MBA Professional Report / Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / This project is planned to analyze the congruence between the theoretical aspect and legislative base of the Bulgarian Ministry of Defense procurement system and their implementation with the present practices. This will help the proper understanding of how the system works and if it could better serve the national security needs. The project analyzes existing acquisition practices and proposes recommendations for improving key acquisition processes and policies. In addition, the project presents analysis of the procurement system as organizational structure within the Bulgarian Ministry of Defense with its existing interconnections and activities. The recommendations for possible improvements consider the existing constraints and barriers that originate from acting legislation, organizational design, or applied practices. The project is intended to be prolonged and developed additionally by other Bulgarian students from the perspective of their respective organizations and experience. / Major, Bulgarian Air Force

Already the online community has witnessed the rise and decline of several technologies and business models inspired by the advent of the World Wide Web: E-mail, chat room, push technology, content distribution, dot-coms, business-to-consumer, business-to-business, wireless Web access, and business exchanges. E-procurement exchanges emerge in every industry: automobile, chemical, convenience store, food and beverage, forest products, house construction, retail merchandise, and travel businesses. Such exchanges are typically, though not necessarily, created by a buyer or by a group of buyers those are alliance in this action. Once in operation, each exchange functions as an electronic bulletin board to which each buyer posted its needs; each posting identifies an item and may stipulate a quantity, a price, a timetable, and a delivery address. Items also carry physical specifications. Similarly, would-be sellers posted items to be sold; of course, they may respond to buyer postings, and vice versa. In this study, the e-procurement advantaged suggested by Michael J. Cunningham to analyze that implement an e-procurement system. The analysis shows that reduce purchase cost, increase cash flow management have positive value on this e-procurement. A further analysis shows that increase stabilization of supply goods, increase quality standard depend on implement circumstances to adjust the purchase strategy.

Under the globalization tendency, the region of purchases no longer only limit to a place, but spreads the whole world, if the complex purchase flow can transform into the part of value chain, will effectively promote the enterprise competitive advantage. In the past enterprise interior invalid rate purchase, unnecessary flow and so on, was a bad sign of purchases processes. Supposing wants to solve the above problem effectively, we can¡¦t neglect the direction of e-procurement. However, only good e-procurement service quality is even more important to the users now. Therefore, this research is trying to explore the user¡¦s evaluation standard of e-procurement service quality. This research incorporating the former perspectives in information quality, system quality, and service quality, and comprehensively considering the role of an e-procurement system on service constructs, In addition, this research takes domestic company which was inducted the e-procurement system as a model to find out the important e-procurement service quality constructs that users pay attention to and influence their judgment to develop a questionnaire to evaluate the e-procurement system service quality. Finally, through the results of the questionnaire, we hope to provide some suggestions to the enterprises in the field or the ones that want to participate in to upgrade their e-procurement system service quality and gain profits. Besides, from the perspective of management, this research also hopes that through the questionnaire, the manager of the company which was inducted the e-procurement system can understand more about the standard the users use to evaluate e-procurement system service quality to help them efficiently make management strategies to reach their final goals.

Purpose - The purpose of this thesis is to identify factors that have an impact on supermarket inventory levels that supply a manufacturing line and investigate how the impact of these factors can be controlled. In order to fulfill the purpose it was broken down into two research questions.   What factors have an impact on supermarket inventory levels supplying a manufacturing line? 2.      How can the impact of these factors be controlled? Method - To answer the research questions a literature study and a case study were conducted. The empirical findings from the case study and the literature study were used to find the answer to the first research question. The identified factors in the first research question were then analysed with the theoretical framework in order to answer the second research question. Different techniques have been used in order to collect necessary data including documentation studies, interviews, observations and basic training in the case company’s procurement system (GILM).   Findings - Total safety lead time, firm time and shortage impact were discovered during the case study. These factors were not to found during the literature study because they were specific parameters that are predetermined in the case company’s procurement system. Internal material handling and supermarket order quantity were factors also found during the case study. The identified factors are divided after which tool or method that can be used to gain control over the factor. Four different tools have been identified as solutions to gain control over the internal material handling. The factors that only have one identified tool as a solution are either case specific or not attentive in the theoretical framework as the other tools.   Implications - The identified factors from the literature study are considered as common factors that can be applied for companies that have a supermarket inventory. If manufacturing companies are facing problems with their supermarket inventory levels they can increase control by investigating the tools and methods presented in this thesis. Contributions - The factors that were identified during the case study have contributed with new discoveries in the field of study, since there is limited research done in this subject regarding supermarket systems.   Research limitations - More case studies could have been performed at similar companies, in order to investigate how generalizable the answers to both research questions are.

