bidder guide - mm4.com · bidder guide ©marketmaker4 2013 october 2013 6 revenue eauction – the...

Bidder Guide ©MarketMaker4 2013 October 2013 1

Bidder Guide


Contents MarketMaker4 Bidder Guide ........................................................................................................................ 4

Who should read this guide ...................................................................................................................... 4

About MarketMaker4 ............................................................................................................................... 4

Intellectual Property Rights and Reservation of Ownership .................................................................... 4

Bidder Database ........................................................................................................................................ 5

MarketMaker4 Contact Details ................................................................................................................. 5

MarketMaker4’s Role ............................................................................................................................... 5

The MarketMaking Team .......................................................................................................................... 5

eAuction Types .......................................................................................................................................... 5

Reverse eAuction .................................................................................................................................. 5

Revenue eAuction ................................................................................................................................. 6

Japanese eAuction ................................................................................................................................ 6

General MM4 Terms ................................................................................................................................. 6

MarketMaker4 Online Platform.................................................................................................................... 9

What to do prior to logging onto the MM4 site ....................................................................................... 9

Login to MarketMaker4 ............................................................................................................................ 9

Sign In ........................................................................................................................................................ 9

Updating your User Profile ..................................................................................................................... 10

Updating your Organization Profile ........................................................................................................ 10

MarketMaker4 Launchpad...................................................................................................................... 11

MarketMaking ..................................................................................................................................... 12

eSourcing Suite ................................................................................................................................... 12

How to Accept the Invitation .................................................................................................................. 12

View Attachments ................................................................................................................................... 12

Confirm Participation .............................................................................................................................. 13

Bid Point .................................................................................................................................................. 13

Enter the Bid Point .............................................................................................................................. 13

Bid Point Matrix .................................................................................................................................. 14

Bid Reserves and Initial Bids ................................................................................................................... 15

Bid Reserves ........................................................................................................................................ 15

Initial Bids ............................................................................................................................................ 15

Pricing entered manually ........................................................................................................................ 16


Pricing Mass Upload ................................................................................................................................ 17

How to Mass upload: .......................................................................................................................... 18

Pricing for a Japanese eAuction .............................................................................................................. 20

Japanese eAuctions ................................................................................................................................. 20

Practice Event ......................................................................................................................................... 21

During The Live Event ............................................................................................................................. 21

Using the Matrix .................................................................................................................................. 21

Placing a Bid Manually in an eAuction ................................................................................................ 25

Mass Bidding in an eAuction ............................................................................................................... 26

Download the Bid Sheet ................................................................................................................. 26

Prepare the Bids .............................................................................................................................. 27

Continue Bidding ............................................................................................................................. 28

Placing Bids in a Japanese eAuction .................................................................................................... 28

Additional features to know during a Japanese eAuction .................................................................. 30

Understanding the Matrix ................................................................................................................... 31

Event Rules during an eAuction .......................................................................................................... 32

Extension rules ................................................................................................................................ 32

Bid improvement rules ................................................................................................................... 32

Best Practices for Live eAuctions ........................................................................................................ 32


MarketMaker4 Bidder Guide

Who should read this guide This document is for prospective bidders who have received an Invitation to Bid from a host organization and need to operate the MarketMaker4 platform in order to manage their bids.

About MarketMaker4 MarketMaker4 is an international company with offices in the US, UK and Dubai. The founders and executive leadership have been involved in developing online negotiation tools and techniques since the birth of online dynamic bidding in the late 1990s. Founded in 2010, the company’s origins stemmed from the lack of a true SaaS (Software as a Service) eAuction solution in the e-Sourcing/eAuction marketplace. By combining cutting-edge technology with proven procurement expertise and category experience, MarketMaker4 fills that void. MarketMaker4’s philosophy is to encourage and enable the use of online negotiation techniques by developing custom, proprietary software that has sophisticated functionality but is also easy to use due to its intuitive design. Support services are integral to our approach, which will provide you a positive MarketMaking™ experience.

Intellectual Property Rights and Reservation of Ownership The Services, MM4 Platform, Documentation and MarketMaker/MM4 Trademarks are owned by or licensed to MarketMaker4 and are protected by United States laws and international laws, treaties, and conventions regarding intellectual property and proprietary rights inclusive of trade secrets. MarketMaker4 and its licensors retain all rights, title, and ownership of the Services licensed under this Agreement except for rights expressly granted to Customer hereunder. Data and other Services that Customer uses are merely licensed to Customer for the uses specified in this Agreement. All rights in any MarketMaker4 and licensor intellectual property (including any applicable copyright, patent, or trade secret) not specifically granted in this Agreement are reserved to MarketMaker4 and its licensors.


