Date:23.12.2014

To

Rushdy Md Baksh (RMB)

Faculty,

School of Business,

North South University.

Dear Sir,

With due respect, I would like to inform you that, it is a great pleasure for me to submit the

working report on The Procurement department of Banglalink, as a requirement for BBA 498

program.While conducting the working report, I have gathered lots of knowledge on

procurement in telecommunication industry, especially Banglalink, and enjoyed working there.

Yours sincerely,

Amit Sharafath Al Rahman

ID-111-0674-030

Page | 1

Acknowledgement

All praises are due to Almighty Allah who enabled me to complete this report. This report

entitled the Refelction Report On The Procurement Unit Of Banglalink.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to my supervisor, Mr. Rushdy Md

Bakth. It would not have been possible for me to complete this report without his help, advice

and overall supervision. His constant encouragement and supervision throughout the period of

this study have been greatest inducement for me and directly contributed to the accomplishment

of the task. I am also indebted to Mr. Nazirul Islam Khan (Senior Assistant Executive Manager

,Procurement), Ms. Rabeya Ferdouse, Mr. Saud-Al Faisal and to Mr. Rakibul Hassan,along with

others who had kindly spared me with their precious time, support and priceless information. No

words of appreciation can sufficiently express the immense gratitude that I owe to the

procurement team of Banglalink.

Equally I would also like to express my sincere gratitude and indebtedness to the authority of

North South University, Bangladesh for their kind co-operation.

Page | 2

Contents

Company Background ............................................................................... 3

Organogram ............................................................................................... 4

The Procurement Unit ............................................................................... 5

Employment Experience ........................................................................... 6

Findings and Recommendations ............................................................. 14

Expectation V/S Reality .......................................................................... 15

Redefining the career plan ....................................................................... 16

Redoing the Internship ............................................................................ 16

Conclusion ............................................................................................... 17

Appendix ................................................................................................. 18

Page | 3

Company Background

Banglalink Digital Communication Limited with a simple mission of bringing mobile telephony

to the masses in their mind launched their telecommunication business in February 2005.

Keeping their mission and vision in their mind, currently Banglalink is the second largest cellular

service provider in Bangladesh.

Though the journey of Banglalink is of nearly a decade the original infrastructure of the

company was laid in 1989. Sheba Telecom (Pvt.) Ltd. was granted license in 1989 to operate in

rural areas (Upazillas) and they expanded their business by obtaining their GSM license in 1996

and launched cellular service in the name of SHEBA in fall of 1997 under the joint venture of

Bangladeshi Integrated Services Ltd. & Malaysian Techno Resources Industries.

Due to a chronic feud between the companies and other internal problems, in 2004 Orascom

Telecom Ventures Limited of Malta (Now Telecom Ventures Ltd. of Malta), a fully owned

subsidiary of Global Telecom Holding S.A.E. was set to buy the Malaysian stake of Sheba

Telecom in an treaty of USD 25 million. In September 2004 Telecom Ventures Ltd. bought

100% of Sheba Telecom for USD 60 million and rebrands the franchise as Banglalink and

launches it on February 10, 2005.

Banglalink cellular service has significant impact on Bangladesh telecommunication market.

Overnight cellular communication becomes affordable for wide range of customers where

Banglalink changed the mobile phone status from luxury to a necessity.

In July 2013 a merger between Orascom Telecom Bangladesh Limited and VimpelCom takes

place and the company name changed to Banglalink Digital Communication Limited with new

Slogan NotunKichuKoro translated Start Something New

Page | 4

Organogram

The Procurement Unit

Procurement is the acquisition of goods and /or services at the best possible payment terms,

through selection and solicitation of sources, preparation and award of contract, in the right

quantity and quality, at the right time, in the right place for the direct benefit or use of the

organization

By procurement, in simpler terms, we understand something that encompasses the whole

process of acquiring property and services. It begins when the department identifies a need and

decides on its procurement requirement.

In general, two types of procurement can be observed in organizations. They include:

Direct procurement: Direct procurement is usually performed by a full-time professional

operating within a purchasing department.

Indirect procurement: Indirect procurement may be handled by a separate department. However,

it is also performed by people in all areas of a company; procurement is not their full-time role.

The procurement division in Banglalink works under the accounting and finance department

and plays a major role in maintaining a good collaboration with other departments within the

organization. Procurement team works under two sections, namely: 1.Procurement Technical

2.Procurement Non-technical

Procurement Technical

As I mentioned earlier, procurement department plays a vital role of the organization and the

technical team plays one of the most crucial functions to expand its network capacity. This team

primarily works for purchasing goods concerning civil construction such as equipments,

towers, generators, BTS, base stations and others. Technical team mainly receives request from

Network Deployment for their huge requirement regarding network expansion.

For example, when Network deployment identifies the need for network expansion in certain

areas and thus require setting up of BTS tower and antennas in both Greenfield and Rooftop,

they sent Purchase Request to Technical team. Vendor will start work only when they are

supposed to receive the Purchase Order from procurement. As a result, the user departments

always need to rely on procurement team for any type of request for technical purchase as

Procurement team has the authority of Purchase Order creation.

Procurement Non-Technical

Procurement Non-Technical deals with only purchase of non-technical materials needed by the

various functional units of Banglalink. Purchase Requests are raised by the following

departments: 1) Marketing2) Sales 3) Admin 4) IT 5) Customer Care Department (CCD) 6)

Human Resource Management.

I was an intern of the whole Procurement unit, but due to the higher work pressure I was

working mainly with the direct Procurement team. The team consisted of 6 members with the

Manager being Mr. Saud Al Faisal.The 6 members were divided into three groups of two people

each: Operations and Maintenance, Network Deployment and Foreign Purchase. The

Operations & Maintenance team had two members: Mrs. Tasnuv Zahan and Mr. Kazi Halim,

who were responsible for the internet bandwidth and maintenance of the network towers. The

Foreign Procurement unit consisted of Mr. Wahid Haque Shawon and Mr. Mahbubur Rahman

and they took care of the all the major purchases of network equipments from the foreign

vendors. Lastly, the Network Deployment team consisted of Mr.Nazirul Islam Khan and Ms.

Rabeya Ferdouse who were responsible from receiving requests from the technical team and

then purchasing then from the local vendors only.

Employment Experience

I was hired in the Procurement Unit of the Finance department to have an experience of

different levels of the department and my total internship is planned on project and tasks basis.

On my first day of internship, I and 22 other fellow interns were introduced to the Banglalink

through an induction program. It was conducted by the Organizational Development Unit of

Human Resource. The person concerned gave us a brief overview of the entire organization and

then every intern signed their agreement papers stating that we are all officially interns now.

After that, they gave us another paper stating the department and unit assigned. As mentioned

earlier, I was hired in the Procurement Unit of the Finance department. After that, all the interns

had lunch with the HR team and that was all for the day. We were told to report to our

respective departments from the next day. I was told to report to Mr. Sayeed Ahmed, who was

the General Manager of the Procurement Unit. Upon my arrival on the next day, I found that my

line manager has gone to perform Hajj and thus I reported to Mr. .Saud Al Faisal instead.Mr.

Faisal was the manager of the Direct Procurement unit. He was informed about me beforehand

and thus had a desk ready for meshed introduced me to the whole procurement unit first and

then instructed Mr. Nazirul Islam Khan to assign me my work. Nazirul Islam was the Senior

Assistant Executive of the direct Procurement team. My task was all supportive works and

included updating vendor database, confirming the Purchase Order Values, calling up vendor

meetings, Grouping Works, Filing and Data Entry. I was told that I was the first intern of the

Procurement unit in 1 year, and thus I will have a lot more work in the upcoming three months.

