledge the continued challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I want to recognize the remarkable dedication of all of our co-workers around the globe and their extraordinary commitment to serving our customers, our partners and all of our CDW stakeholders. They continuously impress me and reaffirmed my conviction that we will emerge stronger from this. Thank you. And thank you to our customers for the privilege and opportunity to serve you. To our investors and analysts participating in this call, we appreciate you and your continued interest in and support of CDW. Collin and I look forward to talking with you again next quarter. Take care.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.