Bidder Database MarketMaker4 reserves the right to use bid and other information that becomes known to it as a result of Events or use of MM4 and so long as, unless otherwise agreed by the Parties, it does not disclose the identity of Customer to third parties in so doing and does not use the information for the purpose of communicating market price information. Customer agrees that any information relating to a Bidder on MM4 which it supplies to MarketMaker4 (or which becomes known to MarketMaker4 as a result of an Event) may be incorporated in the Bidder Database. Customer acknowledges that the Bidder Database shall be and remain the intellectual property of MarketMaker4.

MarketMaker4 Contact Details US Headquarters: 209 W. Jackson Blvd Suite 810 Chicago, IL 60606 Telephone: +1 (312) 662-1859 Fax: +1 (847) 556-0677

UK Office: Copsham House 53 Broad Street Chesham HP5 3EA Telephone: +44 (0)2035 142395

Dubai Office: Building 8 Dubai Media City Dubai, UAE

MarketMaker4’s Role In developing MM4, our philosophy is to be “bid neutral”. Bid neutral means that we do not favor buyers or sellers. Also it means that we seek to encourage our clients to conduct reverse and revenue (forward) eAuctions with equal propensity.

The MarketMaking Team MarketMaker4 has a strong team of people that will identify, qualify and train suppliers for every eAuction. These MarketMakers also will support every eAuction that you participate in before, during and after the event to ensure every event is managed appropriately. MarketMakers will contact suppliers and prepare them for the online negotiation process. MarketMakers will be the first point of contact for any technical issues a supplier has and they will answer any questions to the best of their knowledge and pass on any questions in a formatted question and answer document to the client host for answers.

eAuction Types Reverse eAuction - The bidding price goes down over the course of the event. The supplier is bidding to achieve the lowest price on a product/service. In a business setting, price is often balanced against other factors that impact cost – quality, delivery performance, lead times etc.


Revenue eAuction – The starting price is the lowest price and the supplier will bid the price up.

Examples: suppliers are bidding to provide you with the highest rebate; buyers are bidding on items that you want to sell.

Japanese eAuction –The price will either increase or decrease by a predefined amount in a

predefined timeframe. The direction to price will go, either up or down, will be constant throughout the eAuction. The price will change by these timeframes for a supplier until the supplier can no longer accept the price. Once the price has been declined the eAuction ends for that supplier.

General MM4 Terms Bid: The formal price presented to the host. This is an official price that cannot be retracted once released in a live event. Bid Acceptance: This is the point at which the Bidders has seen the ITB and accepts the MM4 terms and conditions Bid Confirmation: This is the point at which the Bidder confirms his intention to bid in the negotiation. This takes place after Bid Acceptance and after any relevant files have been reviewed, but before submitting reserve bids. Bid element: The overall bid in a cell might be made up of a number of bid elements (e.g. setup price, unit price, freight). A bid element could also be some explanatory text (e.g. a part reference number) that is not part of the bid but forms useful information for the host. Bid Point: The central screen from which a bidder is able to prepare his bid limits (prior to negotiation) and submit new bids (during negotiation) Bidder: Person taking part in the negotiation with a view to winning the business that is being negotiated Category: A horizontal row (or group of rows) containing a series of lots Cell: An individual item or SKU within a lot. The smallest level at which a bid can be made. Cell Info: This is a tab found in the matrix of an eAuction. When you click on a line item and then on this tab, you will be given all information relevant to this particular item. Competitor Info: The information shown to a bidder about how their bid compares to the competition (i.e. best bid, rank) Entry Bid Level: The price a host sets as the starting price within a negotiation. The vendor will start at the Entry Bid Level and bid from that starting point. Group: A vertical column containing a series of lots History: A tab in the matrix where you can view all your bids you placed during the negotiation.


