Instead of lengthy and tedious price negotiations, the Fluenta Auction module allows you to have your suppliers or customers compete simultaneously on their conditions and prices in a process much faster than most traditional methods. This can greatly reduce the length of the contracting process. Our experience over the years shows that our customers achieve an average of 10–16% savings compared to their previous best prices, but in certain areas, up to 30–40% savings are possible.
For buying and selling price competitions, our system supports the following auction types.
English (traditional) auction:
Bidders take part in an active competition and bid against each other; thus, the current bids are constantly increasing or decreasing (depending on the bidding direction), while the participants can see their own ranking and based on the auction settings, the current best price. Fixed-length auctions can be automatically extended in case of tight competition.
Japanese auction:
A “ticking” auction; the system periodically decreases or increases the price level in pre-defined increments. During the auction, participants can maintain their bid by constantly confirming the current price level or quit the competition. The auction continues until any active participant remains. At the end of the price competition, the list of winners is drawn up; there is always a possibility of a tie for first place.
Dutch auction:
The course of the auction is the same as a Japanese auction’s. However, in this case, there is a higher pressure on the participants, as Dutch auctions require quick reactions: the winner is the bidder that first confirms the current price level that the system (periodically) decreases or increases in pre-defined increments.
Both Japanese and Dutch auctions allow for single-participant competitions.
Japanese and Dutch auctions can be successful (even with only one or two participants) even in cases where a traditional auction would not generate a competitive environment; for example, if there are only a few participants on the market that could be invited, or if based on preliminary offers, the price difference would be too great between the potential bidders.
TCO auction:
TCO auctions consider the costs that might be incurred throughout the entire lifecycle of the product, focusing on more than just the purchase price. In this case, the system takes into account all monetary aspects in addition to the direct purchase cost to calculate the final value. (For example, when dealing with fleet vehicles, it adds the cost of tires.)
Bid transformation:
You can auction different factors in addition to prices with the help of bid transformation; we suggest using scoring-weighing auctions for this purpose.
Want to know more? Interested in trying auctions? Our colleagues are happy to help you!