Link between Tender and Auction modules
RFx to Auction[edit]
After the analysis, if specific conditions are met (e.g. enough suppliers, low gap between the offers, quality and services levels equivalent and accepted), you can now decide to organize an auction.
The system provides the possibility to copy the following settings from a RFx project to the auction module:
- Suppliers
- Project team
- Structure of a grid
- Price offers from the suppliers
- Documents…
ATTENTION: if you intend to group lines from the RFx grid in an auction (example: you have a grid with 100 articles, but in the auction you just want to have 1 line with a total of all articles) you have to have a column with “Display/Text” features.” The system will need the column to define the lines that need to be grouped automatically.
After receiving the offers during the RFx you can decide to organize an auction.
The first step is to open the phase Auction and to click on New.
A new page opens. Second step is to:
- enter a title for the auction,
- select the team members (project team and suppliers from the RFx project),
- decide to copy or not the quotes received during the RFx (the prices will be copied as starting prices on the auction).
- Click on SAVE
ATTENTION: If you copy only the “Supplier quotes” and group lines in the auction, the grouping will happen on unit price level. If you chose the “Total quotes” and group in the auction, the grouping will happen on total price level.
On the next tab Match columns you select the structure you want to transfer to the auction (only grids) and click on Apply.
Open the grid to match the columns of your RFx structure with the auction structure. Please note that an auction structure has a fixed number of columns. Additionally there exist 10 info columns to allow copying any information from the RFx.
You can now match the columns of your RFx grid with the columns of the auction structure. The columns in the table header reflect the available columns of the auction structure. The drop-down list contains the column names of the RFx grid.
Some columns are mandatory and must be matched (they are marked with a red asterisk): Title, Quantity, Start Price. Do not forget to click on SAVE in the column Actions.
ATTENTION: If your RFx contains a column with “Display/Text” features that in our example is called “Unit” do not match this column at this stage with any of the columns displayed below. The system will use your “Unit” column from the RFx on the tab Group Lines.
When you have selected all the columns you want to copy to the auction, go to the next tab named Copy lines. Here you will be able to un-/select the lines from your grid that you would like to copy. Save your selection.
The next tab named Group lines allows to group lines:
After you selected the options for Grid, Group rows by (select grid column) and Type, the selected rows will be grouped accordingly.
The result of the grouping process will be as follows:
- The columns Title and Comment will be cleared and you will have to enter a new Name/Title for the line.
- The entries of the column Unit in the RFX sharing the same group-by entry (the same grid column entry for which the rows will be grouped) have to agree. That entry will be adopted.
- The entries of the column Quantity sharing the same group-by entry will be summarized or an average will be calculated.
When you click on the tab Preview you will see the basic auction structure
Click on Apply to finalize the auction setting at this stage. However, you are still on the RFx module. You can either click on your auction project or click on the yellow hammer in the top right corner to get to the auction module. There you will see your project and be able to adapt it accordingly.
For more information on the auction set up, please read the Auction Buyer Guides. You find it in the section Help on the platform.
Auction to RFx[edit]
Once you finalize your auction, you can transfer the data to your RFx. If you did not group the lines from the RFx in the auction you can easily update the RFx grid with the auction results. If lines were grouped, the system applies the same reduction % on each article.
In the auction project go to the tab Auction Analysis. There you will see the final auction results. Click on Update RFX grid to transfer the data to the RFx and View RFX Analysis to open the RFX analysis from the eAuction module.
You will then be transferred to your initial Rfx project and the tab Analysis. Click to view the results on the corresponding icon.
You will then see the results of the auction as well as the initial Rfx quotations.
ATTENTION: If you grouped lines from the Rfx in the auction and you transferred the auction results to the Rfx the system applies the same reduction % on each individual article. As you can see here the lines with Unit CHAIR have each a reduction of 12,5% and the lines with Unit TABLE have each a reduction of 7,7% for Supplier STF and his unit prices. (You calculate the difference between the initial quote and the starred quote from the auction).
However, this can hardly be applicable in all cases. After an auction was held on a TOTAL, the buyer will need to ask the unit prices from the suppliers. These unit prices can be entered into the system. The buyer needs to extend his RFx grid after the auction and let the suppliers enter their new unit prices according to the TOTAL they quoted in the auction. That way the buyer will have in his Rfx grid: the initial quotes, the quotes the system calculated from the auction and the real unit prices the suppliers validate after the auction.
