When it's time for procurement executives to engage contractors and suppliers for their companies' projects, those executives often rely on a list of capable candidates who can provide services as needed. But how does a new vendor get on those lists?
Margaret Martin, a certified professional in supply management and Gulf Coast region procurement leader for INEOS Styrolution America LLC, said contractors or third-party vendors must be enrolled in ISN® (ISNetworld) and prequalified to bid for on-site services for her company.
"Your information is matched with our scorecard. If we're looking for specific bidders for a fabrication or for civil contractors, or if we don't have enough people that we've dealt with in the past, we'll look in ISNetworld," Martin said.
Speaking on a panel moderated by BIC Alliance President Thomas Brinsko at the Economic Alliance Houston Port Region's 2017 Industrial Procurement Forum held recently in Pasadena, Texas, Martin said she expects to rely on ISN sources to engage contractors and suppliers for upcoming projects.
"We have two large projects (for which) INEOS is spending a lot of money right now," she said. One is a large capital project being built in Bayport, Texas -- an acrylonitrile styrene acrylate plant that will bring rail and truck capability to the site.
"So there's a lot of opportunity to source new contractors and suppliers and for a lot of different types of materials," Martin said.
"We probably do 85-90 percent of our work with folks on our list," said Tim Dill, sourcing category manager for The Dow Chemical Company.
Dow may "open up" that list, Dill said, "when we find a unique technical opportunity that we want to get into that nobody's offering who's on our list right now."
"Or if the contract is up," Dill added, "a lot of the time we'll go to the market and look outside that list and do an evaluation."
Dow might also consider expanding its list to increase competiveness among contractors and suppliers.
"If we've got 50 people offering the same thing and we divide the pie, we're probably not doing the company justice in getting the best prices and best uniformity," Dill said. "But if we've got one person in there that's a sole supplier, chances are that supplier is making pretty good money. So maybe we need to open that up and have a couple of forms of competition in there."
'Find your fit'
Patricia Monteiro, procurement site manager for the Lubrizol Corp., encouraged procurement personnel to "have tough meetings about money" with contractors and suppliers.
"How can we have an amazing partnership with the supplier if we don't have really open conversation about money -- what they need to pay and what we need to offer?" she asked. "We don't need to agree on every single step, but we need to have these conversations."
Monteiro stressed the importance of agreements being equitable to both sides of the bidding table.
"If it is only good for one side, it is not an agreement," she said. "Business needs trust, and what is good for me needs to be good for you, too."
Brian Hall, manager and supplier of diversity and outreach and small business liaison officer for Shell Oil Co., said his company has developed "Find Your Fit" (www.shell.us/getcon nected), an online tool that outlines Shell's various lines of businesses, including upstream, exploration and production, transportation, refining, delivery and business services.
"If you're not doing business with Shell, we want you to think about where you should start before you get to the procurement and supplier qualification systems. Where do you fit?" Hall said. "And if you're already in Shell, should you be fitting somewhere else? Because we're going to be looking for suppliers that can service us across our lines of business."
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