An open auction has no envelope. From the moment bid collection starts, suppliers see a live ranking and submit as many new bids as they want until time is up. Each new bid must be lower than the supplier's own previous bid.
Auction rules
You set the rules in step 1 of the wizard, in the "Auction rules" section that opens when you choose Open Auction. The "Example" box below shows what each setting means on the supplier side using an amount.
| Setting | Options | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum decrement | None, Amount or Percentage | Prevents the auction from dragging on with tiny decrements. A new bid must be at least this much lower. |
| What the step is based on | Own last bid or Market minimum | Own last bid: everyone reduces from their own price. Market minimum: the step is deducted from the current lowest bid. |
| Every bid must go below the lowest price | On or off | When on, only a bid that aims to lead is accepted. When off, a supplier can stay in second place and still improve its price. |
| What suppliers see | Full price or Rank only | With full price everyone's amount is visible; with rank only, amounts are hidden and ranks stay visible. |
| Last-minute extension | Within how many final minutes, by how much, at most how many times | A bid arriving in the final minutes pushes the end back and gives competitors time to respond. |
If "Every bid must go below the lowest price" or "Market minimum" is selected, the supplier is effectively told the lowest price. That is why Rank only cannot be selected while either of these two settings is on.
The default last-minute extension: each bid arriving in the last 15 minutes moves the end to 15 minutes later, at most 20 times. To turn the extension off, choose No extension in the time window field. The rules do not change after publishing.
While the auction runs
- You see the bids live together with supplier names. You can update the list with Refresh in the Received Bids tab.
- Suppliers never see competitors' names; the ranking says something like "Supplier 2".
- If you entered a ceiling price, suppliers see it and cannot send a bid above it.
- A bid cannot be withdrawn, only improved.
- The supplier prices every item; there are no partial bids.
When time is up
- The winner cannot be selected before the final bid time. If there were extensions, you wait for the last extended end.
- The decision goes to a single supplier: since the race is on the total price, items are not split.
- An open auction has no new round, evaluation criteria, commercial terms setting or bid conditions. The decision is made on price.
Tell us what you see on screen and we will look at it together.