TCO (total cost of ownership) auctions
The organizer has the option to express a set of parameters (qualitative or quantitative) in monetary terms (in total cost of ownership, TCO value), based on their own preferences. The organizer then assigns a value to these parameters. In this case, the bid amount for the item is not entered individually, but chosen from a list of options with a predefined value (e.g. guarantee, payment terms).
In such cases, the system calculates the total value of all the items that can be bid on.
So, in case of a buying auction, if:
Participant 1's offer is €25,000
Participant 2's offer is €25,000
Participant 1's warranty commitment is „1 year” (with an assigned value of €5,000)
Participant 2's warranty commitment is „1 year on-site” (with an assigned value of €4,000)
...then the overall evaluation will rank Participant 2 higher based on the organizer's parameters.
Bidding via Excel
The organizer has the option to request bids for items using an Excel file. It is used in cases where there are several items in the auction, but the winner is selected based on the aggregate result. The use of a spreadsheet makes bidding easier, as the interface does not require bids to be submitted item by item.
The organizer will share a predetermined Excel file on the auction platform, which can be downloaded and filled in. The organizer can lock irrelevant cells to avoid incorrect completion. The value of the cell specified by the organizer will be submitted as a bid during the auction.