Host: Person running the negotiation. Can be a buyer or a seller depending on the type of negotiation event Initial bid: The starting price a bidder sets to bid within each cell. Suppliers all start at their own initial bid starting point. ITB: Invitation to bid. This is an outline of the negotiation that is emailed to potential bidders in order to ask them to accept to bid in the negotiation. The ITB is also shown online to bidders Item: A category can be broken down into multiple SKUs or items. Each item will be present in one or more groups. Launchpad: The post-login screen that allows the user to select any event that they have been invited to. Lot (or Package): The intersection of a category and a group – it is one or more cells that can be bid as part of a group or as part of a category MarketMaker: Someone who provides not just technical support on the MM4 platform but also works with the bidder from the run up through the live negotiation. Matrix: This is the screen where the bidding will be taking place and where all pricing will be entered. Organization: Each user in the system is allocated to one or more organizations. An organization usually represents a division of a company, or a whole company, or any other organization involved in negotiations. If a user is related to more than one organization she will need to choose which organization to log in for. Practice Event: This requires mandatory participation of all bidders. This is a practice of what the Live Event will look like. Sole purpose is to learn the platform and how to place a bid, and use the extra functionality. All numbers will be fictitious and will not be considered a formal bid. Publication: The time at which the ITB email is published to bidders. Reserve Price: The best possible bid a bidder is prepared to make on a bid element. The bidder is allowed to bid beyond the bidder reserve. This number is not visible to the host or MM4. Revenue Maximization: This is found in the Guidance tab within the matrix. If the bidder is pricing the whole lot, this function will give advice on how to make the contract value as large as possible. Revenue Negotiation: eAuction in which the host is selling and the price goes up instead of down. eRFQ: Request for quote. While some events may go to an eAuction, this will not. An eRFQ is used to get initial pricing only for a contract. This function may be used for sealed bids. Snapshot: A tab located within the matrix of an eAuction. This will give information to the bidder about the approximate distance the current bid is to the reserve.


Simple Matrix: eAuction design with only a simple cell grid within the negotiation. This is used for a single SKU total price or a lot total negotiation. UOM: Unit of measure – the quantity of 1 unit of this item – it might be KG or EA (each) or CWT (hundredweight) etc. UOM is purely an informational field. Value Maximization: This is found in the Guidance tab within the matrix. This gives a bidder who is pricing an entire lot advice about how to increase the overall profit margin. Weighted Negotiation: Combines a weighted adjustment (as a %age of the overall contract value or as a fixed amount) to each bidder’s price bid.


MarketMaker4 Online Platform

What to do prior to logging onto the MM4 site Check your browser settings:

The following browsers are supported by the MarketMaker4 solution: Google Chrome 9 and above, Firefox 3.6, and Internet Explorer 8

JavaScript must be enabled.

Login to MarketMaker4 Logging in to the MarketMaker4 platform is quite simple; the username will always be set as the user’s email address. An email will be sent and it will contain a link to set up a password. The password will need to be at least 6 characters in length. The user will be instructed to enter in the password twice for first time users. Once the email has been received a link will be given to the MarketMaker4 site to set up a password. After the password has been set, all clients and bidders can log in to the software via the MarketMaker4 website (www.mm4.com). The login link is located at the top right of the window browser.

Sign In The link to the login will bring up the sign in page. The password will be entered or a request to have a password reset can be sent. A system generated email will be sent to the user for a new password to be created.


Updating your User Profile The first time a bidder enters the site, the system will ask to verify and update your personal information within MarketMaker4. Your profile can then be updated after this first stage by clicking on your name within the upper right corner of the launch pad.

Updating your Organization Profile The first time logging in, the bidder will be prompted to verify and update the organization profile. The bidder should also upload the company’s logo which will be seen on the chat screen as well as on within the live negotiation. To later update the organization profile, click on the organization name in the upper right corner of the browser within the black bar.


MarketMaker4 Launchpad The MM4 Launchpad is a personalized dashboard allowing access to the users past and current Negotiations. A bidder will have access to:

MarketMaking

eSourcing suite The other features of the Launchpad are for subscription based clients. Bidders that are invited to participate in an eAuction will have the first 2 features available to them to be able to participate.


