Performing Purchasing Agent Duties at Waters Inc - Case Study Example

Performing Purchasing Agent Duties Part Need Identification and Specification In order to determine the exact hardware and software needs, the following questions will be asked to the client on behalf of Waters Inc. 1. What shall be the number of units for your purchase? 2. What are the standards or criteria you want us to maintain in the supply? 3. What should be avoided in the hardware and software products you want us to supply? 4. What flexibilities do you seek in the supply? 5. What kind of problems (if any) you had faced earlier while dealing with this sort of business? 6. What shall be your desired percentage of credit purchase for this order? 7. What shall be the rebate for on-time or before-time delivery of your order? 8. What is the maximum extension time you can afford on this order? 9. Do you want the order be supplied at once or in different intervals? 10. Did you approach other purchase agents with the same order? 11. What warranty do you want from us on the standard of the supply? 12. Shall we arrange for the insurance of your supply or you shall have it done independently? As per the given scenario, the client has already signed the contract with Waters Inc. Although the contract is likely to have followed an already negotiated deed, there are a few aspects that demand further clarity. These questions, as listed above, have been designed with the intention to address future possibilities of conflicts with the client concerning the deadline of the delivery. In addition, specific details are also required for the standards and the criteria that the client has specified to ensure quality assured hardware and software. It is also essential to know if the client has offered the same order to any other purchasing agent, as in such case, the chances of conflicts concerning the need of the client and the purpose of the contract might arise. As the order is of considerably huge value and quantity, it is also important to know if the delivery made in proportion shall be convenient for the client, which shall also minimize risks of damages, warehousing costs or chances of deadline failure. Insuring the property will also be an issue of concern in this contract. Part 2: RFP Request for Proposal Based on the Needs and Specifications Identified During the Need and Specification Stage This request for proposal is intended to obtain your quotation in respect to our need for computer equipments and software. With this offer, the company shall put substantial significance to quality standards at the industry level with attractive benefits, looking for long-term association with the successful bidder(s). As the time of delivery is limited, the company, through this request for proposal, intends to obtain quotations from bidders with a capacity of serving at least 100 units within a notice of a month. Waters, Inc., an established customer service fulfillment business, has been dealing with clients who outsource to the Indian markets. Recently, Waters Inc. has signed a contract with a major client with an order of 250 computer equipments and software. The contract will take effect within nine months. Hence, Waters Inc. would like to procure the entire order within due time so that the quality of the products delivered can be tested and the supply procedure can be smoothened. The desired bidders must have relevant experience in producing and arranging different computer equipment parts. In lieu of the offer, Waters Inc. would also like to request for information on warranty and price quoted for the products. The products however should be authentic and any forgery to the same shall lead to the cancellation of the proposal. Correspondingly, a detailed description of the order has been presented as below. Waters Inc. will also like to note that the technical expert team in the company is aware and equipped with basic knowledge on computer hardware and software equipments and thus, would like to have proper documentation of the product quality standards. The company also agrees to its weakness in avoiding possible chances of damages during warehousing and therefore, would like the bidder to also quote a concession on replacement if any such chance arises. As the client is more expert in these technicalities, a strict quality management appraisal to the entire order will be highly appreciated. Kindly note that the proposals obtained from the bidders will be evaluated on a comparison basis, wherein quality features will be delivered utmost priority along with the price and the history of the business within the industry. Concessions on accidental damages will also be encouraged. In addition, bidders competent to offer insurance benefits on the products will be encouraged. As the company is looking for a long-term association, transparency in the entire system of procurement will also be demanded and highly appreciated. The last data for accepting proposals on this offer is restricted as on 15th June 2015. In case of further information to the proposal request made above, the bidders are appealed to consult the purchase agent of Waters Inc., whose contact details are as follows. Mr. John Doe Fax: 0000000000 Phone: 1111111111 Email: john.doe@gmail.com Description about How and To Whom the RFP Will Be