My first task was to update the vendor database of the Procurement Unit. The unit had more

than 280 vendors in their list and my task was to call them and ask for their updated e-mail

address, trade license and VAT registration certificate. The task wasnt the easiest as many of

the vendors changed their numbers and thus reaching them was difficult. While many vendors

were supportive in giving the necessary documents, most of them were reluctant and thus

receiving files from them were difficult. I wasnt given a particular time frame for the task but

was told to give periodical reports about the database update. As Banglalink was going digital, I

was told to collect the soft copies of the files only, put them in a folder and update it in the

master database. I had a hard time convincing vendors to give the files as most of them were

busy making excuses like their scanner was down, the concerned person was outlet.

Other than the database update, another thing that I did was sorting out the files, put them in a

chronological order and then file it.This task wasnt brainstorming, but was a bit monotonous.

As the company was trying to reduce the stacks of papers from the office, I was given a huge

pile of PO (Purchase Order) and was told to first look through the files and sort the necessary

papers. Then I had to arrange them in an ascending order and the put them in a file. The first

thing, I did was check all the PO numbers and see whether they are updated in the database or

not. If they are not updated, I had to update it, and then take the printout of the update

confirmation and then sort i.e. found the task quite interesting as I had full access to master

database at that time. I was told to go through the master database, learn how it works and ask

questions in case of any queries.

After the filing was done, the next task was data entry. This work was given the non-technical

team of the Procurement unit and I was told to update all the Purchase Orders (PO) in the

master database. This task was a bit different from the filing task as there were no papers

involved this time. Instead, I was given scanned copies of the Purchase Orders and was then

told to update them in the file. As I was working with a new team today, I was a bit cautious

and thus did the work slowly so that the margin of error was low. There were a total of 200

Purchase Orders and I was given a total of one week to finish the job. However, I managed to

finish the job within 3 days and after checking my work and team was very happy with my

work and took me out to lunch on the last working day of the week.

After that, came the Eid holiday. Banglalink had a really good holiday policy for its employees

and thus all of us were given a holiday of 9 days in total. The break originally was 5 days

including the weekends, but Banglalink gave everyone two extra days off and with the next

weekend combined, the total holiday turned out to be a total of 9 days.

After the Eid Holiday, I was back to work on the 12th

of October. The first day after the break

was pretty relaxing and everyone was busy greeting each other and sharing their Eid

experiences. I had a good time sharing my own experiences as well. After that, all the members

of the Procurement team took a group photo and I was also in the picture. I felt good that my

team doesnt always treat me as an intern only and keep me in all their events. After all the fin

parts, It was time to get back to serious work. This time, I was told to collect an Anti-Corruption

Disclosure form from 89 of the vendors. All the Banglalink vendors are required to fill up and

sign this form as it is a part of the company policy. But there were 89 vendors, who didnt sign

the agreement papers yet. So, I was told to call each vendor individually and ask them to give

the form. I was given a deadline of two weeks for this task.

Calling the vendors was always a good learning experience now. This was the second time I

was calling the vendors after the vendor database update. I learned how to talk to vendors over

the phone and how to collect the required data from them. I had to put fear in their mind and let

them about the negative consequences that will result if they fail to submit the documents

within the given time. For instance, while collecting the anti-corruption form from the vendors,

I said that failure to give the form within the given time will result in blocking of payments

altogether as the form had something to do with the payments. The trick worked and within two

weeks I managed to collect the forms from all 89 vendors. I felt really happy and my team was

extremely pleased with my work too.

After that, the next task I had to be quite important and big for the entire Procurement Unit. The

Direct Procurement team was planning to make a new model for the power connection vendors.

Power connection vendors are those who worked with Banglalink regarding the power

connection of network towers in both green field and roof top sites. The Procurement unit

purchased the equipment sang give them to the vendors for their work. There are over 100

equipments the procurement unit buys for the network towers. I was given two huge MS-excel

file consisting of more than 1000 entries each regarding the power works. The file was called

the Scope of Work (SoW).I was told to go through the files and group the works and then find

the vendors who did the work for the tasks. As the team was running out of time, I was given

only two days to complete the work. This seemed extremely difficult as I had to go through

each entries individually and then match them with the vendors.

As I didnt have much time, I had to plan my tasks carefully so that I dont have troubles with

the time. As there were two files, where one of them had the work details and the other one had

the vendor details, I decided to combine them into one. I did this by using VlookUp which I

learned in my Accounting Informative System class (ACT431) during my university life. By

using VlookUp, I matched the work names with the vendors and then combined both the files.

By doing this, I had one excel file consisting of the work done and the vendors who did them.

My work became a whole lot easier that way. After that, I used filtering to match the entries and

then group them. Through the use of filtering and Vlookup, my task became so easy that I was

able to finish it within 1 working day. My supervisor was bit surprised at this and was quite sure

that I made mistakes, so he checked out immediately and was totally surprised to see that the

work was totally flawless. He was very happy with my work and treated me a dessert later in

the cafeteria that day.

The next work that I had to do that was very similar with my last work of grouping the

entries.Again, this time I was given an MS-Excel file of more 1000 entries and was told to

categorize them into different groups.However, there were no vendors this time, but there were

many duplicate entries in the file. As I didnt know how to identify duplicates using Ms-Excel,

Nazir bhaiya taught me how to identify them.t was pretty easy, there is a separate command in

MS-Excel and I just had to click that button to highlight the duplicate values and by using

another command, I could easily delete the duplicate entries.However, the task werent as easy

as I thought it was. Identifying the duplicated werent easy at all because the commands I used

only identify duplicated with the same spelling, but there were same entries with different

spellings. For Example: One of the entry was Work For GT site 1011, and another entry was

Work For GT Site no.1011.Though both entries meant the same thing and had the same

values, as the names were a bit different, The MS-Excel command wasnt entitled to identifying

these types of mistakes.Thus, I had to go through all the entries and see if there were same

entries with different spellings. I found more than 50 entries like these and had to individually

correct them and then group them. The task was turned out to be very hectic and time

consuming. I was also unhappy with how Banglalinks way of data entries. The mistakes were

really silly and quite frustrating as a small mistake may result in double entries and billing,

causing damage to the organization as a whole. More professionalism was expected while the

entries were made and it should have been properly checked before it was finalized. I told about

my unhappiness to Nazir bhaiya and he said they will look into this matter very soon and get

back to me.

One of the best part of the internship came soon after that, when I was given to work with

numbers. I love playing with numbers and I thought I was given the best job in the world. The

task was about finding the values and fixes a rate for travelling expenses.Currently, all the

vendors charge differently for travelling and Procurement team was thinking of fixing one rate

for all the vendors.However, they were having a rough time finding the exact amount. All they

had is the Kilometer (KM) wise list and they were unable to compute the single rate. I was told

to look through the files and come up with a formula. I first categorized the rated according to

Kilometers (KM), for e.g.-one rate for distance 100-200 Km and another for 200-300km and so

on. After this, I found out the total distance travelled and then put the respective rates into it and

then find the total value. My calculated values werent very different from what the vendor

gave, which suggested me that I was going the right way. I did around 20 more similar analysis

like this and then finally came up with a rate according to k.m.The formula was a great success

and Nazir bhaiya helped me co develop tithe proposed rate was then further analyzed and

scrutinized by the technical team before being put into the table for the final decision. I was

eagerly waiting for that time to arrive

Banglalink was already a good experience for me.By working here I have become more

proficient in Ms-Excel, my communication skills have improved significantly through calling

the vendors regularly, I have managed to handle my time better, multitasking to has become a

regular thing for me.My team always seem to be in a rush because of high workload and I

believe I have adjusted to their pace quite well.

Coming back to work, my next job was to call vendor meeting regarding the Power Model. As I

said earlier, Banglalink was trying to develop a new model for their power works and they have

finally come up with a plan whereby all the vendors will treated equally. As the company was

about to implement a new model, a clarification meeting needed to be called so that all the

vendors are clear of the new model and were willing to work for building the network towers.

