We have developed Instant Quote to make life easier for scientists working on drug discovery projects or just ended up with a task to procure multiple compounds. We went through this a few times ourselves and we didn't like it. It takes so much time to contact and negotiate with suppliers, check the availability of compounds, try to calculate the best combination of products and suppliers, consider project deadlines, etc. To eliminate these painful parts of compound procurement was part of the Mcule mission.
Benefits
The main benefits in a nutshell: Instant Quote eliminates e-mail communications from the whole process, thus it saves valuable time for scientists and procurement managers. Its unique algorithm calculates the best price and fastest delivery quotes in a minute. It can greatly reduce costs by comparing and optimizing compound prices, supplier discounts, small order fees, delivery costs, customs duties and reformatting options.
Here is how it works
If you have created a collection containing your selected compounds, just click on the orange Quote in the top right corner of collections. We will ask for some basic information required for quote calculation. For example, you can specify the preferred and the acceptable minimum amounts per compound, min. purity, max. delivery time and the supplier catalogs (grouped by stock information up-to-dateness) to be included in the quote calculation. You can also select the delivery format here. We can implement any customer-defined formatting option to Instant Quote in a few days and it will be displayed in your personal account. This can be particularly interesting for organizations frequently ordering in a special format (custom vials / plates, DMSO solutions, etc.). After filling out the Quote form, the best price and fastest delivery quotes will be calculated on-the-fly.
The algorithm
We developed a unique optimization algorithm which calculates the best price and fastest delivery quotes by comparing and optimizing compound prices, supplier discounts, small order fees, delivery costs, customs duties and reformatting options. Since the same compound is typically available from multiple suppliers and there are many parameters to consider during quote generation, the manual price and delivery time optimization could be very challenging even for a relatively small order. Additionally, requesting stock availability information is time-consuming especially when the information has to be requested by e-mail.
Our unique quote generation algorithm first automatically checks the stock availability for your selected suppliers. For almost 6M products we have access to the supplier's current stock levels that makes Instant Quote generation particularly reliable. In the next step, our algorithm finds the best product matches by minimizing the total price and the delivery time. Instant Quote generation typically takes 1-2 minutes even for thousands of compounds. After the optimization algorithm finishes the generated quotes will appear in the Quote list view.
The quotes
You first get a quick summary that we call the Quote list view. We list here the best price and the fastest delivery offers separately if the two differ. Click on “See details” to see the break down of the total price of the individual quotes and most importantly to fine-tune the quote by excluding particular compounds. After you selected the products you want to remove, click on the “Remove selected and recalculate” button and a new quote will be generated for the remaining products on-the-fly.
You can fine-tune the quotes based on Effective price, stock availability and purity information. After you finalized your quote, you can save it and export it in PDF or Excel formats. You can go back any time when you are ready to place the order. Optionally, you can specify a Purchase Order number and upload a PO file issued by your company / institution.
Order tracking
After you placed the order, you can track its status online by checking its unique URL. You can also request status updates and we will email you when the status of your order gets updated.
Delivery
All your ordered products will be delivered to you as a single package and we provide complete EU and US customs clearance service (customs duties and taxes are paid by us). Mcule does not charge any hidden customs costs to its customers.
Test Instant Quote!
If you would like to test Instant Quote, you can freely access it until 31/03/2014. To get started, run a quick compound search on Mcule!
For more information on Instant Quote, please check our brochure and quick user guide.
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