MarketMaking The first box in the Launchpad is MarketMaking. MarketMakers are the first point of contact for technical support. Bidders can contact MarketMakers through the MarketMaker Support chat function on the MM4 platform or by calling the MM4 main support line 312-662-1859. If the MarketMaker is unable to resolve the technical issue, a ticket will be opened with the operations manager and the technology team. Technical issues that escalate to operations manager and the technology team will be resolved within 24 hours.

eSourcing Suite The second cell is the 2.esouring suite. This is the cell that a bidder will find all the negotiations listed. If there are more than 5 negotiations, a bidder will find the rest when the View All button is clicked. This will direct the bidder to the dashboard, where certain actions may be found:

Open Bid Point

View the invitation to bid

Accept Terms and Conditions

View Negotiation Documents

How to Accept the Invitation When a bidder has been invited to participate in an eAuction or eRFQ, the invitation sent must be accepted to proceed in the process. Bidders will find an envelope icon either on the Launchpad or the View Negotiations page. By clicking on the icon, the bidder will then be taken to the Invitation to Bid, where Terms and Conditions are located. Accept them to progress to the next stage. Click on the envelope icon near the eAuction.

Accept terms and conditions by clicking the checkbox and hit accept.

View Attachments When terms and conditions are accepted, a bidder will then be taken to a list of the documents that the host has uploaded into the event. It is important that the bidder take the time to read and become familiar with the contents of these documents as these form the basis of a bidders participation in the event.


Confirm Participation Once a bidder has downloaded and worked through the relevant documentation, a prompt to confirm participation in the live event will appear. Make sure that the box is checked to confirm participation

After a bidder confirms participation, access to the Bid Point will become available.

Bid Point The Bid Point is the central screen from where the bidding will take place during the live event.

Enter the Bid Point On the Launchpad, click the negotiation name or Bid Point icon in the eSourcing Suite box. If not on the Launchpad page, move the cursor at the top of the screen and hover over the MM4 logo, a black bar will drop down.


Click on All Negotiations link, as shown below.

To access the Bid Point from the All Negotiations page, find the correct event under Negotiation and scan along the line to click on the leftmost green icon under Actions (Bidder may need to scroll to the right to see all icons).

Bid Point Matrix The Bid Point is laid out in a matrix. The exact form of the matrix will vary from event to event. In the example below, there are 3 categories (Wines, Beer, and Sake) and 3 groups (USA, UK and Japan). You can expand and collapse groups and categories to suit your requirements. Within each cell of the matrix a bidder will see the following:

Unit price entry bid. This is the point at which bidding will begin. If you cannot improve on this position, you should decline.

Your unit price reserve. This will show you the best price that you are prepared to offer and that you will have set before the event starts. These reserves are never visible to the host.

A Reserve button. Click this button to provide your reserve for that cell. If you provide Bid Reserve but then decide you are unable to bid on this cell you can always decline later on.

A Decline button. Click this button to decline bidding in this cell. Don’t worry if you inadvertently decline a cell, you can always re-accept it later on.

Some may also see a Bid button. This is not shown below, however this button is used when a bidder will set their own starting price, or initial price.


If participating in an Initial Bid event or a eRFQ, the Bid Point will differ slightly. Below a bidder will find that in place of Unit price entry bid, a bidder is required to enter Your Current Lot Price Bids. This is the bidder’s starting price that must be entered prior to setting reserves. Bidders entering in pricing in an eRFQ will not enter in reserve pricing, as this is for eAuction purposes.

There are two different ways to enter in pricing, manually and mass uploading.

Bid Reserves and Initial Bids The platform will advise how to make proper bid decisions based on the Bid Reserves a bidder provides. The system does not do any automatic bidding. The platform uses the bid reserves to guide the bidder to the areas where the bids will have the biggest financial benefit. While setting reserves may be required to place bids in a negotiation, reserve values are NEVER visible to the host.

Bid Reserves The amount entered as a reserve doesn’t need to be a bidder’s final reserve because at this stage, the amount just serves to confirm lot acceptance and to act as a guide limit during the live event. During the live event, the system will allow a bidder to bid below their designated Bid Reserves should they need to. It is essential that Bid Reserves are entered before the live event begins. If Bid Reserves have not been entered by the start time of the live event, the bidder will be automatically excluded from the auction and not be able to bid.

Initial Bids Initial bids will be the starting price that a bidder will enter into the matrix of the Bid Point. This price will be whatever price the bidder chooses. A bidder will be allowed to enter these prices in an Initial bid eAuction or eRFQ.


Please keep in mind that, that in an eAuction, if a bidder chooses a far-reaching price to start with, the majority of the time of the live eAuction will be solely adjusting the bid to become competitive. This can be time consuming. In a live event a bidder cannot drop/raise pricing drastically but rather gradually bid in increments.