As the number of vendors was quite high and there were shortages of large rooms, the meeting

had to be split into two days and 19 vendors will attend the meeting in one day. As the meeting

was scheduled to happen in only 1 day notice, it was difficult to convince many vendors to

come on time as there were many vendors who were located outside Dhaka. I was given the

responsibility of calling all the vendors and asking them to attend the meeting. I was also given

the authority to say that Banglalink will no longer work with the vendors who wouldnt attend

the meeting on the scheduled day. So, on Sunday, the day before the meeting, I called 19

vendors and asked them to come to the meeting. Though a few owners were hesitant to attend, I

convinced them to come and on the day of the meeting, all 19 vendors attended it.My team was

happy with my job done and I was formally introduced and thanked at the beginning of the

meeting. I felt really happy and it will definitely go down as one of the best achievements of my

internship tenure.

After two back to back meetings in two days, I was pretty exhausted. The constant high

workload was finally taking a toll on me and I was really tired. The work doesnt seem to end

here and as soon as I was done with one, I was given new asks almost instantly. There was no

scope of relaxation. I believe my team sensed my ever increasing frustration as well and thus

they took me out to a sudden lunch on a mid-week and asked me if I was having any trouble

working. I was frank enough to say what I was feeling and they made me understand their

situation. My team was running low on head count and as a result of that one person was doing

at least two persons work in my team.Thus,the pressure seemed to be high all the time. They

were apologetic as I had to work too much, but then I thought I was acting too selfish too, thus I

decided to shrug off my frustration and get back to work. I was allowed an one day leave to

freshen up myself and the break helped me a lot. From the next day, I was back to working at a

full swing.

Next thing that I did was complete my everlasting vendor list update work. This work was given

to me at the very beginning of my internship and as the internship was nearing its end, I was

nearly done with the work too. For the updates, in case the phone number was missing, I was

told to email the vendors and get the updated contact details. The idea was to get an updated

database as many vendors were complaining that they dont get the email in time and many

others also complained that they do not get any phone calls from the concerned authority inside

the organization. I have been working on the updates in between other works all these week and

this week I submitted the updated file to my line manager. The updating part was never an easy

one. Vendors whose email was missing were very reluctant to give their email addresses so that

they can keep on stalling the work details. And many others were too rude to talk and said that

its none of their responsibility to send the updated email address. But even worse was in case

of missing phone numbers. Even after continual email, very few people actually replied with

their updated details and I had to run around the technical and administration department

collecting numbers of as many vendors I cant the middle of the week, I submitted my work.

Out of 287 vendors, I managed to update the details of 230 vendors, but the details of the

remaining 57 vendors couldnt be updated. I highlighted the missing part of those 57 vendors

and asked my line manager to take a sterner step so that they update the necessary

details.However, my line manager didnt seem to be fully happy with my work as he expected

the full list to be updated. I explained my situation and said that I gave my best efforts to collect

all of them, but he didnt seem to care much. He just didnt seem interested and said he will talk

to me later. I felt really bad than despite giving my best effort and a long time behind this work,

I wasnt really appreciated. My morale went really low and I didnt get much motivation for

other works at that time.

Just as I wasnt having the worst time of my internship, came the rotation program. The rotation

program was designed to give all the interns a better view of the organization. During the

rotation program, the interns were sent to different departments and learn how they work. It was

scheduled to last two weeks. It was a free ride for the interns as during then, we didnt need to

report to our originally assigned department.Rather, we had to go to a new department and

observe how they work. We were also allowed to leave early during our rotation program, so it

was more like a holiday for all the interns. During the first week, I was transferred to the

Customer Care Department (CCD).The CCD department had several units and we were made to

visit these departments. At first, I travelled to the ICON department and saw what they had to

offer and how they work to keep their special customers happy. It was a good learning

experience for me.Next, I travelled to the Credit Risk Management (CRM).I was particularly

keen on the CRM department as I though this department only exists in banks. I learned that the

work of the department was to ensure payment from their postpaid customers and how they

mitigate their losses in case a customer doesnt pay the due amount. Several small steps are

taken to ensure that the payment in received in time and even after repetitive recquests, if a

customer doesnt make the payment, a police case is lodged. After the CRM, I travelled to the

care line department. It was mainly the call center of Banglalink, situated right beside the

headquarters in Gulshan-1.I sat beside a customer care representative and listened to his phone

calls throughout the day. I really dint enjoy it and one point I was really bored as this section

had little learning to offer. After that, I travelled to their Gulshan 2 care center and saw in

person how the executives deal with their customers. It wasnt a good experience either and I

was allowed to leave early for that day as I had some personal work.

In my second week of rotation, I travelled to the SME sales department and trade marketing

department. Both of the units were relatively new and thus they didnt have much service to

offer as yet. The SME sales targeted small companies with less than 15 customers and they

were focused on attracting as many customers as they could. Banglalink had the second largest

SME services among the telecommunication company while GrameenPhone was the first. The

trade marketing sector wasnt very big either and included services like Mobile top-ups and E-

bills. They were mainly focused on the new generation services like doing tickets over the

phones-payment etc. The concerned official said that Banglalink is still developing new ways in

improving these services and they are still a long way behind the competitors in this sector.

After the rotation program, I entered into my last week of internship in Baglalink.The last week

was extremely hectic as everyone on my team decided to finish the sportive pending work

within this week. I really didnt have a break at all in my last week. At first, I was told to scan

the vendor enlistment forms. There were 99 new vendors from the Procurement Unit in the year

2014 and I was made to scan all of these. Each form consisted of 40 pages and I had a torrid

time scanning those files. Pages got stuck in between during scanning and thus I had scan a

single file multiple times to ensure that all the scanning was done properly. I was told to finish

the scanning within two days only and this immense workload resulted me in taking a lunch

break of 20 minutes each for these two days.However, I was able to finish the work within the

given time and thus my line manager was again happy with my work.Next, I had to send e-mail

to 38 power vendors regarding some documents. Thats where I made the biggest howler of my

internship period. As the files were confidential, I was told to Blind Carbon Copy (Bcc) the

senders. But instead of doing Bccing just entered all the e-mail addresses in the two area and

sent it to the vendors.Now, as a result of my mistake, all the vendors will be able to see whom I

mailed to and the reply mail too will be generated to everyone. My line manager was terribly

disappointed with me and was so upset that he didnt even talk to me that day. I really felt

ashamed of myself and though I let my line managers trust down. The damage control was

eventually done, and Nazir bhaiya, my supervisor instantly sent a new mail with the Bcc and

asked the vendors to reply to this mail instead. I was relieved when I saw all the vendors

replying to the second mail instead of the first mail. This work eventually turned out to be my

last work for my team and on Sunday the 14th

Decemeber, I was formally given a farewell by

my team through a lunch treat.

On my last day, I had to complete a few other exit formalities and I was done with all those by

lunch. I felt really bad leaving the team that I worked with for the last three months. Though

there were rough times, I enjoyed working there and it was a really good learning experience for

media learned a lot about MS-Excel and my communication skill have substantially improved

throughout the last three months. My team, on the final day appreciated me for all the work that

I did and said that I was the best intern they had ever. I felt really happy and was totally

overwhelmed by those pampering words. I left the office after lunch and felt quite emty.It felt

as if was leaving my soul behind. I really liked working here and I will definitely miss the

organization.

Findings and Recommendations

Decision making is centralized: For Foreign Procurement every time it needs to take approval

from head of department which is sometimes time consuming. If head of authority sends an

authorized signatory to Banglalink to deal with foreign procurement, would make the process

faster.

Availability of more file cabinets: Due to shortages of file cabinets, sometimes it was very

difficult to file up the POs (Purchase Orders) and trace them back in organized manner.

Introducing more space or shelves can reduce the time taken to find the single PO among the

stacks of files.

Manual signing process: The whole process of raising PR (Purchase Reacquisitions) till PO

deliver to the vendor is very time consuming as it needs to go through a long hierarchy of

signing process. By introducing ORACLE Finance PR Module the whole process of signing

can be completed efficiently.

