Auction software for procurement teams

Auction software runs a live, timed event in which invited suppliers compete on price under rules fixed before bidding opens. In a reverse auction, which is most procurement use, suppliers bid the price down and the lowest wins. In a forward auction you are selling, and the highest wins. The value is not that it is faster than email, though it is. It is that the rules are enforced the same way on every bid and the whole thing is on the record afterwards.

Nine. English, rank-only, sealed bid, Dutch clock, Japanese step-down, split quantity, weighted, forward, and a best-and-final offer round. Eight of them can start an event; the best-and-final round is launched after an event has closed. RFQ, RFP and RFI are separate from these and run in Sourcing & RFx.

English when the specification is clear and several suppliers can do the work, because open price pressure does the most there. Rank-only when you want competition without publishing where the price landed. Sealed when you want one best offer and no dynamics. Dutch when you need a fast answer. Japanese when you want to see where each supplier drops out. Split when you intend to dual-source. Forward when you are selling. If you are unsure, the system can suggest a format for the category, and you can run a practice event first with real suppliers and no commercial effect.

Not if you set an extension rule, and you should. A bid that lands inside your trigger window pushes the end time out by the amount you choose, up to the number of extensions you allow. Every bidder is told each time it happens. Without that rule the clock is hard and the server refuses a late bid, so timing matters more than price.

Your price limits. A bid below the floor is refused, an opening bid above the start price is refused, and a bid that does not beat the current best by your minimum decrement is refused. Every refusal names the rule and the number. The one thing to know is that there is no warning for a bid that is unusually far below the supplier’s own last one — it is accepted if it clears your limits.

Partly, and it is worth being precise. Suppliers who are blocked or inactive cannot be invited. You can set gates that either block or warn on an expired master services agreement for a services supplier, and on an expired ISO 27001 certificate. Other things you might expect to be checked — risk scores, wider qualification status, other certificates — are not. Guest bidders skip the gates entirely. If supplier eligibility has to be airtight before an event, check the list yourself rather than relying on the gates.

It depends which way you award. Award the lots one at a time on a reverse event and, once the last lot is awarded, purchase orders are raised for each winning supplier and emailed to them. Tick the contract option on the event and a draft contract is created too, which still needs its lines and payment terms added. Award the whole event to one supplier, or let the Dutch or Japanese clock decide, and you get the award record and a pre-filled form to raise the order yourself. Either way, getting the result into your own finance system is a step your team takes.

Savings are the start price minus what was awarded, on a reverse event, or the awarded total minus the reserve on a forward one. The baseline is the start price you set, not a historical price or a budget. That is worth saying plainly, because it means a high start price produces a flattering number. If you want the figure to mean something, set the start price at what you are paying today.