1. What did Brown and BWNS do well in this situation? What could have done better?

(BWNS's special products and integrated services department worked on an outage project with NLP
which was agreed on a fixed price of $ 500,000 but later on due to expansion needs by NLP and delays
from NLP technicians; the cost increased higher which was not paid to SPIS on time. Only $ 1.2 million
was paid against bill of $ 1.6 million. In fact, they let go charges of $ 250,000 in initial billing keeping the
relationship factor in mind. But NLP seems not in maintaining relationship mood and delaying in bill
payments even after getting acceptance from on - site technicians.)

In this situation, BR best did was maintaining peace in this matter and politely demanding for
their payments rather involving in any legal claims. BWNS faced this trouble because of many reasons
one of which was casual behavior of NLP while project was on - going and BWNS's acceptance to this for
maintaining relationship. In this attempt, it didn't initially include the real bill and exempted bill of $
250,000. BR in the bill included $ 250,000 and summed up to $ 1,850,000 compared to previous bill of $
1,600,000. This simply forced NLP to settle bills that were originally sent by SPIS.

BWNS could make an attempt to arrange meeting of technical personnel that NLP was
reluctant. BWNS could initially make a better communication with authorized person. But in absence of
this, now when the issue already existed; BWNS could arrange a meeting with central office and discuss
the problems that increased cost of project. They should also discuss the expanded scope of project and
decide a fair price of their increased service. As NLP had other projects to do, they might focus on
quality of services. A technical presentation with proper understanding could help make things easy .
Not fighting is a good thing, but communicate clearly is better solution.

2. What factor outside Brown’s control interfered with his effort to work with the utility?

NLP was changing the schedule including expanded scope of the project which actually added lots of
cost and demanded change in whole schedule prepared by BR. NLP delayed in providing facilities of
generators due to which the work started late and was not met on time. BR demanded some of their
personnel go home as they were sitting ideal and company was incurring unnecessary staff cost for no
productivity. NLP's technician refused this demand and asked all people to be present. They assured
availing generators soon and didn't want to delay in work due to lack of people. But they couldn't avail
generators as promised and personnel cost had to be paid for non - working also. These things
happened due to negligence on the part of NLP and were not under control of BR due to which it could
not successfully complete the project.

3. What skills does it take to be an effective interface with the customer? Has this project been
successful for BWNS?

Brown believed that maintaining a good relationship with the customer had to take priority over
getting the bill paid. Get known of what the customer need and prepare accordingly and deliver the
projects to the customer’s satisfactory need. In that, it requires,

Patience: The most important skill for dealing with customers is being patient. Customers may be of
different mindsets. While some of them will be cool by nature some can be very aggressive. Customers
may look for maximum benefits at the lowest cost. Skills are required to convince them with our terms.
Patience will give time to adjust the disputes and negotiate peacefully
Communication: Patience is a tool to maintain good relation with the customer while communication is
a tool for healthy relation. To meet exactly what customer demands and what exactly seller sales there
must be a clear communication

Confirmation: Customers give the contract on risk and any deviation must be pre - approved formally.
Depending of customer's agreement with additional benefit additional with any formal confirmation
may lead to disputes later.

This project has been loss making for BW. Without confirming to authorize people, the
company helped in expanding the scope of the project that they actually took on fixed pay contract
basis. The onsite engineers were agreed to it considering the expansion to be beneficial. Apart from this,
BW didn’t consult with the authorized people and just talked with on - site technicians regarding the
delays that occurred. If PB had communicated about the delays and additional expenses made to the
concerned department after that and taken formal approval before expanding projects. NL wouldn’t get
any chance to deny the payments and their bus iness relations would be good.

4. In what ways was the project scope expanded? Would you consider this to be “scope creep”
(see chapter 11)?

Expansion of project scope: The project took longer than expected and project manager had an
idea about this expanded scope of the project. There were several reasons why project scope expanded.
The first reason was the badging process was lengthy and was time taking but was not accepted by the
utility. Second reason was delay in starting generators due to chemical channel head decontamination.
It delayed the project by several days.

This project is a real example of scope creep. Scope creep means the delay in completion of the
project due to changes in work methods or project requirements. Sometimes the project leads to
complete failure also. This happens when the client is not sure about his vision, there is a lack of utility
supply timely, no clarified terms and conditions and a casual relation between client and service
provider. Things don’t I go as expected and sudden changes pians are required. Sometimes unnecessary
waiting period also exists. This all leads to delay in project completion increase in the cost of material,
manpower, and unity services.

5. Is the customer always right? Do you think any of the “common reporting problems”
described in the chapter may have occurred here?

The customer is a core of business, hence, being patient and keeping a value of his words is an
important skill. This does not mean that customer is always right. Customer may become casual after
they are done with giving an order or in our case contract. Every customer wants to delegate work and
get things worked at their convenience but, at the lowest cost possible. Providing best services at
customer's convenience is a good thing but it should not put losses to our own business. Hence, such
extraordinary services must be at controlled and planned level and should give benefit in long run.

The main problem in NL seems to be a problem in reporting. Technicians who were working on
site were not authorized to make decisions but, were making most of the decisions which were not pre -
approved by top – management. Managers who were actually authorized were not taking interest in
project work. There was no proper reporting during project even when there were delays. Though
technicians agreed to BW's final billing, top management disagreed with it. Even when there were
delays from different departments, there was no informal communication. The same was not even
reported to top management so they can intervene and fasten the process. This happened because
reporting was not asked from on - site people. Had there been an open reporting platform between
onsite technicians and decision makers, there would be no delay in work and increase in cost. Thus, the
aforementioned reflect the problems reported in the case.

6. Should BWNS try to win back NLP's business at this time? How could Brown eventually win
back NLP's business? What should he do?

The company BW expects to get good business from company NL in future. Keeping this in mind, they
should liberalize their rules. Customer may want their own terms and conditions which company BW
should agree or try to make adjustments. BW should again try to build a healthy business relation with
NLP.

In order to win over the business of NLP again, probably, there could be few things Brown can do. They
are as follows:

 Review the recent project and mark reasons for failure. B should mark what mistakes were done
in terms of informality, lack of communication, and clarity on expanded scope.
 NLP had Internal reporting Issues which led to problems. B should mark all issues that led to
expanded scope of a project and control the scope creep in future.
 B should try to liberalize the terms and conditions according to the requirement of NLP and
make some adjustments.
 In this case, B didn’t charge for some services in Initial bill. This was also a big mistake. Brown
should accept terms of NLP atter charging for any additional cost to be charged.
 B should also make an attempt to review problems of the previous project with the decision-
making authorities. There was a lack of understanding. Arranging a meeting with the head of a
concerned department in NLP should serve the purpose.
 Making a relationship with new officers and understanding change in process will be helpful. B
should also make informal relations with the technical team in order to understand the situation
better.
 B should keep bidding with their best quotes to get back the business from NLP.

Therefore, it can be concluded that should utilized old contact in NLP and try to connect with new
departments, understand the new process and be clear on each term that seems to create a problem in
future.