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Executive Summary
This executive summary has been written for vice chancellors and senior management to provide an outlined understanding of this report, the primary objective of which was to answer the question, ‘What are the relevant advantages and disadvantages of on line reverse e-Auctioning within the UK Higher Education Sector?’ The results were ranked in table 1 within the conclusion of this report.
The research took six months to complete and was achieved by establishing known advantages and disadvantages through secondary resources. These were then expanded through interviews (see appendix 5) and finally a questionnaire was sent out to purchasing professionals within the UK HE sector to obtain their opinions for analysis.
The most important findings of this research were the re moval of the following four disadvantages from the original list 1) Damages the relationship between buyer and supplier, 2) Key performance indicators such as quality, after sales services, delivery times and reliability can suffer, 3) Reverse e-auctions can increase costs for suppliers and 4) Are Reverse e-auctions ethical? The results highlighted that the above were not relevant to this sector. This was a clear sign that reverse e-auctions are a valuable tool. Those who had not used this tool answered dis tinctly higher (see appendix 11) for disadvantages 1 – 3. This report should be advertised within the sector to dispel the three disadvantages highlighted above as a barrier to using reverse e-auctions.
Advantages such as ‘Provides a more level playing field’, ‘Improves specifications for suppliers’ and ‘Vastly increases management information available’ showed the largest difference of opinion between those who had conducted at least one reverse e-auction to those who had not conducted any. These advantages should also be advertised more widely within the sector, as those who have experience with this tool have learnt that these advantages are three of the more relevant to the sector.
It is worth noting that there are best practice guides available to follow to achieve a successful reverse e-auction. ‘The use of e-Auctions in Higher Education’ (EPG 2003) being the most relevant. The reader should note the limitations of this report in section 5.4, although I feel the findings of this research are valuable to the HE sector.