For instance, each task would be completed much faster if user department sends the PR using

the automation process and forwards to procurement. Likewise procurement, after issuance of

PO would send that to respective departments through a centralize system (Accounts, Budget,

Head of user department and CFO) for their approval. Each department will have access to this

centralize system and thus get the notification of receiving PO. After getting approval from

concerned signatory, the PO will be forwarded to the next approval level automatically. This

will speed up the whole process of PO delivery using less manpower. I believe in-house

software developer from IT department would able to develop the system.

Lack of Manpower: Procurement team needs to hire more people if automation is not

implemented in order to meet up huge workload.

Expectation V/S Reality

At the beginning of my internship program, I thought that I had to sit in a cubicle all day and

had to work and work only without any fun times whatsoever. My expectation dealt a big blow

at the very first day of my office. It was an open office concept with cubicles designed in such a

way whereby the privacy was well maintained as well the as the closeness between the

colleagues are taken care of. I had ample free time as well, after lunch, we usually headed out to

have desserts and tea and thus my reality was totally different from my expectation of a very

official environment.

Another expectation that I had as an intern was that I will only be doing clerical works like

photocopying, scanning and filing. Though my work had considerable amount of these works, I

felt that my voice was heard and people took me more seriously than I thought they would. My

work on the vendor meeting was very much appreciated by all and they even gave me a formal

acknowledgement at the beginning of each meeting.

I never thought that during my internship tenure, I will be able to interact with any of the C

level executives. But not only I saw them, I got multiple opportunities to talk to them and

during the end I got to attend the farewell of our CEO too.

Finally, I never thought I will miss the office after the internship except for the free food but

now that it is over, I know that the organizational culture and the colleagues are the people I

will be missing the most.

Redefining the career plan

Before getting into Banglalink I was very relaxed with my career and to be honest I was not that

serious about it. Now that I was exposed at a competitive environment I realized that if I dont

work on my skills and take challenges I will fall behind. Now a days I try to work on my weak

points and work out of my comfort zone so that I can turn into versatile personality.

Redoing the Internship

If I had to redo this internship, I would try to know more about this organization. I would also

try to overcome the mistakes I made while working with my team members. My first priority

this time would have been on verbal communication that is because my supervisor told me that

I talk very less with my colleges and this is a big drawback about me. He said that in corporate

world you have to be very noticeable and for that you have to talk a lot. Carrying an intelligent

conversation in your work place is very important.

Conclusion

Telecom industry in Bangladesh is now working on to be differentiated among users mind.

They introduced a new culture to be followed by the younger citizens of our country. Its called

mobile mania. The importance and necessity of this commodity has vast spread into the

majority of the population.

Regarding my days spent at Banglalink, I gathered knowledge that is going to help me in

building my career in future. Workings in the procurement department of Banglalink, has

enriched my knowledge about different terms and instruments that are essential for local and

foreign procurement. Observing the processes through which the procurement department runs,

I have suggested some alternative ways in my report that needs to be observed by the

experienced eye and can be implement in the existing process or by expanding the current

process into new one.

Nowadays, worldwide companies are successfully realizing benefits from their procurement

initiatives and are viewing procurement as an integral part of their overall corporate strategy.

They no longer perceive procurement as a cost center, but rather as a strategic lever for

improving profits or funding new initiatives. Efficient and effective procurement translates any

investment into substantial profit.

Appendix

Journal-1(21.09.2014)

Tasks Performed This Week

This week was the first week of my 12 weeks of internship.On 15th

September,all the new

interns including me attended orientation program organized to complete the joining process

into Banglalink.It was a day full of formalities and getting introduced to the corporate world.

During the program, the human resource team briefed us on Banglalink organization as a whole

and the internship work schedule.

I was assigned to the procurement sub-unit of Banglalinks supply chain unit, under finance

department. My line manager was procurement units General Manager, Mr. Saud Al-Faisal. At

the first day of joining, i.e on the 16th

September, he introduced me to all the Banglalink staffs

who were working in the supply chain department. I met with the full procurement team,

specially the direct procurement team with whom I will work the most over the next 3 months.

Learning and Achievements

As this was the first week, I didnt have much of actual work but rather I got introduced to the

whole system of supply chain if Banglalink.The supply chain department of Banglalink is

divided into five primary sub-units; Contract Management, Strategy & Operations, Warehouse,

Procurement and Logistics.The Procurement unit which is my designated unit is further

segmented into two parts: Direct Procurement and Indirect Procurement. Direct Procurement is

associated with the purchase of network towers mainly whereas the indirect unit is concerned

with billboards, catering services etc.

The Direct Procurement unit is comprised of 6 employees with one reporting manager and the

Indirect Procurement is comprised of 7 employees with one reporting manager. The main task

of both the units is to purchase the equipment necessary for the organization. To do this, the

department that is in need of the equipment first send a request to the procurement unit in the

form of the purchase request (PR) or request for proposal (RFP).

The procurement unit then sends the RFP to suppliers through e-mail and asks for quotations.

After that, they make a comparative statement based on the quotation and technical feedback.

After the quotation process is done, negotiation with the suppliers begins and after that

evaluation of the financial statements is done based on the negotiation.

The final decision is made on the basis of technical and financial corporation from the

comparative statement. The purchase request is approved through a flow named Q-Flow by

sending Bill of Order (BOQ) and Scope of Work (SOW).

Throughout the week, I was told to get familiar with the above process and I was shown a demo

of how things are actually purchased in Banglalink.

Observations/ Reflections

As it was my first week, I tried to talk less and observe more so that I soak into their system in a

good way. As I didnt have a computer and specific desk assigned just yet, I got to roam around

and observe the employees of the procurement team and the organization as a whole.

Throughout the week, I observed that Banglalinks corporate culture looks to make sure every

employee knows who they are working with and know them on a first name basis. They try to

make interactions between fellow employees and superiors less formal and more comfortable

by addressing them as Bhaiya and Apu, instead of Sir and Madame.

Also, both the horizontal flow of information, across different functional units, and vertical flow

of information, across different management tiers, is made less rigid since almost all employees

are familiar with both their colleagues and superiors. Furthermore, although every employee has

a cubicle assigned to them, top management, such as unit heads, is located near their immediate

sub-ordinates. They make routine rounds across their floors and check up on their employees.

Notable Incidents

There were quite few noticeable incidents throughout the week. A total of 3 interns were

assigned to supply chain unit this time and at the very first day all the interns assigned to the

supply chain were given the chance to meet and ask questions with all the heads of the units of

supply chain. Through this process, we got a more clear idea of how the supply chain works

inside Bangla link.

Another positive thing was that the Supply Chain Deputy Director, Mr. A Saboor, who oversees

the whole of supply chain operations and reports directly to the CFO, Ahmad Y. Haleem, was

also present to greet the interns and talk with us. We also had the opportunity to have lunch with

him and the employees of supply chain unit. This really motivated us and gave us a warm

welcome into the unit.

Finally, the week ended a bit early as nationwide strikes had been called by a political party on

Thursday and thus all the interns were advised not to come on the day of hartal.

Journal-2(28.09.2014)

Tasks Performed This Week

The week started off on Monday, instead of usual Sunday as there was a nationwide strike on

that day. In the first day of the week, I was assigned my desk along with a desktop in which I

will be working in the next three months. I was also given a Banglalink e-mail address which I

will use for sending and receiving mails during my internship period. Throughout the week, I

visited the whole unit of supply chain again just so that I get more familiar with the people in

the department. The finance department consisted of a total of 143 employees and was one of

the largest and important departments of the company. The software used by Banglalink was

Oracle, and this was used to carry on all the activities regarding fianance.Though the interns

werent allowed to use Oracle independtly,I got familiar with the software with the help of a

bhaiya of the direct procurement team, who was really friendly and wanted me to learn the use

of Oracle. He promised me to give periodical training of the software so that by the time my

internship is over; I have enough information and knowledge about the software.

