Assignment on Procurement Management Plan for “Destination: Australia”

There are enormous policies and procedures in any organization that can be utilized for planning the procurement. All of these policies are differs according to the nature of the business. But there are a few common policies that can be utilized in any organization.

Hiring Procedures and policies

It includes who the staff, as well as personnel, will be hired in an organization in order to work in the company.

Selling and purchasing of policies:

It includes the suppliers to whom the company will buy as well as the particular policies that are followed by several other companies.

Polices of rewards and Benefits

This is one of the most important and good strategies that is adopted by the NAA (National Archives of Australia) in order to encourage and motivated their staff and make them realize it.

Feedback and claim policies

This policy is related to the procedure in which the claim filed by company ‘clients, and it also includes the reaction of the company against this claim.                                                      

There are two major and most important gaps that have been occurred in these policies. The first one is related to that one action is done and there are no particular consequences in which the policies can regulate these procedures. The outcomes must be evaluated by the company when it occurs. The company must define the policy in order to make sure that this action or mistake will not happen again. It includes the particular procedure that requires for making this policy that how this policy will be applied and it mandatory in order to get established as well as for the standard outcome.

Another gap is related to; when any kinds of procedures and policies will disagree within another company that is working in the same line of products and services. If this will occurs, there are two enormous policies  that must be redefined and evaluated in order to establish in that company that was going to be modified and preserved.       

When the procedures come at for acquiring the services and products inside the company; It is mandatory to make the request to attain such services or products. The entire specifications must be presented in the detailed. Hence; it can be easy to find out the correct service provider for obtaining and negotiation in the various processes.     

In charge of purchasing the services for these particular projects of the website, the person must do whatever that is required for attaining the particular item for website maintenance on the particular time and date that is required. Hence; it depends on that particular person for managing and negotiating the logistics.

It doesn’t matter the arrival of the services is early or late when the product does not come on time. It can be sum up that the key consequences are related to the money only. The cost differs according to the various perspectives such as late delivery cost storage cost and it also depends upon the nature of the services that are acquired by a particular person or company. The reputation and loss of the contract are not taking in the consideration for these particular procedures.       

The companies are seeking for the new suppliers at any time in order to develop new services as well as reduce their cost. For this particular real case in which I am involved; the company is seeking for delivering services for web development as they have particular consignments for this and it is not enough in order to manage the particular demands. The services of the web developments depend upon the human skill that’s it has not potentially go off as well as the logistics in order to acquire it.

The production factory’s specifications that the production factory released were clear and complete, the team member in charge of providing this specific item had everything under the request, and from the exact quantity to the accurate quality of the Web development services to be had. After looking for the right supplier, the person found one and the delivery was perfect, thanks to all the specifications. Not particular gaps have been observed in the supplier analysis of the “Destination: Australia.”

Online server

Apache server

Tools; Editors/ Compilers; Programming languages, MVC,

Web services; Google APIs,

There are the numbers of the suppliers that are seeking for providing the services in the categories of the raw materials for developing and maintaining the website. It includes Online server that is required to hosting the domain of the website and in order to make the web site live. Apache Server; this is the servers that are required during the maintenance of the website. But the project team member will perform the analysis better in effective manners by selecting the most cost-effective suppliers for his company that can provide the services to their company in effective manners.

Tools; Editors/ Compilers; Programming languages, MVC,

Web services; Google APIs,

As it has been discussed earlier; there must procure various services for the necessity of the “Destination: Australia” project. The buying request must be filled by the department inside the company for the requirements of the new services. It must be following the correct procedure and policies attached to obtaining a new service. After filling that particular documents, the person who is accountable to seeks for the suppliers; who has the responsibility to look for the correct. He is also known as the best suppliers who can easily mange’s the demands of the services in effective manners. If any kinds of problems will occur with that particular new services the company can refer to the purchase document to see who commit a mistake.

The particular contract that used for procuring the new services is referred to as one of the essential documents as the details of the requirements is also attached to the contract. In this contract, all the selected suppliers are narrow down that is applied for tender.  Such contract is considered as the legitimate document which will ensure the services and products that is beings acquired correctly. This document is part of a purchasing process that all companies must have. During the purchasing process, after the right provider is found, a contract with the supplier must be signed. This contract will specify the logistics and terms and conditions that must be agreed upon. If anything goes wrong with the delivery or the web development services itself the contract is the document, the companies must refer to identify the fault.

The steps involved in the contract administration planning must be a person working with the human resources department. This will ensure that the process is aligned with the administration process. Like several other processes, especially when it comes to administration, all the angles and alternatives must be evaluated in order to guarantee that the process flows and there are no gaps or loops like the ones mentioned before. If it is related to the administration process in the contract, all terms and agreements must be discussed and agreed before signing the contract. The entire parties are involved must follow the contract to the letter. This will assure that future negotiations with providers are conducted in a professional and easy way.

The key performance indicators involved in a contract are basically if the contract has been respected and all the terms accomplished. After the product/process has been delivered, it is necessary to evaluate if the contract needs to be resigned or changed. This will help future negotiations and help determine if it’s necessary to find another supplier or contract. The reports needed for administrating the contract are all the reports that might emerge in the process, the reports that say if the contractor is doing a good job and if the KPI of the project is going well.

Going to the market with a request for tender:

·         The document that specifies the requirements for the tender and the expected deliveries.

·         Procedure for delivering the requested service.

