Reference no: EM132291547

A few days ago, the sales manager of SecureIT excitedly reported that ACORE, a well-known multinational corporation (MNC) with global operations and a market leader for more than 40 years, finally agreed to another meeting. It would like to discuss details about the project scope as it was considering a purchase of Enhanced Efficiency Solution but has emphasised that it has a limited budget and no concessions to offer. It is proposing that SecureIT meets with some of its IT executives and assistant project managers, as a start.

ACORE is a large MNC with established standard operating procedures and different levels of approvals required for a project. As a listed company, it was also particularly sensitive to investors’ perceptions of its business performance, including improved operating margins, as these impact on its stock price.

Some of your team members were sceptical about meeting with ACORE. They felt that it could be a waste of time as they heard about ACORE’s tough reputation as a negotiator and the lengthy amount of time that it typically took to make decisions. In addition, the industry in which ACORE operates is fairly unfamiliar to your team, although they are experts in software development.

On the other hand, you feel that pursuing this customer relationship with ACORE will bring about longer-term benefits, including boosting SecureIT’s track record and increasing the learning opportunities for SecureIT’s team. However, time is running out. SecureIT needs to secure a deal soon with ACORE; otherwise, the former will suffer cashflow problems. Your product engineering team is already working on upgrades to the software solution, and the technical support department is unsure about whether to continue ramping up its team in anticipation of sales.

Question:

Describe and evaluate two (2) important tactical tasks that ACORE may undertake, as part of a distributive bargaining approach, for the purposes of managing SecureIT’s impression of the latter’s target, resistance point and cost of terminating the negotiations, and manipulating the actual costs of delaying or terminating negotiations.