Prague, June 11 2009 – The companies of the Unipetrol Group have started to rely almost exclusively on an electronic procurement system to select their suppliers of goods and services. Unipetrol Services, which is responsible for the centralized procurement of the entire group, has been testing the system in a trial operation over the last two months. Currently, the e-procurement system is used for the majority of calls and tenders with costs over CZK 10,000.
The Unipetrol Group expects that the introduction of e-procurement will save several tens of million crowns by the end of this year. Already completed on-line tenders have helped the group in its cost-cutting efforts. For example, with the new electronic application Unipetrol Group was able to purchase cheaper phosphoric acid for its petrochemical production and barrels and metal packaging for Paramo and saved money on supporting the communication system at its Prague headquarters.
The procurement department caters to the specific requirements of all the companies of the Unipetrol Group, including Benzina and Paramo (with the exception of basic raw materials such as crude oil). For example, the e-procurement system will be used next month to hold a tender for the supply of natural gas. A list of forthcoming tenders is available on the websites of both Unipetrol and Unipetrol Services, at http://unipetrol.proe.biz/vstup/aukce_seznam.php, where suppliers can register their interest in cooperation.
This state-of-the-art e-procurement system facilitates and accelerates the selection of suppliers and provides the best method of evaluating the bids. It uses all the advantages of the web environment, i.e. electronic catalogues can be created and tenders where a large number of interested suppliers submit bids organized. This allows a lower price to be achieved and better delivery and payment terms. Another major advantage is the transparency of the whole process both for users and potential suppliers.
"Electronic procurement is based on a simple principle of open competition under rules and specifications that are the same for all participants. Each participant can compare their own bid with those of competitors and decide whether they can or want to offer better or more interesting terms to the contracting entity to beat the competition and consequently win the contract”,explains Jan Hirsch, Manager of Procurement Processes Development at Unipetrol Services.
The system chosen by the Unipetrol Group has about 800 users in the Czech Republic. Transparent e-procurement is widely used in public tenders for goods and services and is used mainly by towns and municipalities, government agencies and hospitals. With the introduction of this tool, the Unipetrol Group is now one of the largest privately owned companies to use this system.
UNIPETROL, a.s. is a group of companies operating in the petrochemical industry in the Czech Republic. In 2005 UNIPETROL became a part of the PKN ORLEN Group, the largest oil processor in Central Europe. The UNIPETROL Group is oriented mostly towards oil processing, fuel distribution and petrochemical production. In all of these business areas the UNIPETROL Group is among the key players both in the Czech Republic and on the Central European market. The Group ranks among the leading firms in the Czech Republic in terms of its revenues, and employs more than 4,000 people.
UNIPETROL SERVICES, s.r.o., was established on 1st January 2007. The mission of the SharedServicesCenter is to provide support to other companies of the Unipetrol Group in selected administrative support activities, such as financial accounting and taxes, financial management, human resources management, information technology, procurement, environmental protection, safety and quality (HSE&Q) and public relations, with the aim to increase effectiveness.
Contact:
Blanka Růžičková
Spokesperson for Unipetrol, a.s.
Telephone: +420 225 001 407, +420 731 881 111
E-mail: blanka.ruzickova@unipetrol.cz