6.10.2004

 

[always when you dont need it]

ive spent the past few weeks of my life searching high and low for quotations. quotations for all sorts of stuff i need for my project(s). and since i have absolutely no idea which of the Big Pharma companies have set up local offshoots on our fair isle and which companies are being distributed by whom, it's been pretty much a wild goose chase. did i mention that the yellow pages are no help either? all they have is a measly 'chemicals' section. and that encompasses just about everything from industrial-strength pipe cleaner to commercial plastic. someone should really overhaul the yellow pages and make it something that people will really use. how can we ever mature into a proper scientific nation if the phone book lumps all the science-related and industrial companies lock stock barrel into a PKL 'Chemicals' heading?!!

it's really mind-boggling, the kinds of stuff you have to wade through on google before you find people that actually sell what you want. and let's not go into the whole process of *getting* quotations. chances are if the site has online shopping, you can forget about them replying to your request for a quotation. i've emailed and faxed hundreds of letters requesting for quotes, many sent on the home fax at mine own expense, and NONE come back. the response rate for faxes still stands at a phenomenal 0%. emails.. well i've had some success over the last couple of days. which brings me to my next point.

today i FINALLY settle all the quotations and purchase requisitions. this is a long and complicated process involving a lot of complicated data entry and repetition, cursing, swearing, followed by rapid mouse clicking, squinting at the screen, before calling somebody for help. i always thought well of SAP (the software company).. until now. today, i finally realise how evil, counter-intuitive and downright user-unfriendly enterprise software is. why can't anybody devise a proper purchase requisition system that people can actually use? not to mention the fact that the people who really need the stuff don't have the time to wade through the system and its goodness-knows how many levels of alerts and errors. they actually get other people to key it in for them - and sadly the other people don't always know the full details of the purchase (say - why this product is needed, why not the lowest quote, why there aren't 3 quotes, etc). thankfully im doing mine own, so if i don't know the answers to the a/m questions i only have myself to blame. not to mention all the trouble i went to to get competitive quotes for the same items - the 3 quotes rule.

so it's only AFTER i settle all the quotations and purchase requisitions (a process that took up virtually all of today) that another 2 - 3 quotes come streaming in by email. (one company was nice enough to offer me a sample of what i wanted - that's genuinely nice of them, considering that they aren't even based here, i was talking to the head office in Mumbai; the second says what i want only comes as part of a kit and they would like to call me with regards to the request; another's still being held up because the local distributor is awaiting pricing instructions from the head office in the states) i don't really know what to say..

timestamp: anonymous 14:21 0 comments