Throughout the week, I also made periodical follow up with the vendors of Banglalink. The

vendors are actually the suppliers who are given contracts of certain areas and sites. They also

bid for the work when a circular of new task is given. The vendors are usually selected on the

basis of lowest bid of the work that needs to be done. As I was working with the technical

procurement team this week, I got familiar with few of the vendors who are responsible for

building networking towers both in free land and on roof tops.

Learning and Achievements

The finance department consists of two floors inside the head office. As mentioned earlier, this

was one of the biggest departments of the organization. The technical team of the procurement

unit plays one of the most crucial roles to expand the network capacity. This team primarily

works for the purchase of goods concerning civil construction such as equipments, towers,

generators, BTS base stations and others. Technical team mainly receives request from network

deployment for their huge procurement regarding the network expansion.

The technical team mainly receives request from four departments: Rollout, Operations and

Management, Access Network, Core Network.

I also learned about the organogram of the procurement unit. There were a total of 17 levels in

the procurement unit and a fresh graduate has to start their career from level 17.It usually takes

2-3 years for a level promotion and the scope of double promotion is also there based on the

performance.

All the quotations and new task offer is communicated through e-mail with the vendors and the

interested parties then submit a bid and then the final decision regarding the task is made on the

basis of the bid along with other technical issues.

Observations/ Reflections

Throughout the week, I didnt observe much new things. All the people in my team were very

friendly and they actually wanted me to learn stuffs during my internship tenure. Free teas and

coffees were available but one had to ask the clerical staffs to get the tea made. There was a

separate prayer room in which everyone can go and pray. A few people even have their lunch

there, mainly because of the time constraint and hectic work schedule.

Another important observation was the concept of multitasking. I observed that the technical

team had fewer people than they should have and thus one employee was actually responsible

for more than one team which made the task a lot hectic. Thus the employees had very little free

time and usually had to do over-time to keep up with the schedule.

Notable Incidents

On Monday, Banglalink officially celebrated their achievement of 30 million subscribers with

the internal employees. A large cake was brought to every department and the respective floor

head was given the responsibility to distribute the cake throughout the floor.Also,Bangladeshs

most celebrated cricketer Shakib Al Hasan visited each and every floor on Monday to

celebrate the milestone of reaching 30 million subscribers. We also got to take pictures with

him.

Journal-3(05.10.2014)

Tasks Performed This Week

This was the third week of my internship. In the past two weeks, I have got familiar with the

technical terms regarding procurement and this week I finally started working. During the first

two days of the week, I was sorting out the long list of files there were pending for quite some

time. I was told to rearrange the stacks of files in a chronological order and ask questions in

case of queries. During sorting, I learned how Purchase Order (PO) is issued through Oracle and

I even got to issue one demo PO in oracle. In the latter part of the week, I was given the

responsibility of updating their vendor database. There were more than 287 vendors for the

technical department of Bangla link and I was told to update the changes in phone numbers and

e-mail addresses of all the vendors. I was given no time limit which meant I could arrange my

timings by myself and was given the full access in the database.

Learning and Achievements

This week was all about learning more of the organizational culture and getting soaked in to

tithe employees in my team were very friendly and I was beginning to feel better inside the

organization.Nazir Bhaiya,who was a part of the technical procurement team was very keen to

teach me all the technical staffs regarding the technical procurement. This week he gave me a

small briefing of the four departments that the technical procurement team works with.

1)Rollout: Rollout sent Purchase Request to Technical Procurement mentioning the detailed

specifications or detailed scope of work (SOW) required for the particular site, work

completion time, proposed supplier, site location where works needed to be done etc. Upon

receiving the Purchase Request, the assigned Technical procurement team request to issue

Purchase Order.

2) Operation and maintenance (O & M): After the completion of the rollout process by the

different vendors, it is needed to maintain those BTS or MSC site to run frequently. If any kind

of restructure or equipment damages occurs then the user department sends the PR to the

Procurement. After that procurement technical team assign the vendor to solve the problem. The

following Purchase Order is issued by the O & M technical team:

Maintenance service contract (Generator, AC)

Various Materials for support operation (Cable, Connector and tools

3)Access Network: Access Network maintains network performance in terms of regulating

radio frequency, controls transmission protocol; ensure sound network quality by managing

base substation. To carry out those responsibilities they need equipments and thus place

purchase request to the procurement department.

4) Core Network: Core network teams responsibility is to maintain core network operation

through Main Switch Center (MSC), Value Added Service (VAS) and Intelligent Network (IN)

through customized software designed for the specified purpose and thus to provide those

facilities they need to procure equipments related to this responsibility.

Observations/ Reflections

This week, I didnt observe new things as I was more busy in the work that was assigned to

me.But one thing that caught my eye was that Bangla link had considerable paper work

whereas I thought that they were a paperless organization. I later learned that Bangla link

has already taken steps to turn into a paperless company and has already achieved certain

percentages of their target.

Notable Incidents

As the month was coming to an end, I saw a lot of auditors in the meeting room beside my

desk this week. Most of the auditors were Indian who seemed very serious about their work.

I was later told that auditors visit the company in the last week of every month to get the

latest updates about the organization. Another thing was that this was the last week before

the eid holiday so everyone seemed to be in a festive mood for the last two work days.

Everything seemed relaxed and happy during the last two days, especially Thursday.

Journal-4(12.10.2014)

Tasks Performed This Week

On my fourth week, I was working with the non-technical sub-unit of the procurement unit. As

I was a Procurement intern, I have to work with both the technical and non-technical team. In

the first two weeks, I got familiar with the technical unit and now it was time to know more

about the non-technical unit. The non-technical unit consisted of 7 employees who were

assigned into three different groups. I worked with all three of the teams this week. I was

basically told to get rid of the paper works that has piled up for quite some time now.So,I had to

first enter the Purchase Order(PO) number and details in an excel sheet before filing up the

paper works and put them in a separate cabinet. This work was quite hectic as there were more

than 200 Purchase Orders that needed to be registered in a very short period of time. With the

Purchase Order number entries, they wouldnt have been able to release the orders to the

respective number.So, I was told to do it slowly, but correctly so that the margin of error is low.

Apart from the data entry and filing I also learned how to scan papers in a photo copier and also

registered my name in the photo-copier address book. I also called 10 vendors to ask them to

give back a certain file which they havent been giving in a long time. I was given the full

authority while calling and I also reserved the rights to cancel their payments if the miss behave

or disapproves to give that file.

Learning and Achievements

As this was the first time I was working with the non-technical team, I learned what the non-

technical team of procurement actually does. They only deal with the non-technical purchases

that are required by various functional units of the organization.Purchase Requests in the non-

technical part are raised by the following units:

Marketing

Marketing department mainly deals with Public Relation (PR) & Marketing Research.

Furthermore they raise PR for contracts of Bill Boards, T.V. and Radio Advertisements

including the remuneration of models.

Sales

Sales department arranges meetings with the dealers and suppliers to fix contracts in

corporate and regional areas. The Expenditure of arranging the venues and refreshments are

send to non-technical for PO issuance.

Admin

If any branch of Banglalink is opened, its decoration, furniture, generator, UPS etc. are

purchased through procurement non-technical. Moreover, legal related activities include

defending and attempting for law suits, payment of lawyers are approved by this department.

Supply of lunch for the employees in cafeteria and other entertainments for any occasion,

Contract agreement for hiring transport, fuels etc. are approved through Procurement Non-

Technical.

IT

All IT equipment like Computers (P.C or Lap Top), Printer, Toner, Scanner etc. and all

Electrical works, LAN works are purchased through procurement non-technical.

Customer Care Department (CCD)

All sorts of logistic supply for CCD, expenditure for conducting training and workshops

including participants food and training materials are raised by CCD to procurement non-

technical.

Human Resources

In providing service training to the officers and employees of Banglalink for skill

development is raised by HR department to procurement non-technical.

