Order Management - norlab-ulaval/Norlab_wiki GitHub Wiki

Order management at UL is a bit tricky, this page proposes a set of guidelines to help you minimize the time between order and delivery.

First step

Before going to fast and asking for quote, find multiple supplier that have similar product to what you have. Then, verify that the seller is in the official UL supplier list

Authorized sellers

The University has a list of official sellers from which it is easier to order. You should always try to go with these if possible. Ask Edith to know if a seller is in the list by sending her the "supplier's name" and the "postal code". Ideally, sed her one message with multiple suppliers to not always poke Edith. (Amazon is not, we should avoid it as much as possible)

For office stuff:

For electronics:

  • Digikey
  • Mouser
  • Sparkfun
  • BestBuy
    • Write directly to Zuccaro, Marco: [email protected] who manages the Ulaval's BestBuy account.
  • Canada Computers

For hardware:

For batteries:

For drone parts:

  • MAD Components
  • Holybro

For cameras:

  • Gosselin

Others:

  • Omer de Serres Place Ste-Foy
  • Aeromao (Emlid supplier)

Quotes

To simplify the job of the department, we usually provide official quotes before ordering. To get these, you sometimes need to chat with representatives on some websites or find a "get a quote" link somewhere. The quotes should include the right billing and shipping addresses:

Billing address:

Université Laval Service des finances 2345 allée des Bibliothèques Québec (QC), Canada G1V 0A6

Shipping address:

François Pomerleau 1065 Av de la Médecine Pavillon Adrien-Pouliot, porte 18, Local 0902 Québec (QC), Canada G1V 0A6

Specific procedures:

If sending invoices (info from Service des Finances)

Lorsque vous faites parvenir votre facture à payer, assurez-vous que celle-ci est conforme et que les mentions suivantes apparaissent :

  • Numéro de facture
  • Date de facturation
  • Facture émise uniquement au nom de l’Université Laval
  • Numéro de bon de commande visible (soit sur la facture, soit dans l’objet du courriel ou soit dans le corps du courriel)
  • À noter que les documents suivants ne sont pas considérés comme des factures conformes et sont donc refusés : les avis de paiement, les soumissions, les factures pro forma, les confirmations de commande et les factures sans bon de commande.

** Ces informations sont importantes, car elles éviteront les délais de paiement inutiles.

Mail template in french:

Bonjour,

Je suis un chercheur à l'Université Laval et  j'aurais besoin d'une soumission pour pouvoir commander les items suivants :

Item1 : #009-0099-8 Qty: 2

Item 2: #140-0066-0 Qty: 1

Pour être sur que la soumission passe au système des finances, il faut qu'elle contient les informations suivantes:

  1. L'adresse de facturation:
          Université Laval
          Service des finances, 2345 allée des Bibliothèques,
          Québec QC G1V 0A6 Canada
  2. L'adresse de Livraison:
          François Pomerleau
          1065, avenue de la Médecine,
          Pavillon AdrienPouliot, porte 18 Local 0902
          Québec QC G1V 0A6 Canada
  3. Un numéro de soumission
  4. La date actuelle
  5. Les taxes
  6. Le coût de la livraison si la livraison n'est pas gratuite
  7. L'adresse complète de votre compagnie
  8. La liste détaillé des items

Merci beaucoup,

Nicolas Samson

The lost & problematic quote

If you do not have any update on an order after two week start asking questions because university is big and orders get lost.

  1. Ask edith with to look if she can have any update and see if the PO is out.
  2. Ask your seller if they have received the PO and if they sent the order.
  3. If not, you can contact the Finance department to know if they need more informations.
  4. Then contact back the company to untie any problems.

To unlock a Digikey order

Digikey orders used to be simple and arrive within 2-3 days, for a while now, the orders get stuck on a question about customs that the university either does not answer or does not receive. To unlock the order, you can do the following:

  1. Find the order number on the Digikey website and date at which it was entered in the sytem, you will need access to the Norlab digikey account for that.
  2. Write an email to "[email protected]" explaining the problem and specifying the order number and date of the order. The digikey support should write back pretty quickly saying the order is now on the move.

Here's an example of what can be written in the email:

Object:

Problem with order #99432122 by François Pomerleau Université Laval

Content:

Hi,

I am writing to you to have information on order # 99432122 which was sent in on 2026-05-26.

When I log into the account on the Digikey website and go to track the order, it tells me that all items on the order are backordered, however, when I look at the list I created to get the quote that was sent for this order, every item is in stock.

Is there a reason why the two systems do not have the same information? The items on this order are needed soon, so I would like to have an update if I need to look elsewhere if the items are actually out of stock. Most of the items are common and listed at over 10,000 available when looking at the list from which the quote was created.

Thanks in advance,

William Dubois

Ph.D. Student under François Pomerleau