Auction description: 

 

Start price, time steps and bid steps are set in advance of the auction. The system increments the price automatically after each time step. Auction runs until the first supplier confirms a bid, per article level. Multiple articles or lots are negotiated consecutively.
 

Preconditions and prerequisites:


 Competition: there are more than 3 suppliers. Suppliers are keen on doing business with METRO

  • Transparency: all documents/information must be shown to all suppliers
  • Comparability: suppliers can deliver same product quality based on requirement profile
  • Fairness: winning supplier will be awarded

 

Before starting a new project, make sure the needed documents are ready:

 

  • General conditions (Auction rules) in pdf format
  • Supplier guide - Offer Solution Service Team trains any new Supplier on demand 
  • Supplier list
  • Requirement profile(s) (incl. Layout/Design/Images)
  • Calculation sheet (if applicable)
  • Other documents which you want to share within auction


Steps in eSourcing:


In order to conduct the awarding after the negotiations are done, it is mandatory to create the projects from the RFX module and all data under Project Management and Demand Specification from the RFX that is previously created, should be copied to the auction. 


For more information regarding the creation of a project from RFX module, please check the following articles based on your needs: 


How to create RFX (incl RFP + AUC) 

How to create Auction from Demand Specification (Only with Auction) 


1. General data: 


1.1 Check and complete the mandatory fields in General Information tab. 

 

 

  • Project title - provide a name for the Auction or update, if needed
  • Version - Live
  • Business units - Country participants 
  • Material groups - COMS for your articles 


 

1.2 In Project Team you can see that the internal participants previously invited to the RFX are added and the roles has been given to them. Click on ADD if you need to invite other colleagues. 

Note: the user rights should be checked and updated, if needed.

 


 

1.3 In Supplier circle you can see that all potential supplier from the RFX are invited or SSR has been sent. Click ADD if you need to invite other suppliers. 

Note: If “Awarding” will be proceeded after the auction, please add all the suppliers in the RFX module.  


 

1.4 Check the Documents - All documents from the RFX are copied into the Auction. You can Upload other documents and Update the GC document, if needed. 

Note: Other than GC documents which are copied from the RFX need to be re-assigned supplier access, when needed. 

 


2. Auction settings: 

 

Continue with Auction Settings tab and under Auction definition choose Dutch as Auction Type.  

 


Settings level; You can either choose “Auction Level” or “Position Level” in order to define time and bid steps either for all articles or for each article separately.

 

For Auction Level; Time step, Bid step, Reserve price and Number of winners are defined also here. 

For Position Level; only Number of winners are defined under Auction Settings and Time step, Bid step and Reserve price are defined under Auction Structure. 

 

Standard settings are already preselected per default but in case of need, you can always define your own settings according to your preferences. Please contact us in such cases.


After the auction type has been saved, switch to Auction Structure tab.

 

3. Auction Structure: 
 

Continue with Auction Structure - Positions to check the articles which you copied the content of the grid via matching steps from Demand Specification: Article name, Quantity, Unit, Comment, etc. 

Click on the Open icon for each article, if you need to edit anything. 

 


Click on Save to save the changes per article level.



If you choose Position level to set up individual time and bid steps, then you can create time and bid steps by clicking on “Edit position steps”. 

 

 

By clicking on New consecutively, you can create as many steps as you would like to have. 

 

 

Click on Save to finalize and save the recently created individual time and bid steps per article.

 


Now, go back to the Auction Structure tab to finish with setting up this part.


4. Auction Setting - continue: 


4.1 In Milestones Auction start and Auction end date and hour are set. 

 

The refresh rate is recommended to be 20 - 30 seconds.

 

Click on Save

 

 

4.2 Under Starting Prices you can define the starting prices for all suppliers that will participate to the auction. 

 

Click on Open


Add the starting prices for each article and Save


 

4.3 Bidbox Layout tab is the view of the suppliers during the auction. You can customize this view according to your needs by displaying and/or hiding the columns. 



4. Auction Status

 

Click on Auction status to see if all elements are correctly completed. If you see any red errors at this stage, check the message and correct what is missing.

  

Click on Publish to set the Auction Online.

 

Once the auction is published all invited suppliers will receive an invitation to the Auction via an email from the system. They will be able to access to the Auction, download and accept the documents, see all the details with regards to the Auction like articles, starting prices, etc. 


The suppliers will also receive a reminder email 30 minutes before the bidding starts.

 

When the Start date and time are reached the Auction status will automatically change from Online to Bidding and the invited suppliers are able to bid. You can follow the auction via either Auction cockpit or Auction analysis to monitor auction and supplier activities.

 

 

Click here see information regarding How to check the auction during the bidding.

 

If you need further assistance do  hesitate to Contact us