Remy today launched its Vietnamese representative office during a small seminar to a select few Vietnamese private companies at the Palace Hotel in Ho Chi Minh.

 The solution was well received and there was excellent audience participation. Vietnam is an emerging market with many government and private oranizations embarking on large Capital projects. As this is the vertical niche that Remy targets with its Tender Management system, the timing for an introduction is highly appropriate.

A follow up seminar will be held in Hanoi soon as this is the seat of the government and many state owned enterprises.

iSpec Version 5. (BoQ function)

One of the industries that requires some special functionality is the construction industry. This has been addressed in the new release. Users can now import BoQs (Bills of Quantity) directly into a tender, and vendors can respond with their pricing into a spreadsheet-like interface as fast as they can type. No more waiting for the browser to refresh. This has reduced vendor bid response times by up to 80%. Many of our other customers also do some civil or construction work and these new features benefit them as well.

Another special feature allows for the creation of sub-tenders under a large main tender. This means that very large projects which require a variety of disciplines can all be managed under one large tender and that different vendors can be invited on the various sub-tenders. 

The customer can either award the entire job (including all sub-tenders) to one vendor or award different sub-tenders to different vendors. This results in efficiency gains and simplifies the process of awarding and compiling the final contracts. The customer can go even a step further and award individual line-items to separate vendors.

The well-known intuitive user-interface has been improved rather than replaced which means there is virtually no learning curve needed to get up to speed with this release.

Remy has introduced a no-commitment inexpensive try-before-you-buy opportunity for prospective users of a tender management system.

Prospective customers who would like to run a Proof of Concept trial of iSpec, can now do so without having to make large financial commitments to it.

It works like this:

1. Rent the software (fully hosted as a service) on a month by month basis (no contract commitment - just don't pay next month if you want to stop)
2. Remy will setup a hosted version for you free of charge and include up to 3 days of web-based training.
3. Run a full live tender (or tenders) for a period of up to 6 months with no other charges than the monthly rental
4. Decide whether you wish to:
   1. Continue renting (go over to SAAS contract)
   2. Purchase licenses and host the software on your own servers
   3. Stop using iSpec completely (in which case you can export all your data into Word documents and continue managing everything manually)

Pro version monthly rentals are Euro 700/month - fully hosted.

Enterprise version monthly rentals are Euro 3,800/month - fully hosted.

For more information please email us.

Konica Minolta France has implemented the iSpec Proposal Management system at their regional office in France. All the sales teams throughout the country now use the centralized system to generate and manage their proposals and tender responses to not both government and private sector customers. With hundreds of tenders and proposals being generated annually, iSpec now reduces the effort, improves efficiency, shortens lead times and gives the sales managers a bird's eye view of all sales activities.

Background

SABMiller operates across six continents. In keeping with their reputation for innovation they have implemented iSpec as their tender, bid and contract management system of choice.

At the heart of the system is a centralised master library of all tender documentation including financial, legal, commercial, technical, past project documents and past bids from vendors. These can be viewed by all users who have access to the system which enable the Group to avoid duplication of work, time and costs. Effectively, iSpec ensures that tenders can be prepared and published in one day, compared to the current time frame of two weeks.

‘This tender, bid and contract management system is unique in that, for the first time, vendors are being invited to tender live on the system’, says Maurice Egan, Group Head Manufacturing.

“Procurement capex is the biggest single cost element in SABMiller, some $US900-million a year, and, based on the Proof of Concept (PoC) phase of iSpec, the system can deliver on average a 3% saving on a total project cost. We also quantified and measured productivity improvements during the PoC, and indications are we can reach process improvements of 300%.” says Egan.

Implementation

A custom version of iSpec has been implemented, which allows for the creation of sub-tenders under a large main tender. This means that very large projects which require a variety of disciplines can all be managed under one large tender and that different vendors can be invited on the various sub-tenders. 

The customer can either award the entire job (including all sub-tenders) to one vendor or award different sub-tenders to different vendors. This results in efficiency gains and simplifies the process of awarding and compiling the final contracts.

Subscribing to very strict quality and security protocols in their IT systems, SABMiller opted for a detailed Proof of Concept process. First the system was tested for basic functionality over a two week period. Then global connectivity tests were performed over 10 days to ensure that business units on all continents had sufficient connectivity to ensure acceptable performance. Finally the system was installed at a highly secure server site and a live tender was published as a final test to measure performance, security and functionality of the customized version. Global roll-out is expected in April 2011.

Remy releases new iSpec Proposal Management System developed in partnership with European house.

• Create proposals in minutes
• Use templates to control proposal content
• Automate proposal preparation/approval work flows
• Track and manage progress of all your sales teams globally
• more...