Observations/ Reflections

As I was working in the same unit for three works now, I didnt observe much of new things

this week. The non-technical team was as well behaved as the technical team and I had a fun

time working with the team.

Notable Incidents

A lot of foreign vendors visited Banglalink this week, mainly because of a big deal regarding

the installments of BTS towers in a few remote loacations.The non-technical team also had two

meetings with an Egyptian Vendor which I got to attend.

Journal-5(19.10.2014)

Tasks Performed This Week

In my fifth week, I was back to working with the technical team again. The tasks were quite

interesting and time consuming. At the beginning part of the week, I was given a list of more

than 1000 portfolios of the work done by the technical team. I was told to group them according

to some of the headings like field work, soil testing, generator installation etc. was told to use

basic filtering and conditional formatting tools in MS-Excel. Though I knew how to use

filtering, I wasnt really aware of the conditional formatting tool.So, I asked Nazi Bhaiya, who

is the senior executive of the technical procurement team to teach me how to use the tool. He

gleefully agreed and taught me the full usage of the tool in a very short time. I learned that

through conditional formatting, we can easily categorize our entries and highlight them

according to our needs. I was also taught how to find out duplicates in a large file without the

need of going through each and every entry. After that basic training, I got back to working with

my work of categorizing the entries into groups. I was given two weeks to finish the task. The

task was quite interesting and fun. I first removed all the duplicate values in the entries before

getting into the main work. After the removal of duplicate values, there were 890 portfolios

which I needed to categorize. I took me four days to finish it and I was done well ahead of my

deadline of 2 weeks.Nazir Bhaiya was very happy with my work and appreciated me for this.

Learning and Achievement

Apart from learning how to use MS-Excel better and more efficiently, this week I also learned

about the foreign procurement team of Banglalink. The foreign procurement process was a bit

different from the usual local procurement and usually dealt with large money deals.

Banglalink procures from different international suppliers. Mainly they have four

Frame Agreement Suppliers (FAS) from whom they procure major parts for

expansion of network and thus come up with excellent service quality.

The Four suppliers are: 1) Huawei 2) Nokia Siemens Network3) Somitomo Corporation

4) Ericsson

In foreign procurement, there is very little scope of negotiating with Frame

agreement suppliers than other international suppliers like Rosenberger, Drake,

etc.

Before procuring from FAS, Banglalink needs to make an Indent for agreement

purpose.

Whether the agreement is onshore or offshore based should be clearly mentioned

on the indent. Indent is the agreement paper of procuring from frame agreement

suppliers. After preparing the indent, both parties (Buyer and Supplier) have to

sign on this agreement as it is a legal obligation for both parties. Then the indent is

send to Orascom Telecom Holdings (OTH) for approval through the software Q-

flow.

After the approval from OTH, PO is delivered to suppliers and suppliers then send a

Proforma Invoice (PI) to buyer (Procurement Department) for LC opening process. LC

opening is a major task for procuring internationally. Treasury and Logistics Department

facilitate this procurement process to purchase from international suppliers.

Observations/ Reflections

The cards punch in and punch out system was very strictly maintained inside the

organization even with the interns. A total of 9 office hours had to maintained and no

matter where we went, we were told to punch in and punch out our ID-card.The human

resource team of the unit were the most informal unit of the organization as they didnt

have a formal dress code unlike other units. All the employees here seemed qualified and

had the full knowledge of what they were doing.

Notable Incidents

Banglalink recently decided that from now on the intern salaries will be deposited in the

bank accounts. Thus all the interns were told to bring a photo ID, two passport size photos,

and a nominee photo next week as Brac Bank will be coming in the office next week to help

us open a new account. Another incident was that earlier this week, I got a call from Mr.

Kaiser Chowdhury, Senior Manager of the organization development of Human Resource

Management. He just called to follow up on how my life as an intern was going and told to

report any problems regarding the internship directly to him.

Journal-6(26.10.2014)

Tasks Performed This Week

This was the sixth week of my internship. By now, I have already settled well and was enjoying

the atmosphere around the organization. I have managed to make good rapport with my

colleagues and things were going along pretty well. This week I learned the use of VLookup

tool in MS-Excel and also did some Purchase Order (PO) verification. I was again given a huge

list of work details at the beginning of the week and was told to match the common details

between two excel sheets. Though the task seemed very difficult and time consuming for a

while, through the use of Vlook up, things turned out to be pretty easy. I just had to match the

common files and enter the Vlook up formula to get my desired result. But, Vlook up wasnt

full proof. There were some entries for which Vlookup couldnt find the exact match and thus I

had to go through those entries individually to find the matched value. After the work of

matching through Vlook up was done, I was given another pile of Purchase Order (PO) and was

told to verify the amount in the Purchase Order (PO) by using MS-Excel. To do this, I had to

develop a formula in excel first so that as soon as I enter the values, I get the correct amount.

The formula generating didnt take much time and I finished the work assigned to me well

ahead of my deadline. My supervisor was very pleased with me and took me to a lunch for a

free treat on Thursday.

Learning and Achievement

Apart from the work done this week, I also learned how exactly a Purchase Order (PO) is

issued. Generally the procurement process deals with the receipt of approved purchase request

and ends with the delivery of goods and services by issuing PO (Purchasing Order). Technical

team of procurement issue PO against PR that raise for technical purpose. The issuers of POs

are the buyers of goods and services

After the PO is created by buyer it is reviewed by the supervisor and forwarded to accounts and

budget respectively for approval. After the approval from budget the PO is returned to

procurement for next level of approvals based on PO approval hierarchy. At any stage if PO

is rejected it gets back to buyer for changes or additional information or clarification.

Following is the step-down of PO issuance process

1. Buyer creates PO and sends to supervisor.

2. Supervisor verifies and sends PO to Accounts and Budget for approval.

3. After Budget, approval from HOD of Procurement and User department is required.

4. Lastly, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) provides approval on PO

5. When PO is approved it is handed over to the supplier for delivery of items.

6. After goods are delivered supplier gets signature on delivery chalan from receiver and

submits invoice to procurement along with copy of delivery chalan and PO.

7. Requesting department sends GRS (Goods Received Sheet) to procurement to confirm

receiving of goods.

8. Procurement registers receiving of Goods in Oracle and forwards invoice to accounts

payable.

9. Accounts payable arrange payment to supplier as per payment terms in the PO. For advance

payment procurement mentions advance payment terms in PO a copy of PO is handed over to

accounts payable after approval and advance is made as per terms of PO.

Observations/ Reflections

The human resource (HR) was very closely associated with the non-technical team and some of

the senior HR managers makes regular visit to the team to forward their recquests.The contract

and management part of Supply Chain was the latest edition in the Banglalink organization and

they had the smallest team comprising of just 3 full-time employees.

Notable Incidents

This week,Banglalinks full time CFO Mr. Ahmed.Y.Halim came back from his month long

holiday and was greeted gleefully back by all the finance employees. I had the chance to

personally talk to him when he visited my desk and we had a general conversation and he also

took a brief and informal interview of me.

Journal-7(02.11.2014)

Tasks Performed This Week

This week was quite hectic in terms of work. There were a lot of important and new things done

throughout the week.Bangalalink was developing a new model for their power vendors. Power

vendors are those who work with Bangalalink and take contracts from them for building a

network tower from scratch. The process is quite a lengthy one and the procedure of penalty and

reward were quite complicated and varied from vendors to vendors. This created a lot of

confusion and discrimination. So, to get rid of the unnecessary hassle, Banglalink decided to

implement a new system where by all the rewards and penalty will be same and equal for all the

power vendors. There were a total of 38 vendors who does the power works with Banglalink.

