PA has helped the Office of Government Commerce to reach £50m in eAuction savings

PA Consulting Group (PA) has provided support and guidance during the 10th and 11th series of the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) eAuction programme for ICT hardware. The OGC programme has been running since September 2005 and has reached a total savings of £50m to date.

eAuctions, sometimes called reverse auctions or procurement auctions, allow suppliers to bid against each other online in order to win a contract. They can factor in both price and quality measures to arrive at the most competitive bid. When managed well, eAuctions deliver highly competitive pricing and, often, considerable savings compared to existing contracts. Savings vary but they frequently exceed 10% and are reliably measured at up to 50%.

PA have worked on all aspects of eAuctions for over ten years. We provide technical support to clients such as OGC as well as advising clients on the strategic role of eAuctions. We also provide project management for complex collaborative eAuctions and advise on small eAuctions which, despite their size, deliver excellent returns.

In addition to working with experienced clients like OGC, PA provides advice to clients where:

• the client has limited experience of eAuctions and would like targeted assistance in areas such as identifying an initial opportunity, gaining buy-in to implement and project-managing the eAuction implementation

• a larger eAuction programme is being considered, but the categories of spend to be targeted, and the expected benefits, need to be defined

• the opportunity for a complex eAuction has arisen and feasibility must be confirmed before implementation starts

• the client is considering setting up an internal eAuction team and would like advice on how to organise, resource, and train the team

• there is an existing eAuction capability within the organisation, and staff need training to bring more insight, and higher success rate, to the process.