Pricing entered manually A bidder will enter pricing in manually when participating in a small to mid-sized eAuction. This process is best used for less than 50 line items. As seen below, clicking the Bid button will pop up a screen to enter in initial bids. This popup also allows the bidder to apply the same value across multiple groups simply by checking the appropriate checkboxes, as seen below.

Once the initial bid is set, the reserve button will activate. Then the bidder will then be able to enter in reserves. When pricing an eRFQ, no reserve button will be available. If a bidder is participating in an Entry Bid Level eAuction, the first step will be skipped and the bidder will only need to enter reserves.


Once the reserve is set successfully the cell it will turn green. Any cells you choose to decline will turn red. Once you have completed all of the cells, a confirmation message will pop up.

If you wish to log in again to view or update your Bid Reserves or Initial Bids prior to the Live Event, you may all the way up until the event goes live.

Pricing Mass Upload This feature will let a bidder enter in all pricing at one time. It is best to use this function when pricing more than 50 line items. How this feature works is, there is an excel document to download, to enter pricing into. Next the bidder will upload the document back into the platform to set pricing or place bids.


How to Mass upload: When in the Bid Point, the bidder will find a link in the upper left hand corner that says Mass Bidding.

Once in the mass bidding screen the bidder will need to generate a new report. To do that, click Generate new report.

While the report is being created, there will be a waiting period, the time to wait will depend on how large the event is, which can take up to 15 minutes.

Once that is finished, a bidder will download the template to enter in pricing. Click on Download reserves and an excel document will download.


However, when entering both initial and reserve pricing, the look will differ slightly.

Once the excel document downloads, enter in pricing for each line item that the bidder will be participating in. The example below is a small example; you may see a much larger spreadsheet. Please do not use special characters, just simple text.

When you download the spreadsheet, to enter in both initial and reserve pricing you will have tabs at the bottom to indicate which is which. You will need to fill out both. Do not change any format that is in here or delete anything in the excel template.

The bidder should save this to their desktop in a file that is familiar, so it is easy to find to upload. Next, click on the Browse button.


Locate the saved spreadsheet. Double click the title or press open and it will automatically start uploading the pricing. Next, wait for the bids to process and then get the results.

Once this is done, the bidder will be ready for the live event.

Pricing for a Japanese eAuction Just like any eAuction, setting up reserve prices is very important, especially when it comes to Japanese eAuctions, this will serve as your guidance throughout the entire bid event. Setting reserves also confirms the first round of pricing for the live event, without reserves you will be unable to accept any round of pricing.

Japanese eAuctions In Japanese eAuctions the prices will change each Round by a Predefined Amount at a Predefined Timeframe. For example: In five minutes (predefined timeframe) the total price will decrease by 0.05% (predefined amount). You will need to decide to either "Accept" or "Withdraw" the current round price. The predefined values can change during the eAuction, and you will get notifications on such changes via the Chat box.


Once you withdraw from all the items, you will lose access to the eAuction. You will not be able to bid anymore. The bid matrix would be greyed out. You may be able to continue to chat with the host in case you have concerns or you want to continue bidding. The last round that you “accepted” the price for that item/lot is your FINAL BID. (The round before you withdrew)

Practice Event The practice event is mandatory for all bidders to walk through. There will be a specific time and date for everyone to attend, if a bidder is not in attendance one must be rescheduled. If it is not reschedule, the bidder will not be allowed to participate in the live event. The Practice event is for the sole purpose of learning how to use the online platform, to prepare bidders for the live event. A bidder will find the practice event listed as a completely separate event in the “View All Negotiations” screen. Click on the open Bid Point button. The bidder will see fictitious numbers but a similar layout of the specific event that is being practiced for. The bidder will be expected to chat with the host in the chat function in the lower right hand corner of the matrix screen. The bidder will be asked to respond to requests and walk through the steps that the host gives. This chat function will be of good use to ask questions. The practice will be over once the bidder has placed a bid and walked through all the steps. This will be done at the bidders pace. Please note if a bidder has participated in an eAuction with MarketMaker4 previously we still require participation in every practice. This is because we run multiple different types of eAuctions with different rules. Even though a bidder will have knowledge of the platform, what they are accustomed to may change. That being said please do not log into the practice and walk away from the screen. Those that do will not be considered for the live event.

