Part One: Need Identification and Specification
Question 1: First question will be asked to the client about the type of hardware and software it requires for the set-up of operations.
Rationale: The rationale behind the question is to ascertain the basic need of the client to purchase a standard or special equipment.
Question 2: Second question that will be asked to the client is about the quality of the hardware and software.
Rationale: The rationale behind asking the question is to determine the level of quality required by the client in comparison to cost.
Question 3: Third question is about the quantity of the hardware and software required to train the customer representatives.
Question 4: Forth question will be asked about the person that will be involved in the training of the customer representatives.
Rationale: The rationale behind the question is to determine the extent to which the company’s top management will be involved in the quality training of the staff.
Question 5: Fifth question is about the timing of the equipment purchase i.e. at what time the equipment needs to be purchased.
Rationale: The rationale behind the question is to know the exact timing of the equipment i.e. whether the equipment should be purchased instantly or partly or whether the equipment should be purchased as needed.
Question 6: Sixth question will be asked about the price of the equipment to the client. The client will be asked about the cost procedure preferred to purchase equipment like cost-based, premium, and market-based, etc.
Rationale: The rationale behind the questions is to determine the price preference by the client to purchase the equipment to avoid discrepancies.
Question 7: Seventh question is related to the purchasing source i.e. from where the client is willing to purchase.
Rationale: The rationale behind the question is to select supplier, according to client’s needs like vendor at local or international level or purchasing from single or multiple suppliers.
Question 8: Eighth question is about the process of purchasing the equipment i.e. how will client prefer to select right supplier.
Rationale: The rationale behind the questions is to determine the purchasing process like bidding (Andrews, 2013), contracts, and value analysis, etc.
Question 9: What should be the functional capabilities of hardware and software to meet the business needs of the company?
Rationale: The rationale behind the question is to determine the main functions that client needs to optimize by purchasing quality equipment.
Question 10: What level of performance is required in relation to the purchasing of equipment and staff?
Rationale: The key aim to the question is to get information about the performance level to make right choice of equipment and training of customer representatives.
Part 2: Request for Proposal
Summary and Background
Waters, Inc., is the growing customer service fulfilment business. The company is committed to perform purchasing agent duties for the companies to provide them with the high quality equipment and talented staff to meet their needs. The company acts as a purchasing agent on behalf of the clients to make vendor selection in an effective manner and to train the personnel to set up the operations of a business. The company has various small and major clients to serve like the one, who just signed a contract of nine months with the company to purchase equipment and to train the 75 new customer representatives.
The purpose of the Request for Proposal (REP) is to invite the proposals from the various applicants (potential vendors of customer service equipment, including hardware and software), develop a fair and extensive evaluation criteria according to the needs of the customer and to select right vendor that best suits the company. The services of the company include:
Act as a purchasing agent and performing duties
Project management
Management of the human resource
Training of key human resource
Proposal Guidelines
This Request for Proposal identifies the needs for an open and competitive process as everyone can apply if it fulfils the criteria that will be described in later stage. The proposal will be accepted until 7pm EST August 21, 2016. Any proposal received after the identified date will not be catered and returned to the sender. All proposals should be signed by the manager of the company submitting the proposal. Each applicant should provide an overview of the quality of the equipment by including the quality test certificate. In addition, the client needs to implement JIT concept, so the suppliers should include the level of quantity they can maintain on the basis of JIT (Horngren, 2009). The client wants high quality equipment to not to compromise with the quality and for this premium prices can be made. All costs relative to equipment should be included in the proposal along with period to train customer representatives related to use of the equipment.
Project Purpose and Description
The purpose of the project is to invite the potential bidders for the company i.e. Waters, Inc. to purchase equipment related to customer service department and to train the new agents. The company believes on the quality as quality equipment can reduce the risks of extra budgets due to high level repairing costs. Hence, efficient bidders are required to provide high quality equipment for the client.
Project Description
The company is looking for the bidder that can provide quality hardware and software for the customer service personnel to the specification of client and company’s standard. The hardware and software should be aligned to the needs of the client to increase the level of service. In addition, the vendors should provide a standard training related to use of the hardware and tools. In turn, the company will further train the customer representatives to enable them to perform their duties as customer agents.