And as the company was about to implement a new model, a clarification meeting needed to be

called so that all the vendors are clear of the new model and were willing to work for building

the network towers. As the number of vendors was quite high and there were shortages of large

rooms, the meeting had to be split into two days and 19 vendors will attend the meeting in one

day. As the meeting was scheduled to happen in only 1 day notice, it was difficult to convince

many vendors to come on time as there were many vendors who were located outside Dhaka. I

was given the responsibility of calling all the vendors and asking them to attend the meeting. I

was also given the authority to say that Banglalink will no longer work with the vendors who

wouldnt attend the meeting on the scheduled day.So, on Sunday, the day before the meeting, I

called 19 vendors and asked them to come to the meeting. Though a few owners were hesitant

to attend, I convinced them to come and on the day of the meeting, all 19 vendors attended it

and my supervisors were extremely pleased with me.So, as a token of appreciation, I was given

the responsibility of arranging the next meeting which was scheduled on thurdsay.I booked the

room, checked with the securities, created the attendance sheet and took the vendors to the

meeting room on the next meeting. As a reward, I was given credit for arranging the gathering

on a speech given at the beginning of the meeting by the Technical Procurement General

Manager, Mr. Saud Al Faisal

Learning and Achievement

This week, I was mostly busy with the arrangements of meeting, so I didnt get much of an

opportunity to learn new stuufs.But I learned a lot in between arranging and attending the

meeting. It was the first time that I was given such important responsibility and I was

determined not to let my line manager down. So, I was very careful while talking to the vendors

and I found out that not all the vendors are well behaved and many of them werent really

happy about the new model that was about to be implemented. This was also the first time that

vendors were calling to me asking for help regarding some issues in the new model. I also

learned how to book a meeting room when needed. The procedure wasnt really hard, I just had

to call Mr. Shahrear, who was the manager of administration and told him to book a room for

the procurement unit on a given day. He checked and available rooms and gave me a return call

specifying the rooms available. After that, I had the right to choose any of the rooms provided it

met my requirements of number of people and computers. After that, I had to send a formal

mail indicating the room number and time of the meeting and the meeting room was officially

booked in the name of the procurement unit.

During this week, I also attended meetings for the first time. I was given official invitation of

the meeting through mail which required me to give my RSVP. Through attending the meeting,

I got to learn many meeting manners and small details regarding the meeting. The meeting

wasnt as formal as I expected it to be and it wasnt that much exhaustive either. The necessary

persons explained the new model with the help of PowerPoint slides and the vendors asked

questions in case of queries. It was quite that simple. I am sure that these small meeting

manners will help me learn more about the organization.

Observations/ Reflections

Banglalink had considerable amount of foreign vendors in their power work. There were 4

foreign vendors who attended the meeting regarding the new power model. Two of them

were Egyptian whereas the other 2 were from China. They had a bit of a difficult time in

understanding every bits and details of the meeting as many vendors were asking

questions in Bengali and the answers too were given in Bengali. Another thing that I

observed that the meeting time was strictly followed and all the concerned persons were

never late for meetings. Lastly, I found out that even after the booking of a meeting room,

the concerned authority reserved the rights of cancelling the booking if there is a last

moment reservations but the top level officials of Banglalink.

Notable Incidents

I was quite appreciated about my work today. During the beginning speech of the second

meeting, my name was specifically mentioned and I was thanked for arranging the

meeting successfully in such a short notice. Also, this week the Deputy Head of Supply

Chain, Mr A.Saboor visited my desk to have a casual chat with me.He appreciated my

work and said he was very happy about it.He also asked me to continue giving the effort

that I was giving and wished me all the best.

Journal-8(09.11.2014)

Tasks Performed This Week

This week was mostly about the follow ups of some previously pending work. In my third

week, I was told to update the vendor database by calling the vendors and asking for their new

phone numbers. In case the phone number was missing, I was told to email the vendors and get

the updated contact details. The idea was to get an updated database as many vendors were

complaining that they dont get the email in time and many others also complained that they do

not get any phone calls from the concerned authority inside the organization. I have been

working on the updates in between other works all these week and this week I submitted the

updated file to my line manager. The updating part was never an easy one. Vendors whose

email was missing were very reluctant to give their email addresses so that they can keep on

stalling the work details. And many others were too rude to talk and said that its none of their

responsibility to send the updated email address. But even worse was in case of missing phone

numbers. Even after continual email, very few people actually replied with their updated details

and I had to run around the technical and administration department collecting numbers of as

many vendors I cant the middle of the week, I submitted my work. Out of 287 vendors, I

managed to update the details of 230 vendors, but the details of the remaining 57 vendors

couldnt be updated. I highlighted the missing part of those 57 vendors and asked my line

manager to take a sterner step so that they update the necessary details. Apart from this work, I

was assigned another work related to vendors this week. All the vendors of Banglalink were

required to sign an anti-corruption and bribery disclosure form which stated the vendors will

abide by the government and company rules and regualtions.Though all the vendors were

required to sign the document and submit the hard copy, 98 vendors didnt yet sign the

document and passed the hard copy to the procurement unit. So I was told to call the vendors

and ask them to give the document instantly. I was given 2 weeks before updating my line

manager with the latest information.

Learning and Achievement

This week, I learned the Purchase request (PR) approval process. When any department feels

the need for standard goods or services, for example, purchasing generators, fixing up lights,

Air conditioners, Servicing of PCs, organizing training or workshop, issuing of employee ID

Cards, maintenance of security systems etc., they raise Purchase Order (PR) or send Request for

Proposal (RFP) to vendors.

The process involves the following RFP activities:

1. User department source vendor for given Scope of Work (SOW).

2. Floating of RFP to potential vendors through official email. The email contains

a. Scope of Work with detail Bill of Quantity (BOQ).

b. The last date and time of submitting the RFP.

c. Vendors submit technical offer and financial offer separately in two sealed envelope or by

soft copy only to procurement department.

d. Request of acknowledgement of RFP along with proper official signature from vendor is

required.

e. In case if any vendor fails to meet the deadline of RFP submission, then the vendor

company needs to take approval from HOD (Head Of the Department) of procurement.

3. After receiving the offers (Technical and Financial) from vendors, procurement department

forward the technical offer to the requester or user department for further evaluation.

4. Whereas the financial offer from the vendor, remains with procurement and are opened in

presence of at least two members of procurement, to maintain transparency.

5. Financial offer should have following information (These information should be

communicated with the vendor before RFP float):

a. Clear Price information including VAT/TAX as per Govt. Rule

b. Delivery / work completion time

c. Validity of offer

d. Warranty terms (if applicable)

e. Payment term

6. After technical evaluation from user department, a negotiation meeting is called from

procurement either by mail or by making call. If there are more than three approved vendors,

the selection committee will choose three vendors with lowest asking price. It is mandatory that

at least two members of procurement to be present in all negotiation meeting.

7. On the basis of negotiation, a Comparative Statement (CS) is prepared mentioning the final

price of goods or services agreed upon by the company along with the approval of

corresponding line manager and HOD of procurement. CS also contains proper User evaluation

of technical documents.

Observations/ Reflections

The word transfer is pretty common inside the organization. The employees regularly shift

from one department to another. It is a part of the rotation process and is expected to improve

the integrity of the individual. As an intern, I too have to go under a rotation program of 2-3

weeks and the details of it are supposed to announce sometime next week.

Notable Incidents

All the employees in the procurement unit (both technical and non-technical) went to an Indian

restaurant called Angar this Tuesday to have lunch. As a part of the procurement team, I was

invited there as well. All the payment was made by Mr. Sayeed Ahmed, the General Manager of

the Procurement unit. The reason behind this outing was to get a bit of relaxation from all the

hard work and hectic work schedule. The unit was very busy for the past two weeks regarding

the new power model and other issuance of Purchase Orders (PO).Thus, the lunch was a part of

appreciation of all the hard work.