During The Live Event When it is time to participate in the live event, you should go to http://bid.marketmaker4.com and access your Bid Point. The live event itself will take place during a limited time period so it is imperative to assemble a strong bid team who can make decisions on the spot.

Using the Matrix During the live event the bidder should be ready to work with all the information and tools that are provided. During the Practice event the bidder will have a chance to view the matrix in real time and work through the different functionality that is has to offer.


The main part of the matrix now shows information relevant to the live event:

Your current bid

A Bid button

Competitor information o Best unit price from cell leader o Best unit price from lot leader o Best total price from lot leader

Your total price per Cell and Lot

The Time to Negotiation End countdown is below. This will show how long is left to bid. The bidder should keep an eye on this in case the event is extended. For more information on extension rules, see the Event Rules section of this guide.

In the top right of the Bid Point screen there are some helpful hints to use during the live event, the Guidance section provides useful information as to where the bids will be most effective. Guidance is calculated based on the Bid Reserves the bidder provided before the start of the event. This also only calculates if the bidder has priced everything in the lot. Guidance will help keep track of which lot the bidder should keep their attention on, at any point in time. Within that tab a bidder will see Revenue


Maximization and Value Maximization. Revenue Maximization is good advice if the bidder wants to make the total contract value of the lots to be as large as possible (e.g. if you want market share and are not worried about profitability). Value Maximization is advice to should follow if the desired outcome is to maximize the overall profit margin.

Next to Guidance is the Snapshot tab which gives a quick snapshot of the current state of play in the negotiation. Again, it will show how well the bidder is performing against the Bid Reserves previously provided.

The next tab is the Cell Info tab. To get more descriptive information about a line item, click the item within the matrix and then this tab. It will provide the description, the unit of measure, in some instances a picture, and what is currently happening during the live event in the aspect of the bidder’s current bid, how far away from the reserve in amount and percentage.


The final tab is the History tab. This tab will show all bids that the bidder placed, including the date and time, and price.

At the bottom right is the Chat window with which the bidder will be able to communicate with the host in real time.


Placing a Bid Manually in an eAuction To place a bid during the live event, press the Bid button in the relevant cell, as shown here:

A bid screen will pop up, which will allow you to enter an amount within the Minimum and Maximum Allowed Bid range. For more information on this, see ‘Bid Improvement Rules’ in the ‘Event Rules’ section of this guide.

Notifications will pop up in the top right-hand corner of the screen to alert about changes, such as a new leading bid (in red). An example of such a notification is shown here:


Mass Bidding in an eAuction Once the reserve pricing is put into the platform, the bidder will be eligible to participate in the live event. The bidder will follow the similar steps taken to mass upload pricing.

Download the Bid Sheet

When the event goes live follow these steps:

1. Click on mass bidding in the upper right hand corner.

2. Click on generate report. *Important or you will get a blank spreadsheet

3. Once that generates, please click on download bids.


Prepare the Bids

In the document that is downloaded, a bidder will see a few extra columns (colors are presented here for demonstration only):

Your unit Price (yellow) - The bidder’s current offered price. This is the value the bidder will be able to change to reflect a new bid.

Unit Price bid range (white) - The acceptable bid range.

Unit Price best - The current best bid, as of the time the report was generated (this could be your price or a competitor's)

1. Adjust current prices that the bidder wishes to bid on. 2. Save these new prices to desk top. (Replace the old one) 3. Click Browse and find the new price sheet and upload the new prices. 4. Once the results are generated a bidder will be able to do a few things:

a. Go to the Bid Point page (where the colors, guidance, and chat will be shown) b. View the last submission results (to view what results the previous upload generated) c. Click Back to mass bidding (click here to continue bidding)


Continue Bidding

When clicking on Back to Mass Bidding continue to follow these steps to bid.

1. Click Generate new report (This will allow the platform to get real time competitor comparisons)

2. Once that generates, Download bids (To see how the latest bids have compared.) 3. Adjust new pricing and save to desktop 4. Browse the new pricing document and upload new prices 5. Repeat the steps as necessary until the bidder can no longer adjust their pricing.

Placing Bids in a Japanese eAuction Once the Japanese eAuction goes Live, the bidder will be prompted to refresh the screen.

