Formación del profesorado

Gaining Customers- In the North West European market for offshore constructions customers are gained through intensive tendering procedures. Inquiring customers on their forecasts and procurement requirements or preferences before tenders are release is a way to gain information out of oil and gas operator. This process is a part of sensing the market, but is also the first step in gaining customers because in this process oil and gas operator and wind farm develop can be made aware of the capabilities of the offshore fabrication contractor to fulfill released prospects. Through these tendering procedures customers inventories which part of the new offering realization can be executed by which contractors. The role of the supplying parties will be to demonstrate these capabilities to the customers by supplying the customer with information on these design, engineering, fabrication and transport capabilities.

In tendering procedures suppliers have to pre-qualify or be pre-qualified at a customer to be able to fill in request for proposal or quotation release by customers. These pre–qualification procedures consist out of questionnaires to determine capabilities on fabrication, management, procedural and Health, Quality Safety and Environmental procedures. These questionnaires results in meetings, visitations and inspections with or to the offshore contractor that want to pre-qualify for being a supplier. Most oil and gas operators have a fixed number of pre-qualified companies with which close contact is maintained. Using pre-qualified contractors means the purchasing process of offshore constructions by the operator or wind farm developer can be simplified. One interviewee mentioned : Oil and gas companies don’t want new contractors with offering walking in their offices every day”.

After pre-qualification rounds are closed, oil and gas companies and wind farm developers bring out request for proposal or quotations in which the pre-qualified contractors can present their most competitive offer to fulfill requirement and preferences. The releasing parties will determine which delivers offer the most value and will give feedback to awarded contractors which aren’t awarded. After contract award several meetings and correspondences to close the contract in a way it satisfactions both customer and supplier.

Tendering and pre-qualifications procedures may be evaded by joint development of developing innovative products by contractors and oil and gas operators or wind farm developers. By joint development oil and gas operator or wind farm developers try to develop an innovative offshore constructions or innovate concept which will be designed, engineered, and fabricated together. The innovation are not , or less restricted by protective European tendering policy. Because of the importance of the tendering process in gaining customers, but also in the previous phases of sensing markets and understanding customers behavior, a general tendering process is visualized in figure 4.2.

Figure 4.2 A general visualization of the tendering process

The very intensive tendering procedure and the lack of demand at this moment and in the recent past have lead to a buyers market. Because of the expected lack of fabrication capacity in the future, the changes are high that the market will developed more into a sellers market. This means the procedural way of purchasing for a fixed number of pre-qualified suppliers by customers will changed. Customer will become more willing to let new contractors pre-qualify at their company. Important for offshore contractors or their representatives is to seize this opportunities an apply to their new released pre- qualification rounds. In the interviews some room was made to discuss business–to-business marketing as an new entrant in the market. This verified that lack of capacity was likely to occur in the market in the near future and that because of this lack of fabrication capacity the market will be interesting for non European offshore contractors.

Difficulty at this moment is that oil and gas operators and wind farm developers have the tendency to award contract locally because of the European tender policy. This can be verified by looking at the fabrication list of offshore constructions in the last 20 years. Almost all offshore constructions in this

Procurement and Forecast releases -Press/business releases -Information to - pre-qualified parties Prequalificatio n -New prequalification s -Evaluation Prequalification Request for proposal/quot ation -Determining that has to be delivered Bid evaluations - Determining most competitive offering -Feedback Contract award - Agreeing on contract Monitoring Markets -Monitoring press/business releases -Receiving detail tendering information Pre- qualification -Determining fabrication, management and HSQE standards Determining initial new offering (value) - Assessing the offering that can be delivered Preparing Bid (price) - Assessing price of the offering that can be delivered Contract obtainment -Agreeing on contract

Offshore Fabrication Contractors

Oil and Gas Operators / Wind farm developers

period are fabricated by local parties o,r non European parties with a local yard facilities. Because of the earlier mentioned rising demand and expected lack of fabrication capacity a trend can be signaled in European customers looking for fabrication capacity abroad. Because new non European offshore contractor have no or al least a smaller network in the market and aren’t pre qualified at customers in the North West European market it is of great importance to monitor press releases and tender release actively and aggressively present the capabilities as a contactors to gain customers.

Sustaining Reseller relationships - Most selling relationships between offshore contractor and oil and gas operators or wind farm developers is one-to-one selling. Although representative are used in the marketing and selling processes, contracts are closed between oil and gas operator and wind farm developers and the offshore contractors. The representative can not be seen as a resellers of the offshore construction, but as a participant in the process of closing the contract by providing services between the two contract parties.

A form of reselling which is being used is the fabrication of sub-assemblies like oil and gas process units or wind turbine foundation parts for local offshore fabrication contactors. In this form reselling a relationship is formed in which a partnerships between suppliers gives one of the partners access customers which the other partner is already pre-qualified at ( and visa versa). Also joint ventures or joint fabrication is executed to be able to reach more customers or deliver more value at a lower price. In these joint fabrication offshore contractor can be make use of each others business networks to gain their supplier or customers.

Especially new entrants can aim at subcontracting or joint fabrication orders awarded by oil and gas operators or local contractors because European contactors are interested in these joint operations to increase their fabrication capacity. This gives new entrants easy access to relationships and business network of established local contractors and partly evade European tendering policy. A interviewee mentioned “non European offshore contractors can be a suitable parties for joint activities in the European region as well as visa versa”.

Sustaining Customers relationship – It is identified that in the offshore industry relationships between supplier and customers are intensively maintained. Customers tend to chose their supplier out of their already pre-qualified suppliers and keep these pre-qualified supplier well informed about their future demand. When sustaining customer relationships it is of importance to keep oil and gas operators and

wind farm developer informed about capabilities or future capabilities of the supplier. For their forecasting and procurement strategy especially oil and gas operators are interested in development of suppliers and their excepted fabrication capacity. Communications through all forms is important in sustaining a customers relationship. The importance of being and staying pre-qualified through all forms is an important issue and was mentioned in one of the interviews: “Getting and staying on the list (prequalifications list) involves a great deal of lobbying”. Most offshore wind farm developers have not established fixed prequalifications for suppliers because no relationships where established before between wind farm developers and offshore contractors. These wind farm developer leave room for new suppliers to pre-qualify and build up a relationship.