Senior Manager in Boise Automation Canada Ltd. was disappointed by the news that he had just lost $ 1.

2 million with the ability to Northern Paper Inc (North), pulp and paper mill in Rocky Falls, Ontario.The opportunity lies in the development, delivery and installation of automated control system wood chip processing systems North. With over 20 years experience in sales automation systems for heavy industry, had he won the order, it would be easy to put it on their target quotas for 2011 and significantly increased their incentive payments. Now, less than 3 months before the end of the year, it is unlikely to meet its target for the year. Senior manager wanted to understand what went wrong and learn from the experience in order to avoid a recurrence. What should he do differently? Boise Automation Canada Ltd.: The Lost Order at Northern Paper Boise Automation is renowned for their state of the art product line and employed the latest technology. They were known for their ability to custom design automation systems and deliver turnkey solutions. Their systems were fairly complex and customers had to invest a considerable amount of time in learning to use their system. Their business required an in-depth understanding of the customer needs so that an appropriate solution can be proposed. Boise had a reputation for delivering high customer satisfaction. Problem definition Boise Automation has delivered a proposal to Northern Paper Inc. for the development of a new automation system for wood-chip handling system. It is noteworthy that Boise was targeting paper making industry as one of their potential customers. This deal would give them a foothold in this market segment. However, Northern Paper had tight budget constraints, and hence their evaluation of proposals was based on whether the proposals met the specifications given and at a competitive price. In this situation Boise Automation did not win the contract. Why was the proposal rejected? Analysis Northern Paper was looking to looking to replace their existing uneconomical control system with a modified rebuy. However, Boise was keen on providing a new automation system by itself. Boise tried to push their proposal by reinforcing the fact that they used superior technology to add flexibility to Northern paper and were not considerate of their customer needs. Their first priority should be to satisfy their customers basic needs. The buyer was looking for a system that met their specifications, was reasonably priced and had technology that was easy to operate. Boise was trying to provide a solution that was new to the market but which was not required by Northern Paper. Northern Paper was not interested in the new technology that Boise was offering.