Next, there will be timed rounds that will change the price. During the first round, the bidder will not need to Accept or Withdraw anything. All action buttons will be inactive, as seen below.


After the first round is over, the bidder will be prompted to refresh the screen again.

During Japanese eAuction events, it is advisable to refresh or hit F5 on your keyboard from time to time to be sure the bidder is seeing the updated state of the web site and the eAuction. During the second round, the bidder will need to decide to either hit Accept or Withdraw on the new line item/lot price. Hitting Accept means the current round price is a price the bidder approves of. Hitting withdraw means the current round price is not something the bidder can agree to. It is that simple. When the bidder accepts the current round price, the row will turn green. When the bidder withdraws the current round price, the row will turn red, as seen below.

During the course of the current round a bidder can change bid decisions, until it goes to the next round. For example if a bidder accidentally hits withdraw, the line item will turn red, just click on accept, and it will turn green.

By clicking Accept Lot, the bidder approves the current round price of all the items under the lot/category.

By clicking Withdraw Lot, the bidder cannot accept the current round price of all the items under the lot/category.

If the negotiation has already advanced to the next round and you were not able to accept a particular item or lot in time, let the host of the eAuction know through chat right away so that you can be added back to the current round.


The eAuction is over for the bidder once they can no longer accept the current round price on any items. The bidder may continue to chat with the host, or can log out of the event.

Additional features to know during a Japanese eAuction There are some additional features that the platform offers during a live event. Like in an eAuction there will be a snapshot, cell info, and history tab to guide you and help you with the bidding.

For more information on this please reference the eAuction terms or the eAuction section of this bidders guide. To show or hide additional information or properties about the products, click on the Show Detail icon at the top left of the bid matrix.


In order to change the size of the characters on the page, you need to click on the dropdown arrow located at the top right of the screen.

Understanding the Matrix The matrix uses color to show bidders their performance in different parts of the negotiation. Below is a guide to the meanings of these colors, but if ever unsure of the meaning of a color, simply hold the cursor over the relevant cell and you will be shown some context-sensitive help. Cell Colors:

This value has recently changed (within the last approx. 10-20 seconds) This value is the current best bid. This could be your bid, or another bidder’s entry The single item which has the largest margin available. This is calculated based on the Bid Reserves that were entered

Value in cell is same of the Bid Reserve No competitor info. Shown as the bidder is too far away from the leader

Text colors:

If cell text is shown in green, the current bid is the best bid. An exclamation mark (!) in green specifies that the price is tied with another bidder

If cell text is show in red, the current bid is equal to the starting bid and/or the bid is more than 10% away from the leading bid

If cell text is shown in yellow, the bid needs to improve between 0% - 3% to reach the leading bid

If cell text is shown in black, the bid needs to improve between 3% - 10% to reach the leading bid


Event Rules during an eAuction The host will define the following rules for the event:

Extension rules

Bid improvement rules The bidder should be aware of the rules that the host has set up for the event. Please note that the host can alter the settings for these rules before and during the live event.

Extension rules

Extension rules are used to auto-extend the negotiation when a leading bid is received in the closing minutes of an online event. This is to prevent the practice of “bid sniping” where bidders wait until the last moment to place their best bid. With extension rules, competitors have a chance to see new bids and to react to them. The host will configure the precise extension rules and may change them during the event. Although a typical event might be set with an initial duration of 45 minutes, you should budget 2 hours to take into account the likely extensions.

Bid improvement rules

Bid improvement rules stipulate that a bid must improve on a previous bid based on a particular percentage range that is set by the host. The bid popup window will always tell you what the allowed bid range is in the Minimum Allowed Bid and Maximum Allowed Bid Cells.

Best Practices for Live eAuctions In order for a successful eAuction there are best practices that can be followed to insure that the negotiation power of the eAuction is best put to use.

Supplier should always put their best pricing within the reserve area to allow the software guidance feature to work properly.

Suppliers should use the practice event to understand all aspects of the software and ask questions as they arise.

Suppliers should understand that their best pricing must be put within the eAuction and have a clear understanding that post eAuction there will not be further negotiations.

Suppliers should log on to the live negotiation 10 – 15 minutes before the start of the live event to ensure they are ready to go at the negotiation start.

Conversations should not take place with the client regarding pricing or terms prior to the eAuction unless there is a discrepancy that must be clarified.

Post eAuction, the client will meet with the top suppliers from the negotiations.