Improving Process for Managing Key Customer Agreement Pricing at the Case Company
Nuutinen, Iiro (2022)
2022
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-202205098046
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-202205098046
Tiivistelmä
Businesses should be always profitable for companies, otherwise they should not exist. The same will apply to customers, companies should have profitable customers. Processes within companies should deliver their expected results, which are monitored by the outcomes and the key performance indicators of the processes. The identified business challenge, the process used to manage the key customer agreement pricing at the case company was unclear and inefficient with no official specifications available. Therefore, the objective for this study was to improve the existing process for managing key customer agreement pricing at the case company. This improved process could be implemented to other sales functions in the case company.
The research approach of this study is design research, which includes four stages. The first stage addresses the strengths, weaknesses and key improvement areas in a current state analysis which was conducted for the existing process. The second stage is a literature review of the existing knowledge and best practices focused on the selected key improvement areas and establishes a conceptual framework for this study. The third stage is a co-creation effort to improve the existing process and build the proposal draft by utilizing the outcomes from the previous stage. During the fourth stage, the head of key account management validates the proposal draft and provides feedback to establish the final proposal for this study.
Several strengths and weaknesses were identified during the current state analysis. These findings were categorized by their temper and the key improvement areas were selected based on the priorities establishing a scope for this study. The conceptual framework concentrated on these key improvement areas of the study, which included process basics and key performance indicators of the process.
The outcome of this study is the final proposal for improved process for managing key customer agreement pricing. The selected key improvement areas from the current state analysis have been improved for the final proposal. The proposed process improvement should support the company in maintaining the proper earnings effectively from the key customers and ensure competitiveness for the case company.
The research approach of this study is design research, which includes four stages. The first stage addresses the strengths, weaknesses and key improvement areas in a current state analysis which was conducted for the existing process. The second stage is a literature review of the existing knowledge and best practices focused on the selected key improvement areas and establishes a conceptual framework for this study. The third stage is a co-creation effort to improve the existing process and build the proposal draft by utilizing the outcomes from the previous stage. During the fourth stage, the head of key account management validates the proposal draft and provides feedback to establish the final proposal for this study.
Several strengths and weaknesses were identified during the current state analysis. These findings were categorized by their temper and the key improvement areas were selected based on the priorities establishing a scope for this study. The conceptual framework concentrated on these key improvement areas of the study, which included process basics and key performance indicators of the process.
The outcome of this study is the final proposal for improved process for managing key customer agreement pricing. The selected key improvement areas from the current state analysis have been improved for the final proposal. The proposed process improvement should support the company in maintaining the proper earnings effectively from the key customers and ensure competitiveness for the case company.