Reverse Auction To Be Implemented For ECS III Purchases

Tom Keith, (Acting) Associate Director for the Office of Logistics and Acquisition Operations (OLAO), announced today that NIH will implement a six month reverse auction pilot for their ECS III Government-wide Acquisition Contracts, starting February 2nd, 2009. Going forward, all solicitations posted on the ECS III Quoting System will be conducted through an online competitive reverse auction process. Contract holders may submit single bids or multiple decreasing bids during the specified period of time for the reverse auction. NIH is taking this action in an effort to increase ECS III contract holder access to and awareness of requirements and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the competitive process. Other key benefits of the ECS III System include:

• Improving buyers' compliance with Federal Acquisition Regulations
• Helping to ensure "the consistent use of fair and open competition"
• Reducing the cost of goods purchased with reverse auction bidding
• Decreasing buyer workload by streamlining the bidding process
• Enabling sellers to submit multiple bids with real-time competitive ranking
• Improving small and minority business utilization

To date, this online acquisition process has saved government buyers an average of more than 12% as compared to independent government cost estimates. "With an ever-increasing workload and fewer resources, federal government buyers are looking for tools that can help them do their jobs more efficiently and more effectively," Mr. Keith said. "Although the use of the process will be transparent to the ECS III end users, the new online reverse auction services through the ECS III Quoting System will continue to provide benefits for all stakeholders, including the government, the contract holders and the U.S taxpayer."

"As an approved process for NIH procurement offices, the ECS III Quoting System is a valuable resource for the agency’s acquisition processes and the ECS III customers," said Millicent M. Manning, Senior Contracting Officer for the ECS III Contract. "As NIH proceeds with this pilot, the reverse auction will be one of the strategic initiatives that will help maximize savings and process efficiencies while improving competition, documentation and procedural transparency."

In addition to increasing competition and reducing costs, NIH recognizes a number of process efficiencies by using the ECS III Quoting system, including automated notification and enhanced documentation for the contract file. "It’s great that we can assist ECS III customers in meeting their operational goals" said Tim Warrington, NITAAC IT Director.