THE North Sea is a mature oil&gas basin and the supply chain serving it is equally mature. The marketplace, with one or two key exceptions such as drilling operators, is also very competitive.
Breaking into this market is not easy, as many have found to their cost. There is no easy money to be made, the streets of Aberdeen are not paved with gold and, in whatever niche you operate, there is always plenty of competition.
The industry’s supplier gateway, FPAL, reflects this mature scenario by having more than 2,500 registered suppliers all vying for business with the 83 operators and main contractors who make up the FPAL purchaser community.
A few random examples will illustrate the problem facing suppliers. Using the FPAL search tool based on a globally accepted coding structure, purchasers can draw up an initial long list of suppliers.
Typing code 2.02.05 (subsea valves) brings up a long list of no fewer than 54 FPAL suppliers. Code 3.01.10 (waste water treatment services) offers 66 suppliers and 1.16.03 (fire-fighting equipment) gives a list of 52 suppliers.
Obviously, this is far too many to go out to bid to. So how does the purchaser refine the long list down to a bid list? How can the supplier stand out from the crowd?
FPAL provides a solution here by allowing purchasers to refine their long bid list by reference to qualitative information contained in the new Advanced Registration feature and in Performance Feedback and by VERIFY HSE audit data.
The organisation continues to train large numbers of purchasers to use the “refine search” feature effectively and to arrive at that final bid shortlist. So, as a supplier, if you want to stand out from the crowd and be included in that shortlist, make sure your FPAL record is outstanding with the full complement of Advanced Registration, Performance Feedback and the Verify HSE audit certificate.
Visit www.fpal.com for further information