Aujourd’hui, tant en France qu’en Chine, les marchés publics sont de plus en plus utilisésdans la perspective stratégique, visant à poursuivre des divers objectifs de politiques publiques.Néanmoins, une telle utilisation stratégique devra inévitablement affronter la logique libérale inhérenteau régime des marchés publics, qui ne se traduit pas seulement par le régime traditionnel libéralisésous la logique de finances publiques, mais aussi par le régime découlant récemment de l’ambition del’ouverture des marchés publics à la concurrence globale. Ainsi, parachever un équilibre entre cesdeux exigences devient un problème crucial, notamment lors de la formulation des normes juridiquesglobales en la matière. Bien que, à cause de la vague de globalisation juridique, une homogénéité peutdéjà être identifiée à la fois dans l’utilisation stratégique et la libéralisation des marchés publics entrela France et la Chine, cette tendance à la convergence n’est pas imposée par des méthodes d’équilibreadoptées dans ces pays. De surcroît, en se basant sur les particularismes nationaux du droit chinois, lesméthodes d’équilibre adoptées en Chine bénéficient d’une légitimité intrinsèque. Il est ainsiimpossible en l’état actuel d’inciter les pouvoirs publics chinois à se détourner en convergeant avec lesméthodes d’équilibre adoptées en France. / In the contemporary era, whether in China or in France, government procurement isincreasingly employed in strategic use in order to pursue numerous policy-based objectives. However,this mode of policy-based utilization would be inevitably in conflict with the liberal logic inherent tothe system of government procurement which is not only present in the financial logic of traditionalliberal systems but also used to establish a government procurement system open to globalcompetition. Thus, how to balance the conflict between liberalization and policy orientation in thefield of government procurement is a crucial problem which should be solved in global governmentprocurement norms. However, on the one hand, with the process of legal globalization, Chinese andFrench government procurement systems are largely homogeneous in terms of liberalization andpolicy orientation. On the other hand, the methods they use to balance the conflict betweenliberalization and policy orientation remain different. At the same time, because of the specificity ofthe Chinese judicial system, the Chinese equilibrium methods have their own legitimacy. In the currentcircumstance, it is impossible for the Chinese public authorities to abandon their own equilibriummethods to seek convergence with the French equilibrium methods.

The focus of this research is to examine the efficiency and effectiveness of recent procurement reform done by the Government of the Philippines, particularly the centralized procurement system for common-use supplies, materials, and equipment. The centralized procurement system is adopted with the intent of taking advantage of the savings inherent to bulk purchasing, streamlining procurement procedures, and reducing opportunities for corruption in the procurement of the abovementioned items. By legislative authority under Republic Act No. 9184, the centralized procurement system was made mandatory among all government agencies, government owned and controlled corporations and local government units in the purchase of their supplies, materials and equipment requirements. With the introduction of tighter budget and the stronger pressure for good governance, the contributions of procurement policy and institutions of procurements to the achievement of good governance and potential relation to development has been gaining global recognition. Given the association of procurement to the way public money is spent, the issue on corruption is also central to this research. There has been a growing recognition of the relationship between corruption and development – the more corrupt a country is, the more underdeveloped it becomes. With the daunting task of battling against corruption, the country’s strategy is to direct its efforts in combating corruption in specific areas, like public procurement. This thesis demonstrates that the centralized procurement system offers a significant reduction in processing times in the conduct of procurement. Additionally, it offers opportunities for savings generation with the cheaper prices of goods and the reduction of administrative cost associated with procurement. More over, it provides a procurement framework where opportunities for administrative corruption are reduced. This leads to the conclusion that the centralized procurement system is efficient in that it reduces administrative processing time and concomitant costs. This, in the long run, will benefit the procuring entities and ultimately the tax payers. However, the emphasis placed on achieving administrative savings is at the expense of other measures of effectiveness such as quality of goods being supplied and the quality of services being extended to client agencies. Moreover, the lack of effective inventory and control system may pave the way to greater waste. Without an effective inventory and control system as well as an improved quality control system, the centralized procurement system that works faster and cheaper may not be better after all.

