Decision Making Unit (DMU)

The elements of the DMU are

 The Gatekeeper
 The Initiator
 The Decider
 The Buyer
 The User
 The Financier
 Other Influencers

The Gatekeeper: The functions of a Gatekeeper in DMU are it

1- Controls access to the DMU

2- Controls information input into DMU
3- Could be an individual (Secretary / PA)
4- Could be a department (Customer Service, Sales, Procurement)

The Gatekeeper in Tata Indicom is the Administrative personnel.

The Initiator: The functions of an initiator in DMU are

1- The person who recognises a problem / need to be addressed

2- May or may not be part of ‘formal’ DMU
3- Often associated with ‘The User’

The Initiator in Tata Indicom is the Administration executive and Middle manager and also
maintenance executives. They generally feel the need of high speed internet with mobility and
hence they recognition need and convey this to the admin personnel.

The Decider:

1- The person with the authority to make the decision to buy

2- May or may not be the person who makes the final choice
3- Level of seniority depends on importance of purchase / budget / company culture

In corporate buying the decision to buy is generally made by the head IT & systems if the
organization is big enough. But in case of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), Managing
Directors generally takes buying decision.

The Buyer:

1- The person tasked to make the actual purchase

2- Degree of choice / power depends on organisation structure
3- May be part of a formal ‘Buying Department’
The buyer in Tata Indicom is again the same person who serves the purpose of decider as the
authority of making buying decision is in his hands.

The Users:

1- The person/s who actually use or consume the product / service

2- Degree of influence on DMU depends on company culture
3- Importance of feedback / satisfaction depends on company culture

The users are the initiators in such corporate buying.

The Financiers:

1- The person or department which authorises expenditure

2- Degree of influence / authority depends on company culture / budget involved

In buying process there are two ways in which payments are made one of them is COIP
(Company owned individual Payment) in which a person is authorized to make payment on
behalf of company the other method is COCP (Company owned company Payment) in which the
finance department takes care of financing and finance officer participates in financing decision.

The Influencers: Anyone outside the DMU which has an influence on its members:

1- Formal ‘consultants’
2- Informal personal contacts / WoM
3- Recognised ‘experts’, role models, personalities and endorsees

The influencers are the one who recognize the need of product at first, the middle managers
who are going to use this product and the technical person who will do maintenance work.