Project Scope
The project needs the following software and hardware to train the 75 new customer representatives.
Key Hardware and Software
Most of the conversations are made on the phones, so 75 high quality phones will be required. Moreover, customers now a days prefer to communicate through email/web chat. Hence, along with an up-do-date phone system 75 computer systems will also be required. However, laptops will be preferred instead of computer systems to enable the agents to be mobile (Davis, 2013).
In relation to software, email support, phone support, social media, live chats, community forum and mobile apps are the main requirements to develop a high quality customer service set up. The equipment should support the multi-channel support platform to integrate all mediums of customer contact. There are different programs with respect to multi-channel apps like Zendesk, Zoho Support and LiveAgent, etc. High quality software in terms of functionality and performance will be preferred by the bidders.
Furthermore, with respect to hardware for customer service agents, lightweight and portable hardware i.e. Lenovo ThinkPad is required. The main reason is that W series of the laptop is developed as a workstation for businesses. Hence, it will be able to handle different programs at a time without compromising on speed with high level connectivity as well as battery life.
Specifications
75 high quality Lenovo ThinkPads are needed from the bidders from the local manufacturers.
75 Up-to-date phones will be needed as part of client’s requirements to enable the agents to communicate with the customers.
All hardware should be supported by the multi-channel apps i.e. software to enable the agents to communicate via different mediums. All bidders should thoroughly explain the software, their features and performance level to be selected.
All items should be priced individually on the basis of functionality, performance level, and quality wise and reliability as quality is the preference.
The level of training should be identified that will be provided to the agents related to use of the hardware and software by the vendors apart from customer service training provided by Waters, Inc.
Project Timeline
All proposals should be received no later than 7pm EST August 21, 2016. Proposals will be evaluated from August 22, 2016 to August 30, 2016 and in case of the need of additional information, the bidders will be notified. The selection will be made on September 01, 2016 and upon notification the negotiation regarding contract with the winning bidder will started instantly. The negotiations will be finished by September 30, 2016. The initiation stage of the project will be completed by October 20, 2016 and planning stage will be completed by December 20, 2016.
Project Budget
All proposals should include the costs to complete the tasks described in the scope of the project. In addition, the costs should be mentioned as one-time costs. The format of the pricing is listed below:
Projects Initiation and Planning One Time Cost
Market Research One Time Cost
Hardware (75 ThinkPads and Phones) One Time Cost
Software (Multi-channel apps i.e. software) One Time Cost
Training of usage of Hardware and Software One Time Cost
Bidder Qualifications
The bidders are required to offer the following items as part of their proposal to be considered:
The level of experience in manufacturing or selling customer service hardware and software.
Three major projects completed by the bidders in recent years.
Testimonials from the past clients and quality certificates.
Timeframe for project’s completion.
Proposal Evaluation Criteria
The company will evaluate the proposals on the basis of following criteria.
The experience of the vendors in completing successful projects, quality of the hardware and software and proposed solutions in relation to needs of the client.
Satisfaction ratings by the previous clients of the bidders.
Analysis of value and cost.
Experience in providing technical training to employees related to use of hardware and software.
Part Three: Timeline of Tasks and Activities
Waters, Inc. will be involved in the following activities to complete the project and perform purchasing agent duties on time. The project will be completed in 9 months, including purchasing of hardware and software and training of new agents. From August 21, 2016 to September 01, 2016, the company will be involved in receiving and evaluating RFPs and selection of key bidder. In company will contract with the bidder to provide required hardware and software in one month. On the other hand, training material will be developed from November 01, 2016 to January 01, 2017 and from January 02, 2017 to April 21, 2017 training will be provided to the new agents.
References
Andrews, J. (2013). A+ Guide to Hardware. USA: Cengage Learning.
Davis, A. (2013). Just enough requirements management: where software development meets marketing. USA: Addison-Wesley.
Horngren, C. T. (2009). Cost accounting: A managerial emphasis, 13/e. India: Pearson Education India.