Distributed Being a purchasing agent, I would like to direct the RFP to the top-level management of Waters Inc. in order to keep them informed, as those personnel will take the absolute decisions to approve a particular bid and also determine whether the RFP is justified as per the business requirements standard. It will also help in maintaining transparency through the chain of command. Since a large number of bidders are expected to apply in response to the RFP, the selection criteria will also have to be decided upon, wherein the involvement of the top-level personnel will be crucial. The RFP will be distributed in the form of advertised tenders through print and internet media. This RFP will also be directed to vendors who had, in the past, been into service with Waters Inc. To be noted in this context, the order quantity is huge and is unlikely to be served by a single vendor, unless the vendor comprises large capacity of product delivery. It is in this context that advertising the tender will help to attract competitive bidders and will offer Waters Inc. with increased bargaining power to select from the most suitable vendors. In addition, distributing the RFP to vendors who had an already established relationship with the company will further allow greater options of choices. In such case, the company may ask and collaborate with maximum two bidders to procure the net amount of the ordered pieces. Additionally, distributing the RFP through websites will certainly enable the company to select from a larger group of bidders, beyond the specific geographic location of the town. In accordance, the responses from the bidders will be obtained through postal forms or through internet media in digitized forms. Subsequent to the obtainment of responses from the bidders, the prospective vendors will be short listed based on their capacity to serve the demanded quantity within due time, along with other specific requirements as duly informed through the RFP. In the following process, the authentication of the information delivered by the shortlisted vendors will be assessed, based on which the final determination of the vendor will take place. Part 3: Timeline of Tasks and Activities Development of a Comprehensive Timeline of the Tasks and Activities As the task has to be accomplished within nine months, it is thus essential for the negotiation to get completed within the determined tenure. This step requires immense understanding of the bidders’ behavior as well as the objectives of the organization, which is only possible with the association of the purchase manager and the top-level management personnel of the organization. In short, this process can be duly regarded as the apprehension of bidder’s psychological behavior. Contextually, it can be noted that the attitude based strategic negotiation generally realizes certain imperative factors that entail issues related to negotiations, positioning the parties, viable choices, preferences of the parties for execution of viable options and supporting their views to reap intended benefits (Anthopoulos & Xristianopoulou, n.d.). As per the conditions applied in the contract, the order is liable to be served within a nine months period. This entire process shall entail various stages of task applications as listed below. The first task involved in the RFP process will be to develop the client. This will first need the RFP to be sanctioned by the authority in Waters Inc. and may take a duration of at least 4 days before getting distributed intended towards the bidders. The offer includes the purpose for what Waters, Inc. is akin to venture with the client. Correspondingly, the RFP will include all the relevant details relating to the entire contract along with the process through, which it will be completed. At this phase, the process will be monitored by the purchase agent and the top level management personnel in order to ensure than adequate transparency and efficiency is maintained in the bidding process. At the level, the offer must mention the eligibility of the bidders stating that who shall respond to the RFP. It must mention the particulars to be provided by the bidder as mentioned in the RFP. Any ambiguous message must not be propagated while making the proposal at this stage. Therefore, in making an offer, Waters Inc. has to remain cautious in disclosing the specific purpose of the offer to the potential bidders keeping with the interests of the client. Once the RFP is approved by the top-level personnel, the same must get distributed to the bidders through the decided print and internet media. It is expected that responses from the bidders will be obtained as soon as the RFP is distributed, as the tenure mentioned to accept the bids or the proposal is limited to only 11 days. At this phase, the purchase manager will again be liable to supervise the procedure of short-listing the most applicable vendors’ list. In addition, this stage will seek for those bidders who will have a competitive resemblance to the demanded capacity of the vendors for this contract. Responses generated with respect to the proposal made may be accepted if it is in the interest of Water Inc. and is able to suffice the profit margin demanded. If not, a counter offer may be made, with the negotiation closing within a duration of 5 days. It is