Journal-9(16.11.2014)

Tasks Performed This Week

This week, I continued doing last weeks work. I called all the 98 vendors who didnt sign the

anti-corruption and bribery disclosure form and asked them to submit the form at the earliest

possible time. Though all the vendors were in some kind of contract with Banglalink,

surprisingly a few of the vendors disagreed to sign the form saying it was against their company

rules. I forwarded the name of those vendors to Mr. Nazirul Islam Khan, the senior executive of

the Procurement unit and asked him to take necessary actions about it.Around 50 vendors

signed the document and sent it to the Dispatch Centre at Bangla links head office. I went and

collected the forms individually for a few vendors. At the end of each day this week, I put the

newly collected forms of the day in a single file and kept an updated record of it in an MS-Excel

file. By the end of the week, I had a total of 62 contracts out of the 98 contracts that I was told

to collect. Apart from collecting those anti-corruption form, I had to arrange a meeting again

and this time the subject of the meeting was Internet Bandwidth. It was actually a pre bid

meeting where the suppliers of the bandwidth will ask questions about their queries related to

the proposed new system of internet supplier package. There were 6 vendors who were asked to

attend the meeting and all 6 of them attended the meeting on Thursday. I attended the meeting

as well and learned a few more meeting manners along with some technical details regarding

the internet packages.

Learning and Achievement

As I called many vendors this week, I learned where most of the vendors where located and

how long they have been working with Banglalink.Banglalink doesnt have a general contract

with any of their vendors and all the contracts are actually made on task basis.Banglalink keeps

a database of every vendors they worked with in the past 1 year and every time a new tender

needs to be circulated, they send the mail to the every vendor who have worked with them in

the respective field in the last 1 year. Most of the vendors did multiple tasks with them and they

are grouped accordingly. Choosing a particular vendor is made through the tender bidding and

few companies with the lowest bids and good technical details get into the next part which is

further negotiation. The final vendor for a particular project is selected on both the technical and

financial details. Also this week I have learned about the new internet bandwidth package that

Bangla link was offering to its vendors. There were 6 vendors who were interested in working

with Bangla link regarding the internet supply. I learned a few technical details, like Bangla link

uses Cisco system for their internet and so on. I also learned that the new business model has a

major loophole and it in turn convers the revenue of the vendors to negative in some cases. The

issue was dealt swiftly and the business team was already working to cover up the loop hole.

Observations/ Reflections

This week was mostly about learning the meeting manners. I learned that the technical team

leaves the matter of new business plan regarding the internet packages to the procurement unit

who first develops the model and then puts it in to the table of a meeting.Also, I saw that during

the meeting, even if there was a disagreement between the technical and procurement team,

they keep within themselves and doesnt let the vendors get any idea of the disagreement. The

vendors who attended the meeting this week were pretty well behaved and most of them greeted

me very cordially and seemed to have the perfect knowledge about what they were doing.

Notable Incidents

This week on Wednesday while I was working with the updates of the vendor information,

suddenly Mr. Ahemd Saboor, the Deputy Director of the Supply Chain came to my desk and

asked me to follow him. I was a bit worried at first as I wasnt sure what I was called for. When

I went to this desk, he gifted me a special diary of Bangla link and said it was a token of

appreciation for all the hard and good work I have done so farcie was very happy and thanked

him for the gift. After that, we had a small informal chat about some personal stuff.

Journal-10(23.11.2014)

This was my 10th

week of internship in Banglalink. This week was totally different from other

weeks as I had my rotation program scheduled. Rotation program is where all the interns of

Banglalink get transferred to other units to get a birds eye view of the entire organization. This

week, we were transferred to the CCD department which was the Customer Care Department.

At the beginning of the week, we were greeted by Ms. Shamrita Anwar, who was the head of

the Training and Development Unit of Customer Care Department (CCD) .She at first, gave us

a schedule of the weeklong rotation program in her department. The 24 interns were divided

into 4 groups of 6 people each and they will be roaming around together in all the CCD units to

get a better idea of how things inside the department works. I was in group 2 and out of 6 group

members, 3 people including me were from North South University where the others were from

Brac University. On our first day, we were told to go Medona Tower which was located in

Mohakhali.Medona Tower is the home of the 2nd

largest branch of Banglalink.Before going to

Medona Tower; we were given the details of the contact person with whom we will be

communicating throughout the day. The name of the contact person was Mr. Mobydur Rahman

and he was the head of the ICON department of Banglalink.As soon as we reached there, we

were greeted gleefully by Mr. Mobydur Rahman and then after a brief introduction from both

the sides, he left was with Ms. Susan, who guided us throughout the day. She was very friendly

and knowledgeable. At first, she went through all the packages that were offered to the ICON

members. ICON members are the most premium customers of Banglalink and they get many

special privileges as a member of ICON. For a person to be an ICON member, he needs to buy

a special package from Banglalink worth a minimum of Tk. 2500 and a person must have a

safety deposit of to 2500 minimum. All the Sims of ICON was postpaid and the get many

special discounts and free offers from many outlets all over the country. For each ICON

member, there is a designated ICON Manager who takes care of all the problems of that ICON

member. ICON members were given special pampering according to the ICON team as they

were extremely special and are often the business tycoons of the country. During our visity, we

got to see how an ICON manager communicates with the ICON members over the phone. We

were also told that were significant field work involved in that sector as the ICON managers

needed to visit the ICON members from time to time. We also learned how the ICON members

can ask for their desired numbers and how the process of giving the desired numbers is started.

The unit wasnt very big and throughout the day, we got to see all the different parts of the unit.

At the end of the day, we were given an Icon pen as a gift from the ICON team. On our second

day, we visited the CRM(Credit Risk Management) sector of Banglalink.As was particularly

very interested in this visit as I never knew there was a CRM unit in a telecom company. In my

visit there, I learned that the CRM unit was divided into three parts:1)ERM(Enterprise Resource

Management) 2)NOERM and 3)SSU(Special Service Unit).Throughout our visity,we were

given briefings about how things inside CRM works.CRM team only works with the postpaid

customers of Banglalink and they try to minimize the bad debts as much as they can to do this,

several steps are taken and they informed us that the bad debt percentage amounts to 2-5 % of

the total receivables. At the beginning of the year, the higher authority puts a cap on how much

the bad debt can amount to and the team has to abide within the given limit. Throughout day,

we were given further briefings of how they work and by the end of the day; we had a good

knowledge of how CRM inside Banglalink works.

On our 3rd

day, we had to go the customer care line unit of CCD.This wing was mainly the call

center where customers call and ask for solutions to their proble.This session wasnt very

long.We sat beside a customer care agent and listened to live phone calls. We listened to how a

customer agent deals with customers via phone. We learned that a customer agent has to be in

duty for 9 hours a day and though out the day, they receive hundreds of phone calls. The

interesting part was that there was a mirror in front of every customer agent and we were told

that this mirror helps them to control their temper in case a customer misbehaved with

them.Fortunately,none such incident happen when I was there listening to the phone calls. This

session ended quite early and we were allowed to go home early.

Om our 4th

day, we had to go to the Gulshan 2 Sales center or more commonly known as the

Banglalink care center. This session was very short too and like the other day; we sat behind a

customer care representative and saw how they deal with live customer problems. The process

was very similar to the call center unit of Banglalink. During our visity, we got to learn how the

customer care representatives are evaluated. The day too ended a bit early and we were told to

leave at around 3.00 P.M. With this, we marked the end of the rotation program this week and

were told to wait for a mail regarding schedule of next weeks rotation program.

Journal-11(30.11.2014)

This was my 2nd

last week in Banglalink. And I had my second week of rotation program this

week.So, I wasnt working in my originally assigned department again this week. This weeks

rotation program was a bit different from last weeks. I had my rotation program in two

different departments this week: in the SME sales department and in the Trade Marketing unit

of Sales Department. I had no task to do this week apart from getting familiar with the two units

that I was assigned. In my first day, I had to travel to Medona Tower, another corporate office

of Banglalink for my rotation in the SME sales department. I was greeted there by Mr.

S.M.Shahin Dualiayman, who was the head of the SME sales department of Banglalink. After

the brief introduction of each