What's the future of e-auctions?
The advent of the internet has revolutionised the purchasing habits of organisations, with online auctions, or e-auctions, growing in popularity.
It's only about ten years since the idea of holding auctions over the internet was first dreamed up, but we've come a long way since then. And there's plenty more to come: the story of how internet technology is transforming the way businesses buy goods and services has only just begun. It could get a whole lot more interesting in the next few years.
At first it was pretty simple. In the early days of the e-revolution, someone realised that the cumbersome and time-consuming business of putting purchases out to tender could be short-circuited using the then nascent internet. What's more, the sheer speed of this new information exchange meant true market prices could be reached more efficiently, translating in very large amounts of money that could be saved.
The reality has turned out to be more complicated. Some suppliers - and some procurement people - resisted the new approach. But before long, people realised online autions were a valuable tool, enabling the procurement process to be compressed into weeks rather than months. Many extremely successful e-auctions across a range of industries have proved they are here to stay.
Around six months ago, an interesting development took place when the idea of holding a simple auction for a package of goods or services suddenly got more sophisticated. 'Optimisation' was the buzz word. It meant buyers, and suppliers, could input various scenarios into the auction environment in such a way that bids could be tailored towards specific market conditions.
That means buyers will be able to make decisions based on customised combinations of suppliers producing and delivering goods or services under varied time scales, with differing levels of quality or conforming to different business variables, such as shipping costs, import dues or... [continues]
The advent of the internet has revolutionised the purchasing habits of organisations, with online auctions, or e-auctions, growing in popularity.
It's only about ten years since the idea of holding auctions over the internet was first dreamed up, but we've come a long way since then. And there's plenty more to come: the story of how internet technology is transforming the way businesses buy goods and services has only just begun. It could get a whole lot more interesting in the next few years.
At first it was pretty simple. In the early days of the e-revolution, someone realised that the cumbersome and time-consuming business of putting purchases out to tender could be short-circuited using the then nascent internet. What's more, the sheer speed of this new information exchange meant true market prices could be reached more efficiently, translating in very large amounts of money that could be saved.
The reality has turned out to be more complicated. Some suppliers - and some procurement people - resisted the new approach. But before long, people realised online autions were a valuable tool, enabling the procurement process to be compressed into weeks rather than months. Many extremely successful e-auctions across a range of industries have proved they are here to stay.
Around six months ago, an interesting development took place when the idea of holding a simple auction for a package of goods or services suddenly got more sophisticated. 'Optimisation' was the buzz word. It meant buyers, and suppliers, could input various scenarios into the auction environment in such a way that bids could be tailored towards specific market conditions.
That means buyers will be able to make decisions based on customised combinations of suppliers producing and delivering goods or services under varied time scales, with differing levels of quality or conforming to different business variables, such as shipping costs, import dues or... [continues]
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