·         In some cases, the budget assigned for obtaining the product or service (this will narrow down the companies applying to provide)

Evaluating responses:

·         Offer letters from possible suppliers.

·         Cost analysis from the purchasing department.

·         An approval document from the branch within the company requesting the product/service.

·         Terms and conditions on the contracts offered. 

Selecting preferred contractors:

·         Possible contracts from all suppliers interested in the tender.

·         An approval document from the branch within the company saying that the contracts that had been selected are aligned with the requested product/service.

·         A letter with the discarded contractors and the reason why they had been put aside.

Developing key performance indicators for a contract:

·         Work in progress reports. In this case, evaluating a contract.

·         KPIs were specifying how well the contract is taking care. This will help evaluate at the end of the contract if it’s necessary to find a new supplier or it it’s the case renegotiate the contract with new terms.

Monitoring contractor performance:

Work in progress reports (aligned with purchases department)

·         There will be the various consequences that can occur in an organization in the case if the organization  does not have these documents and these can be; there will not be a responsible party if something goes wrong. This will cost money and of course, will be a negative situation at the time of looking for new clients/suppliers.

·         If something goes wrong, there will be money implied, and without a responsible party and documents to refer to the cost of these mistakes will be absorbed by the organization. Every action, procedure, policy, contract inside the organization must have a document that backs up the decision that has been made.

·         If there are not KPIs for these, there will be no justifications for the organization to evaluate the performance of the evaluated situation. Therefore, the company will have two options to carry on with the actual contract/procedure or discard that one and look for another one, with the risk of making a bad decision.

·         This is the main reason why KPIs and contracts are so important in a company, and they basically help you make the correct decision and save you money or help you get more.  

What were the key stages or milestones and the timeframe for the tender? Who was on the tender selection panel and why?

When entering a tender is important to define the stages of the tender. There must be an opening date and a closing date. All interested suppliers must apply during this stage (no exceptions granted). After the applying phase, the evaluation takes place, in this stage all the key factors or the contract must be evaluated to see if the applying suppliers can cope with the process/product that is required. A process of narrowing down proceeds until the one contractor is selected. A renegotiation of the contract can be held to fit external points.

What documentation was involved in the process from the organisation seeking tenders and the tenderers?

All documents that can help narrow down the applicants must be provided. Obviously, a contract where it states what product/service is going to be delivered and how is the main document in the tender. However, there must be an opening field to submit referral letters from previous clients. With these referral letters, HR can contact to seek feedback on the supplier.

What are the important things to consider while running a competitive tender? Mention the pitfalls that needed to be avoided.

·         When running a competitive tender, the most important thing to consider is to let the applicants know what exactly is what the company needs, what and how it’s needed.

·         An agreed starting offer (moneywise) must be provided by the applicant with the option of renegotiating if it passes to the second round of the tender after most of the applicants had been narrowed down. 

·         The most important pitfall to avoid is when the specification lacks information and its open to the supplier’s side. This will evolve to a more difficult selection process and waste of time during the process

A good contract is the one that doesn’t leave anything for granted or aside. To cope with a good contract, we must be sure that we make ourselves clear on what, when and how we need the product/service. To do this, we must take into consideration:

·         Clarity: The provisions of the document are clear to the reader.

·         Efficiency: The text is “long enough and not one word longer.

·         Simplicity: The text is simple to read and comprehend.

·         Resonance: The text strikes a balance between being too pompous and too casual; it resonates with its intended audience.

If some of these variables are not well done, problems and misunderstood might come up following to cancellations and disagreements; even loopholes and gaps.

Reason for the dispute and the person involved:

If the required standards of the clients will not fulfil according to his particular requirements, then it can be the cause of the disputes in the organization. When heading to the contractor and asking the reason why the work was not done as it was required so. He stated the timeframe assigned to work on this site was not enough. Therefore, the development process becomes slower.

Policies and procedures available for assistance in handling the dispute:

The particular points of the work in milestone have been referred by the contractors in order to work by discussing with clients. The work must be according to the requirements that are given by the client. It also says that if the supplier doesn’t cope with the standard, the time involved in the development will not be paid, as the contractor might need to use resources to improve this work in effective manners.

Actions are taken by the project team members

The particular points that are linked with the procedures of the milestone that has become one of the most important issues for this work.

Outcome

The supplier agreed on the actions taken. He implied that after the conclusion of the project, the time gap must be renegotiated

The best way to review contracts is by determining if the requirements and standards specified in the contract. The first breaking point must be if the supplier copes with all the requirements of course. The second point to evaluate is the KPIs established for the contract went well. To do this, working progress reports can be referred to. If the company and the supplier does not have KPIs that are measuring the contract, meeting reviews, external comments and interviews can be done to determine the efficiency of the contract

One of the issues and difficulties identified in the review process was that there were not ways of measuring the performance of the contract. The supplier and the contractor did not agree on KPIs on how to measure the contract. In this case, the supplier only must fulfil the requirements necessary to cope with the standard. If this is the case, the contractor will not have a starting point to see if it’s convenient to carry on with the same contract / renegotiate the current contract or change the supplier and start a tender process.

·         Always make sure to leave space for renegotiation.

·         Define a standard if it’s a process that must be done.

·         Define a way to measure the contract (besides standards). Like KPIs

·         Make sure that everything is clear and outline in the contract before its signed

·         Solve all the questions and doubts that come up when evaluating the possible contracts

·         Make sure to follow the points in question 8.1 to make it a good contract