Proposals to Improve the Tender Preparation Process of the Case Company
Toikkanen, Tuomo (2021)
2021
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2021052110389
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2021052110389
Tiivistelmä
Tender sales has an increasing importance for the success of the case company in the evolving market environment and the subject was acknowledged to have room for improvement. The approach to tender sales was on a company level lacking a structured approach. The objective of this thesis was to produce proposals to improve the tender preparation process of the case company.
This thesis is based on design research and consists of four stages. The first stage conducts a current state analysis utilizing various methods and sources to map the process as well as to identify the key improvement areas of the process in terms of its strengths and weaknesses. The second stage carries out a literature review concentrated on finding existing knowledge and best practices for the key improvement areas on which to build a conceptual framework. The third stage includes co-creating initial proposals to improve the defined key improvement areas of the tender preparation process based on the results of the earlier stages. The fourth stage contains validating and prioritizing the proposals based on the feedback received from the case company executives responsible for the tender sales activities.
The current state analysis identified a wide range of strengths and weaknesses which were categorized according to their characteristics and areas of occurrence. The selection of the key improvement areas emphasized the overall value obtained by improving the corresponding weaknesses. Furthermore, the potential of increasing the possibilities of further improvements to the process left outside the scope of this study was evaluated. The chosen key improvement areas of this study are process ownership and document management.
The outcome of this thesis is a validated set of improvement proposals to address the identified issues of the tender preparation process. Additionally, a roadmap for implementing the proposed improvements was created. The results will be utilized in developing the tender preparation process of the case company accordingly. Moreover, the findings have the overall potential to bring benefits for the future business and organizational development of the case company.
This thesis is based on design research and consists of four stages. The first stage conducts a current state analysis utilizing various methods and sources to map the process as well as to identify the key improvement areas of the process in terms of its strengths and weaknesses. The second stage carries out a literature review concentrated on finding existing knowledge and best practices for the key improvement areas on which to build a conceptual framework. The third stage includes co-creating initial proposals to improve the defined key improvement areas of the tender preparation process based on the results of the earlier stages. The fourth stage contains validating and prioritizing the proposals based on the feedback received from the case company executives responsible for the tender sales activities.
The current state analysis identified a wide range of strengths and weaknesses which were categorized according to their characteristics and areas of occurrence. The selection of the key improvement areas emphasized the overall value obtained by improving the corresponding weaknesses. Furthermore, the potential of increasing the possibilities of further improvements to the process left outside the scope of this study was evaluated. The chosen key improvement areas of this study are process ownership and document management.
The outcome of this thesis is a validated set of improvement proposals to address the identified issues of the tender preparation process. Additionally, a roadmap for implementing the proposed improvements was created. The results will be utilized in developing the tender preparation process of the case company accordingly. Moreover, the findings have the overall potential to bring benefits for the future business and organizational development of the case company.