1. Chapter 4: Bid Monitoring for Auction

The bid monitoring feature in an auction enables you, as a buyer, to monitor the ongoing proceedings in a live auction event and to make certain ad-hoc changes to the auction timelines and bids, as per your requirement.

Bid Monitoring gives you a holistic view of the entire event as well as a detailed view into each of the lots that are part of the event.

4.1 Event Summary

The Event Summary tab is displayed at the top once the event is live. On the Event Summary tab, you have cards that display the total baseline cost, the suggested spends, and the savings for the entire event.

A standard graph is then displayed that showcases savings per lot. You can also hover over the graphical elements to view additional details:

Below on the Event Summary page, you also have a Bid Summary section.

This section displays the best bidder information, along with the best bid amount and the total savings that can be derived due to it.

Furthermore, you have options on the column header-level as shown below:

• Re-size the columns as per your requirement.

• Pin a column to secure its position in the table.

• Auto-size one or all columns.

• Reset the changes made to default.

• Apply filtering parameters on the data listed.

4.2 Lot Summary

The Lot Summary tab displays real-time information in terms of bids being placed as the auction progresses.

You can perform the following actions on the Lot Summary page:

• Click to select the required lot on the left pane.

• Hover over the points on the graph to see additional details.

• Configure extensions manually using the Extensions block on the header.

• Event Currency displays the currency details for the auction.

• Suppliers: Displays the count number of suppliers in the event. Click to view the Active or Non-Active suppliers.

The Live Auction Monitor graph displays bids being placed in real-time in a trajectory that shows all historical bids placed.

You can click the supplier names displayed as labels on the bottom to toggle their bid visibility on the graph.

Below on the Lot Summary page, the Bid Table is displayed. There are two tabs:

• Bid Table – Displays information on best bids placed by suppliers or by items.

• Bid History – Displays information of all bids placed from the beginning of the event.

Using this table, you can:

• View best bid information based on the supplier.

• View best bids placed based on items being auctioned as part of the lot.

• Click to qualify or disqualify a supplier from participating in the event.

• To manage specific columns click Manage Columns.

• The Manage Column slider window is displayed.

• To modify settings to a column, click on the settings icon on a specific column and modify the changes as required.

• To add a new column click Add Column, an Add column box is displayed enter the number of columns that you want to create and click on check mark.

• The new custom column is created.

The Bid History tab displays information of all bids placed from the beginning of the event with the latest bids displayed first. Timestamps are also displayed for each bid.

On this tab of the table, you can:

• Select View Deleted Bids checkbox to view bids that are deleted.

• Click to expand and drill down for more information on bid placed.

• Click to delete the associated bid.

When you expand a bid and see details of bid amount of each line-item, you can also view custom columns added and their details. If a custom column is added for Supplier input, then you can also view the Supplier input details for the column as a part of the bid.

4.3 Messaging the Suppliers

Using the Discussion Forum, you can interact with participating suppliers.

To use the chat functionality:

1. Click the Discussion Forum option on the header.

The discussion forum is displayed as follows:

2. On the left pane, the different discussions created by the buyer for this event are displayed.

3. Click the required discussion to view messages related to it.

4. Enter the required message in the field provided below and click Post to respond.

4.4 Disqualifying a Supplier

You can disqualify a supplier even after the supplier has agreed to participate in the Auction event. Disqualifying suppliers is an action that happens at the lot level, that is, suppliers will no longer be able to participate in a particular lot once they are disqualified from that particular lot.

To disqualify a supplier:

1. Navigate to the Lot Summary tab.

2. Scroll down on the page to the Bid Table section.

3. For the required supplier, click Disqualify.

4. To add the disqualified supplier back to the auction event, Requalify option.