| Brokerage: |
| 1. The company is an application with a business model (like UBER) as a "broker" to bring together many suppliers and clients to get any kind of (construction) job done. |
| 2. The company takes in Request-For-Quotation (RFQ) orders from clients and using a work breakdown structure (WBS), creates a set of work packages that are priced with many suppliers. |
| 3. The sum of the prices charged by all the suppliers is increased by 22% as the price quoted to the client. |
| 4. The client is offered a ten percent discount for payment within 30 days. Suppliers are only paid after the client pays. |
| 5. Brokerage is based on the fact that the (construction) industry has a chronic labour shortage and clients have a time critical requirement to get the job done as soon as possible. An implication is the clients have an expensive job of getting sensible quotations that are based on supply chain facts and not a builders guess. |
| 6. The job of the broker is to help the Quantity Surveyor with a detailed work breakdown structure where each fixed work package has a fixed price from a known supplier. The broker can be open honest and transparent with all the details of the work breakdown structure while the identity of each supplier is not part of the quotation. |
| 7. The broker is also involved in project management with the management of work package sign off sheets as each supplier completes a fixed price work package. The client can see at a glance in their project diary, the daily progress of each work package. |
| 8. The broker periodically provides an invoice to the client for work packages completed in a week or month. The client has been kept fully informed of all work packages completed and so understands the invoice for completed work packages. The client is motivated to pay within 30 days with a ten percent discount. After 30 days, the client is invoiced for the full amount of the set of work packages completed. |
| 9. Brokerage means taking a RFQ and creating a Work Breakdown Structure of many work packages each with a supplier cost. The work packages are then published (1) as a quotation, (2) as client sign-off sheets, (3) as client invoices and (4) as supplier payment advise (invoice). |
| Slip: |
| 11. In some cases, the client is not certain what they want and their requirement will evolve during a fixed price job. Where a work package is to be changed then the work package is cancelled and a new work package is added - history cannot be changed and a work package cannot be changed. The new work package will include the cost of managing the old work package. |
| Cost Control: |
| 12. The job of the broker is supplier cost control and client invoicing is just a matter of supplier cost plus a markup percentage. The broker must put all effort into supplier cost control because that is what will create the best quotations for the client. The broker has no control over the price quoted to the client - its just the sum of all the supplier costs plus a markup percentage. |
| 13. A broker is an online application with no physical assets, no company cars and negligible overheads so growth can take off in any industry, any country, any market place. Any aspect of the brokerage that limits its massive growth with capital investments of any kind must be bad for the brokerage. Any cost that is not outsourced and charged to the client is a cost paid personally by the owner. |
| Application: |
| 14. Brokerage is an online application that may be applied to construction, manufacturing, energy, social care and many other industries and market sectors. Bringing together suppliers and clients is a matter of managing a massive supplier databank so all the possible alternatives that may be available to a client and known to the broker. The client database will grow as more quotations are issued and as the broker becomes an approved supplier to the client. |
| 15. Brokerage creates an online exchange for suppliers and clients to communicate alternative construction ideas and prices. The brokerage may advise clients of a special "sale" day where a trade or supplies are available for a special discount. |
| 16. Clients may use the brokerage application to get an instant quotation for a specific work package such as a 27 square meter slab or a 150 mm drain opening. Steel frames have a price that can be estimated using the online quotation service - delivery and installation is an optional extra work package. |
| 17. The one job that many trade suppliers do not do well is record keeping and administration - they need all the help they can be given with record keeping. The broker is a life saver for the supplier as the broker does all the administration so the supplier only has to do the job they do well as defined by a work package that gets signed off by the client. The broker is a life saver for the client as project control is provided to ensure that what is invoiced and paid is only what was agreed in a fixed price quotation and contract. |
| 18. The fixed price quoted by the supplier is the amount paid to the supplier for labour or materials or both. The fixed price quoted to the client is the amount invoiced with a ten percent discount for payment within 30 days. The client is fully aware that the fixed price quoted is 22 percent higher than the sum of all supplier costs to cover work breakdown structure, quotation, sign off sheets, project control, invoicing, payment control and associated administration charges. |