“Reverse E-Auctions” are live events taking place over the Internet in which competing suppliers conclude the tender process by actively bidding reduced prices for the buyers’ requirements.

Our service is essentially commercial - designed to maximise competition on price elements even when there are other non-price factors contributing to the overall best value assessment. Our auctions are inherently flexible and are used to compete a range of complexity from one to thousands of line items of supply simultaneously.

Driving down prices in an auction does not affect the quality of supplies and service one iota because the auction takes place between fully compliant tenderers who have all passed the criteria for quality, sustainability and service levels, (criteria fully factored into the auction). The auction presents a robust platform for fully-compliant bidders to review their proposed charges and present themselves in a more competitive light in order to win the Authority’s business. This is all carried out in a totally fair, open, transparent and compliant manner under the requirements of Regulation 21 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2006 or Regulation 20 of the Utilities Contracts Regulations 2006 and adds only 2 days elapsed time to your entire procurement process.

Competition is the key. We have run many auctions for contracting authorities with as few as two bidders. This may arise because of severe restrictions in the supply market or as a result of high attrition rate in achieving technical compliance. This has not prevented fierce competition and very substantial savings.

DIRECTIVE 2004/18/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 31 March 2004 – “An ‘electronic auction’ is a repetitive process involving an electronic device for the presentation of new prices, revised downwards, and/or new values concerning certain elements of tenders, which occurs after an initial full evaluation of the tenders, enabling them to be ranked using automatic evaluation methods.”