ASSIGNMENT-2 AMAZON (MRO)

Amazon Vision Operations Centre (AVOC) seeks to complement automated vision based

decision-making technologies by providing remote human support for the subset of tasks
which require higher cognitive ability and cannot be processed through automated decision
making with high confidence. The Operations Manager role is mainly to implement the right
processes and practices across the organization. The specific duties of an operation
manager include formulating strategy, improving performance, procuring material and
resources, and securing compliance. Amazon's biggest play is in the maintenance, repair, and
operations (MRO) segment, where customers purchase goods on a per-piece basis online, and
do not need technical support or expertise. Amazon Business already likely possesses the
largest product catalogue of any industrial distributor in the U.S. Amazon Business has 31.3
million listed products in MRO and office supplies categories, while the leading incumbent
distributor's e-commerce entity says it has about 3 million.

Purchasing policies:
Maintaining compliance with our organization’s purchasing policies and procedures can be
tough. But it does not have to be. Whether we are an administrator at a small business or a
large enterprise, our comprehensive solution, Buying Policies and Approvals, helps your
teams stay compliant. Here are some of the main benefits. 

Reduce rogue spend: You can set spend limits on orders. This directs buyers in your
organization to stay within those limits or seek approval for orders exceeding those limits
helping your organization keep a lid on maverick spend.

 Encourage purchasing of recommended products: You can identify your organization’s

preferred products or sellers, and restrict or block product categories, to guide buyer
behaviour across your organization. This direction encourages buyers to purchase items from
categories/sellers that your organization prefers and discourages them from buying those that
are restricted or blocked. They will be disallowed to purchase an item from a blocked
category.

Save money by standardizing purchasing: Guided Buying helps you avoid the
inconsistency that comes with individual buying preferences. It also helps you save money by
guiding buyers to purchase the same product more frequently. These frequent purchases
trigger another feature called Progressive Discounts , which offers discounts on eligible
products that increase as more buyers purchase more of a particular item.
 
Manage purchasing and avoid bottlenecks: Driving adherence to buying policies does not
have to slow down the purchasing process. We can identify the right approver for each
policy, and assign multiple approvers to a policy, each with the ability to grant permission for
faster turnaround. Functionalities such as batch approvals allows approvers to approve
multiple orders at once, enabling buyers to get what they need, when they need it. 
 ASSIGNMENT-2 AMAZON (MRO)

Foster transparency: Approvers can provide comments for buying policies that clarify why
they approve, reject, or ask for adjustments to requests. This communication helps increase
transparency and empowers buyers to purchase what they need while helping you maintain
purchasing control. 

 Amazon Business is a strategic supplier that can help organizations procure goods at

scale without the need for a lengthy RFP process or contracts with each individual
seller. Amazon Business consolidates and vet’s suppliers across hundreds of
categories to offer comprehensive, business-relevant selection. Discover a vast
selection of Industrial, Maintenance, Repair, Hardware and Safety Supplies.
 
 Save time and cost buying industrial supplies and safety equipment from Amazon
Business. We offer lakhs of maintenance, repair, and operations products all in one
place.
 By making it easier for businesses to purchase products from one another, Amazon
Business hopes to correct some of the current inefficiencies within the B2B
procurement space. Before a business makes a purchase, there are many assessments,
checklists and approvals that must be finalized. Even then, the work is not over; once
a supplier is chosen, negotiations take place. This process can often be long and
tedious, forestalling the contract’s completion and order fulfilment.
 To simplify the purchasing process, Amazon Business currently offers a suite of
procurement services to every type of business and organization. They also offer
business-only price savings, fast and easy shipping, multiuser accounts, flexible
payment options and a breadth of product options. Newer features include paying by
invoice, catalogue curation and Coupe Open Buy, a tool that streamlines Amazon
Business purchases for companies that use a Coupe procurement system. Moreover,
accounts are free. In a world that prioritizes speed, efficiency and cost savings,
Amazon may be onto something.
 With such a comprehensive, useful, and efficient tool, Amazon seems to be the new,
ahead-of-the-curve purchasing solution. Currently, the reigning purchasing solution
among businesses has been procurement software, and while it has risen in popularity
in the last few decades, it is typically expensive. In fact, Procurement estimates that
the average price of procurement software is $375 per user in 2018 and is expected to
continue rising in the three years to 2021. Moreover, because it must be updated
regularly, procurement software may be hard to maintain for some businesses.
 Still, other large companies have tried to compete with Amazon on other planes. For
example, in response to Amazon’s creation of the Alexa-powered Echo device,
Google and Walmart teamed up last year to challenge Amazon in the online shopping
marketplace. Amazon’s Echo device could be considered revolutionary, as it offers
consumers a completely new way to purchase goods. “It signals an acceleration in the
shift from store-based retail supply chains to a hyper-personalized, smart consumer
supply chain,” states Forbes analyst Kevin O’Mara. By partnering with Google,
 ASSIGNMENT-2 AMAZON (MRO)

Walmart hopes to integrate its large network of stores with a new digital interface in
order to challenge Amazon’s innovation.
 Nonetheless, we have not seen the last of Amazon. In the three years to 2021, B2B e-
commerce is expected to reach $1 trillion, according to Forrester Research. Given its
earlier successes and pioneering nature, Amazon Business is sure to be responsible
for a large portion of those sales, especially as the procurement role continues to
grow in importance.

Conclusion:

"Ease of ordering,” is Amazon Business' primary selling point. What the service lacks,
however, is the hands-on attention that MRO distributors typically provide. Relationships
with MRO distributors are formed over years of successful collaboration. Buyers are unlikely
to transition away from relationships that have proved fruitful for years. This is true when the
transition is from "like-to-like," and expects it to prove doubly true when Amazon Business is
presented as the alternative. It is concluded by noting that MRO is a uniquely relationship-
driven spend area. Large companies, he believes, are unlikely to take Amazon Business
seriously unless the organization refines its services and provides the personal touch that
MRO buyers have come to expect.