Online Auctions

For those of you familiar with ebay, consider this. A Fortune 100 corporation using an inhouse ebay like auction process to procure materials and award contracts.

What do you think? Lead to mischief? Great results? mixed bag?

I left GE in 2002 and at that time all major supplier contracts were bid through GE's own online auction site.

In Facilities Engineering we bid things like paving parking lots, tearing down old buildings, supplies, natural gas, oil and engineering services. through online auctions.

Some huge successes, some outrageous failures.

If you develop sound specifications, and certify suppliers this is a really valuable tool, when applied intelligently.

Look at your procurement needs and thing, "Is this something we can auction?"