CLIENT RELATIONSHIP 1

[PEHasan]

I have a very interesting question to ask.

Your company have a very good working relationship with Company A. Your company also have a very good working relationship with Company B. But Company A and Company B both do not like each other.

Company A and Company B both are engineering consultants.

Company A and Company B both receives the same new tender.

Now Company A does not want your company to work with Company B. Similarly Company B does not want your company to work with Company A.

What will you do under such circumstances?

I will appreciate your responses.

Regards,

PEHasan

 

[eyec]

send the RFP & evaluate them on equal basis.

if you are too close to persons in each company have a panel of your peers select the winning bidder.

 

[GeoPaveTraffic]

Ideally, companies A and B both want you to work with them more than they dislike each other. Try to convince them that it is in everyones best interest for you to work with both. It is by far the best option for you.

If one or both of the companies (A & B) will not go along, then you mush choose. You could be A this time and B next time or you could refuse to work with either. This last option is not at all good for you and would require strong convictions, much stonger than any company that I have worked for.

When talking with companies A & B point out that you are just part of the team, and that to survive you must work for more than one company. That sometimes means you are working with them and at other times you are working with their competitors. Unless the companies have very imature management and/or have personal issues with each other, they should "get over it".

Agian, if they don't "get over it", your options are limited and not appealing.

 

[RDK]

I see three options.

Work for company A or B only, either exclusively or on a rotational basis. To pick which one will not be an easy task. Company A could simply drop you if you ever work for company B.

Work for neither, obviously not an appealing option.

Bid to both and if they don’t like it too bad for them.

You could explain that you are a business and bidding to both A and B is simply good business on your part. Tell them that their difficulties are not your difficulties and that you do not want to be a part of the conflict.

It would help to understand why the two companies do not like each other.

Is it personalities of the head guys?

Is it that one has accused the other of unethical and underhanded practices?

Is it simply a competitive thing where they are each seeing the other as competition for their bread and butter?




I once worked for a company A that was formed when company B pissed off several senior people and they left and started the competition. No love lost there.

I never worked for company B so I never had your problem.

These two companies were the only two in the city that offered services that the city government needed. As it happened they had two plants that used these services and a policy to spread out their work. The city solution was to assign each company a plant and give that company all the work for that plant.

Now these two plants were in a remote area and to get to one you had to go to the first and take a private railway to the other one.

I was on site at the drive in plant working for company A. Each week when I drove in I would pick up a few dozen donuts for different work groups at the plant. I also was very free giving out company A ball caps and coffee mugs, so much that company A was starting to question the value of all the stuff I was giving away.

Company B was known for not giving out much in the way of goodies to the average worker.


Company B’s plant was having a major site meeting to kick off a large project. In attendance were the main contractors for the area, all of who knew the history between company A and B. The plant workers who were riding into the plant to go to work were all wearing company A ball caps and drinking their morning coffee out of company A mugs.

The head guy for company B was so pissed off at this that he actually filed a formal complaint with the city on the issue. The head of company A called me and asked if this was true that the guys were all using our stuff. I said that it was and that it was all the guy’s doing as I had not heard about it until the rail bus came back and the company B guy came into my trailer and started yelling in the middle of a site meeting with my contractor. (who also had some people at the other site meeting.)

He also asked me if it was true that I told him to “F%$$^ off” and get his ass out of my trailer. I had to admit that that was the case.

Next day a junior guy showed up, special delivery, with two large cases of coffee mugs, ball caps, sweatshirts and other company A logo items to give away.

Rick Kitson MBA P.Eng

Construction Project Management
From conception to completion

http://www.kitsonengineering.com

 

[Ashereng]

PEHasan,

I don't see a problem. I am sure that each of my vendors would like me to only deal with them (up to 5 vendors sometimes), but then there is reality.

In your situation, I would send my RFQ out to who I choose. Both/eithre Company A and B can elect to respond or not. I then deal with the responses.

Company A and/or B can ask that they be sole source supplier. I can decide based on my economic/technical/management/etc criteria to see if this makes sense for my company (assuming I am the owner). I noticed that you didn't state if this offer is being made.

Company A and B are competitors. They are supposed to compete. If they have a problem with each other, that is their prerogative.

 

[zeusfaber]

The only thing I would add to the first eight paragraph's of Rick's excellent posting is that if you want to try to sub to two primes who are both bidding for the same piece of work, then you need to tell both primes that you're doing this, and you need to be seen to be doing enough to prevent yourself being (or being seen to be) the channel through which sensitive information leaks from one bid team to the other.

Building Chinese Walls within your own organisation might be a pain, but it's probably better than losing the trust of both firms.

I'd take just as much care when both firms are on friendly terms.

A.

 

[GeoPaveTraffic]

My only comment on Rick's post is that prime consultants should not expect their subconsultants to "bid" to them. All consultants should select their subconsultants by experience and qualifications.

I know that it does not always, or often in some areas, work that way; but that is the way that it should work. I just object to using the term "bid".

 

[RDK]

Not to get too far off topic here, but a bid is a term for an offer. You are offering to provide some services; the selection of the best offer is dependant on many issue, price, qualifications and ability being some of them.

It is only in colloquial usage that the term bid is taken to be an offer to be evaluated solely on price and not on other factors.

Bid is appropriate in this circumstance.

Rick Kitson MBA P.Eng

Construction Project Management
From conception to completion

http://www.kitsonengineering.com

 

[Ashereng]

Just to add a bit more to Rick's post.

In a "bid", there is usually a bid tabulation criteria that attempts to quantify the relative importance of all the relevant factors. Examples include:
experience
qualification
breadth (can they do civil, mechanicl, electrical, constructions, procure, etc.)
price ($)
location (cuts down on travel and sustanance costs)
union (or non-union)
partners (some company only work with specific fab shops for instance)
continuity (did they work on this last time? because getting old engineering data from a different company can be tough)
past performance (did they do a good job for you the last time)
availability (a more recent thing)

You can easily compare companies if you ask them to bid to a RFQ package.