Online Reverse Auctions: A Pricing Tool for Government Contracting

摘要

Reverse Auctions (RA) are the next gene ration of procurement application software designed to link acquisition reform and common DoD procurement business processes with commercial best practices and advances in electronic commerce. When fully implemented, it will serve the DoD and Federal Government. This research examines RAs and emerging electronic commerce technologies that are revolutionizing the business industry today. Through a literature review and interview process, an analysis of RAs along with eBreviate, a commercial RA contracting venture and leading RA software applications in e-commerce is presented. Innovation analysis is applied to the data gathered from the research to develop a new process design. As analysts predict that by 2003, business to business e-commerce will grow to $1 .3 trillion and 95% of business industry is going to go to RAs, only an aggressive implementation of innovative technologies today will prepare Government for the procurement needs of tomorrow. It is to this end that this research is conducted, with the intent of fostering innovative change in Government pricing.