Boise Automation Canada Ltd.: The Lost Order at Northern Paper Case Study Solution
- A) Why Northern Paper’s buying process is structured the way it is?
Like any other company providing products to their consumers, Northern Paper also requires up to date technology and state of the art machineries. Every department have to evaluate their respective choices that effects the overall decisions. One thing could be best for the product but could be wrong for the overall business. So the process of buying a new part or machine is stretched to a length that every department gains something positive for the company overall. According to case study the process starts when a worker or the engineering department points out the upgrade needed. From here the chief engineer of the mill takes the burden to either ask the company for the upgrade or asks his engineering department individuals to repair the particular thing with their own resources. A cost-benefit analysis provides the company the best possible option one can choose with the beneficiary of the company. The need to stretch the buying process is ultimately because of the need to find the best possible technology with the best possible money expenditure. Thus, providing the company to be able to provide best products in least time.
- B) Why can’t the purchasing manager, Dan Reynolds, make the decision alone if all the suppliers are pre qualified and are bidding to a well-defined specification?
Once the suppliers submit their proposals for the particular needed machinery, the various department of a company see through the cons and pros of each proposal. The purchasing manager doesn’t have the full liberty to purchase from any supplier because it requires a lot of research to know the best possible proposal. The technical department sees through the advances the product can bring in to the company while the financial sees through the cost it came along with its expectancy to generate revenue in how much time. Dan Reynolds can only place order to the supplier when the company departments agrees on one particular proposal.
- Why does Boise have such a structured sales process?
The Boise Automation Canada chose a direct method for their sales. That means they first made a list of all the essential a consumer is demanding and then providing the best possible solution they can. They sometimes considered to have an aggressive sales department which will be needed to get the most wins against the competitors. This aggressive nature of the sales department also allows the company to expand and grow in result of the wins they have taken in the business. The proposals are provided in printed versions but the face to face presentations were often preferred to provide the consumer their all points of proposal in a systematic manner. This allows the consumer to get their questions answered in front of them rather than a lengthy detailed conversations in the mail boxes of the companies’ representatives. This saves a lot of time for the consumers to find the optimal solutions to their problems as the correspondence face to face is time efficient in comparison to the digital correspondence. The best thing the sales department provides to the consumer is the details of all the solutions they come up with and their pros and cons stated. This gives the consumer a fair idea that how much the supplier have put in the efforts.
- What is your assessment of Rob Allison’s performance?
The results that the case study mentions about the way Rob Allison’s performance suggests that he fails in landing the all-important consumer on board. Northern paper could have allowed Boise to reach its yearly goal but few of the mistakes costs them very hard. Allison failed to dictate the acquisition process properly.
Rob Allison didn’t communicated with the senior panel members of northern papers management properly. He had no involvement of company’s bids and their process ranges. His communication was with various departments of the company rather than the main person that has the authority to take actions. This took a lot more time for Allison to take action as to how much to bid in to.
A low price of a bid was offered that makes northern papers to watch out for another offer better than Boise. As decision of northern papers was to maintain the old systems and adding news upgrades for more efficient products to be produced. This gives the expectancy of consumers to decrease as the level of prices would have increased.
Taking all these points in consideration, once can conclude that the performance of Allison was not up to the mark as it should be. He never thought of the possible reasons a bid could fail and what are the threats that can hinder the process of bid in any part of the deal.
- How can Boise management improve the effectiveness of its sales force?
The few of the things that can be done to improve the effectiveness of Boise management is to make a good and bring document that consists of potential opportunities along with the threats that could hinder the bid. These documents should be presented to each and every head of the company. Now after the plan is made the plan should be provided to the consumers and then they should be asked if they need any particular changes they want to make. This will allow the consumer and supplier to be on the same page throughout the development process. The important part is to provide the company with the best bid process and to indicate the benefits of the proposal in order to acquire a company for its business...................
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