<p>It is not easy to apply XML in e-commerce development for achieving interoperability in heterogeneous environments. One of the reasons is a multitude of XML-based Frameworks for Internet Commerce (XFIC), or industrial standards. This thesis surveys 15 frameworks, i.e., ebXML, eCo Framework, UDDI, SOAP, BizTalk, cXML, ICE, Open Applications Group, RosettaNet, Wf-XML, OFX, VoiceXML, RDF, WSDL and xCBL.</p><p>This thesis provides three models to systematically understand how the 15 frameworks meet the requirements of e-commerce. A hierarchical model is presented to show the purpose and focus of various XFIC initiatives. A relationship model is given to show the cooperative and competitive relationships between XFIC. A chronological model is provided to look at the development of XFIC. In addition, the thesis offers guidelines for how to apply XFIC in an e-commerce development.</p><p>We have also implemented a B2B e-procurement system. That not only demonstrates the feasibility of opensource or freeware, but also validates the complementary roles of XML and Java: XML is for describing contents and Java is for automating XML documents (session handling). Auction-based dynamic pricing is also realized as a feature of interest. Moreover, the implementation shows the suitability of e-procurement for educational purposes in e-commerce development.</p> / Report code: LiU-Tek-Lic-2001:19.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo analisar o licenciamento ambiental das obras públicas de infraestrutura realizadas sob o Regime Diferenciado de Contratações Públicas (RDC), previsto pelaLei n 12.462/2011. A escolha do país para realizar a Copa do Mundo FIFA 2014 e os Jogos Olímpicos de 2016 trouxe a necessidade de responder a encargos contratuais e ao esperado fluxo de turistas. Com isso, tornou-se ainda mais urgente promover melhorias na infraestrutura do país. Contudo, o estatuto legal das licitações e contratos administrativos era visto como inadequado, o que levou à criação do RDC. O novo regime revela-se cercado de controvérsias a respeito de suas benefícios e desvantagens, mas progressivamente vem tendo seu âmbito de aplicação estendido para além dos eventos desportivos internacionais. Ao longo do texto, examina-se a constitucionalidade da nova lei, bem como a proteção jurídica do meio ambiente, enfocando-se o licenciamento ambiental. Por fim, a partir da análise da Lei n 12.462/2011 em face da Constituição da República, propõe-se uma interpretação a respeito da compatibilização entre o RDC e o licenciamento ambiental, considerando a efetividade da legislação ambiental e o princípio da vedação do retrocesso. / The aim of this paper is to analyze the environmental licenses of public constructions under the procurement system known as RDC (Law n 12.462/11). The countrys choice to host the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 OlimpicGames increased the needs of infrastructure for both the matches and the tourists. However, according to some experts, the general law for bidding process was not able to deal with those urgent needs. These difficulties have influenced the discussions that led to the creation of RDC and brought up some controversial debates concerning the benefits and disadvantages of the new regulation. Despite these controversies, recent laws expanded the new system to other buildings, not limited to the events reported. Throughout the text, not only is it possible to observe the analysis of the compatibility between the new law and the Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil, but also environmental licenses concepts. Finally, according to the studies presented about the law n 12.462/2011, it was suggested an interpretation that raises the compatibility between RDC and the environmental protection, considering the effectiveness of environmental laws and the principle of non-regression.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo analisar o licenciamento ambiental das obras públicas de infraestrutura realizadas sob o Regime Diferenciado de Contratações Públicas (RDC), previsto pelaLei n 12.462/2011. A escolha do país para realizar a Copa do Mundo FIFA 2014 e os Jogos Olímpicos de 2016 trouxe a necessidade de responder a encargos contratuais e ao esperado fluxo de turistas. Com isso, tornou-se ainda mais urgente promover melhorias na infraestrutura do país. Contudo, o estatuto legal das licitações e contratos administrativos era visto como inadequado, o que levou à criação do RDC. O novo regime revela-se cercado de controvérsias a respeito de suas benefícios e desvantagens, mas progressivamente vem tendo seu âmbito de aplicação estendido para além dos eventos desportivos internacionais. Ao longo do texto, examina-se a constitucionalidade da nova lei, bem como a proteção jurídica do meio ambiente, enfocando-se o licenciamento ambiental. Por fim, a partir da análise da Lei n 12.462/2011 em face da Constituição da República, propõe-se uma interpretação a respeito da compatibilização entre o RDC e o licenciamento ambiental, considerando a efetividade da legislação ambiental e o princípio da vedação do retrocesso. / The aim of this paper is to analyze the environmental licenses of public constructions under the procurement system known as RDC (Law n 12.462/11). The countrys choice to host the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 OlimpicGames increased the needs of infrastructure for both the matches and the tourists. However, according to some experts, the general law for bidding process was not able to deal with those urgent needs. These difficulties have influenced the discussions that led to the creation of RDC and brought up some controversial debates concerning the benefits and disadvantages of the new regulation. Despite these controversies, recent laws expanded the new system to other buildings, not limited to the events reported. Throughout the text, not only is it possible to observe the analysis of the compatibility between the new law and the Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil, but also environmental licenses concepts. Finally, according to the studies presented about the law n 12.462/2011, it was suggested an interpretation that raises the compatibility between RDC and the environmental protection, considering the effectiveness of environmental laws and the principle of non-regression.

It is not easy to apply XML in e-commerce development for achieving interoperability in heterogeneous environments. One of the reasons is a multitude of XML-based Frameworks for Internet Commerce (XFIC), or industrial standards. This thesis surveys 15 frameworks, i.e., ebXML, eCo Framework, UDDI, SOAP, BizTalk, cXML, ICE, Open Applications Group, RosettaNet, Wf-XML, OFX, VoiceXML, RDF, WSDL and xCBL. This thesis provides three models to systematically understand how the 15 frameworks meet the requirements of e-commerce. A hierarchical model is presented to show the purpose and focus of various XFIC initiatives. A relationship model is given to show the cooperative and competitive relationships between XFIC. A chronological model is provided to look at the development of XFIC. In addition, the thesis offers guidelines for how to apply XFIC in an e-commerce development. We have also implemented a B2B e-procurement system. That not only demonstrates the feasibility of opensource or freeware, but also validates the complementary roles of XML and Java: XML is for describing contents and Java is for automating XML documents (session handling). Auction-based dynamic pricing is also realized as a feature of interest. Moreover, the implementation shows the suitability of e-procurement for educational purposes in e-commerce development. / <p>Report code: LiU-Tek-Lic-2001:19.</p>