worth mentioning in this context that the other bidders must be informed about the winning bidder and that the purpose of RFP has duly been sufficed. In designing the tasks and the timeframe, high significance was delivered to ensuring that the client is served within the mentioned duration of nine months from the signing of the contract. In accordance, the procurement of the ordered items will take place in three slots, each followed by a phase of quality assessment, return of damaged or impaired products and its replacement. It is expected that this process will help to gain better control on the quality aspects of the order and hence, satisfy the client. It will also be beneficial to arrange the process smoother with the vendor, without putting more than necessary pressure on the either ends. Cost effectiveness was also an essential criterion to be taken into concern while planning the tasks. It is in this context that breaking up the entire procurement process into three different phases is expected to assure lower warehousing costs, lesser risks to product damages and hence, greater control on variable costs associated with the entire purchase. To be summarized, to attain the goals with respect to the RFP, obtaining affirmation from the client is essential. Waters, Inc. wishes to complete the contract with the vendors or bidders as early as possible so that the client can be served within the affirmed duration of nine months. It is in this context that when negotiating and obtaining affirmation from the bidders in liaison to the demands of the client is very significant to the success of any project. Thus, complexities might arise in the process wherein Waters Inc. will have to work in the interest of its client and might have to suffer cost owing to the damages caused to the products during warehousing. It is owing to this reason that the intention of the purchase manager is to reduce the time of procurement of the products at each slot from being delivered by the vendor to the acceptance of the client. In order to maintain transparency and legal soundness throughout the contract, bidders’ claims must also be assessed thoroughly so that both the parties’ interests are duly met. For Waters Inc. deciding upon its pricing strategies will also be essential while satisfying the interests of its client and maintaining its profit margin. Suggestible, when conducting the procurement, Waters Inc. must assess the total budget that it can invest and the price offered by the client to determine its profit margin, once it receives the proposals in response to the RFP distributed (Smith, 2011). At this stage, the finance manager and internal auditors of the company can be involved in the process for better addressal of these issues. Considering the fact that Waters, Inc. has to supply the order made by the client within a set deadline, it must be ensured that the planned tasks are completed within the determined time limit. This further increases the significance of better coordination between the vendor, Waters Inc. and the client (Cohen et al., 2008). Therefore, the selected bidder must be provided with a clear picture of the contract, so as to ensure that they are able to set their goals in alignment with the other partners. In this regard, bidders are expected to arrange all computer equipments related software and training program involving the 75 customer representatives, which shall be conducted simultaneously with the planned tasks. Suggestively, the involvement of legal advisor to the company will be essential in almost each stage of the contract to ensure that the legal requirements needed for the authentication and validity of the procurement process is maintained throughout. During the implementation stage, many unforeseen challenges might also arise, as the procurement process shall involve transportation of the products from the vendors to Waters Inc. and then to the client. Hence, ensuring proper security measures as well as taking requisite precautions through insurance will also be necessary. Concerning these loopholes likely to persist in the planned procurement process, the tasks designed must also be ensured with adequate flexibility wherein any lapse of time shall have negligible or minimal effects to the on-time completion of the entire contract. Nevertheless, flexibility of the client to extend the deadline if necessary must also be considered with due significance. Overall, the process shall demand continuous monitoring and supervision by the purchase manager in coordination with the finance, warehousing and distribution teams in Waters Inc., maintaining a transparency and coherent communication through the top-level management personnel. References Anthopoulos, L. G., & Xristianopoulou, A. (n.d.). Negotiation models for managing projects. Retrieved from http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Leonidas_Anthopoulos/publication/230851456_Negotiation_Models_for_Managing_Projects_a_Review/links/0fcfd50543e8b02d87000000.pdf Cohen, S., Eimicke, W., & Heikkila, A. (2008). The effective public manager: Achieving success in a changing government. United States of America: John Wiley & Sons. Smith, T. (2011). Pricing strategy: Setting price levels, managing price discounts and establishing price structures. Boston: Cengage Learning. Read More