frequent disruptions in the future, including the complete closure of one or more of our facilities. In addition, we do not know what impact the recent Federal vaccine mandates for federal contractors and companies with more than 100 employees, both of which are applicable to us, or other past and future government actions and responsive measures may have on employee retention and our ability to conduct our business.
Furthermore, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we initially required all employees who were able to do so to work remotely on a full-time or partial basis. While many of our employees have been able to return to working at our headquarters, we continue to have remote work arrangements may have a negative impact on our operations, the execution of our business plans, the productivity and availability of key personnel and other employees necessary to conduct our business, and on third party service providers who perform critical services for us, or otherwise cause operational failures due to changes in our normal business practices necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic and related governmental actions. If a natural disaster, power outage, connectivity issue or other event occurred that impacted our employees’ ability to work remotely, it may be difficult or, in certain cases, impossible, for us to continue our business for a substantial period of time. The increase in remote working may also result in increased consumer privacy, data security and fraud risks, and our understanding of applicable legal and regulatory requirements, as well as the latest guidance from regulatory authorities in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, including with respect to the collection of proof of vaccine status, may be subject to legal or regulatory challenge, particularly as regulatory guidance evolves in response to future developments.
More generally, the COVID-19 pandemic and associated supply chain challenges have had, and are expected to continue to have, an adverse effect on economies and financial markets globally, leading to an unpredictable and volatile economic environment, which may decrease technology spending generally, adversely affect demand for our platforms and services, lead to increased costs to source supplies and/or delayed delivery of our products, and require changes to the expected timing of revenue and gross margins. For example, Federal customers may divert funds to address their own supply chain or other COVID challenges, which could delay the progression of customer trials and pilots of our products into larger enterprise-wide justification, purchase and deployment of both of our devices and consumables. The long-term effects of COVID-19 to the global economy and to us are difficult to assess or predict and may lead to a decline in the market prices of our products, risks to employee health and safety, risks to our ability to manufacture and distribute our products and services and reduced sales in geographic locations impacted. It is not possible at this time to estimate the full impact that COVID-19, including resurgences and the emergence of new variants, will have on our business, as the impact will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted.
To the extent the COVID-19 pandemic adversely affects our business, financial condition and results of operations, it may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks described in this “Risk Factors” section, including but not limited to, those related to our ability to increase sales to existing and new customers, continue to perform on existing contracts, develop and deploy new technologies, expand our marketing capabilities and sales organization, generate sufficient cash flow to service our indebtedness, and comply with the covenants in the agreements that govern our indebtedness.
We face intense and growing competition from leading technology companies as well as from emerging companies. Our inability to compete effectively with any or all of these competitors could affect our ability to achieve our anticipated market penetration and achieve or sustain profitability.
The markets we serve are highly competitive, and we expect competition to intensify in the future. This competition may make it more difficult for us to sell our products, and may result in increased pricing pressure, reduced profit margins, increased sales and marketing expenses and failure to increase, or the loss of, market share, any of which would likely seriously harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
We face substantial competition from very large and experienced enterprises, both public and privately held, including Agilent Technologies, Bruker Corporation, Danaher Corporation, Inficon, Flir Systems, PerkinElmer, Shimadzu Corporation, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and Waters Corp. Our competitors also include many smaller companies, including companies established to pursue new and emerging technologies. We also expect additional competition in the future from new and existing companies with whom we do not currently compete directly. As our industry evolves, our current and potential competitors may establish cooperative relationships among themselves or with third parties, including companies with whom we have partnerships and whose products interoperate with our own, that could acquire significant market share, which could adversely affect our business. Any of these competitive threats, alone or in combination with others, could seriously harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
Many of our competitors have greater market presence, longer operating histories, stronger name recognition, larger customer bases and significantly greater financial, technical, sales and marketing, manufacturing, distribution and other resources than we have.