EDS Canada created a 10-week process that included a request for proposal to qualify suppliers first on quality and secondarily on price. The top six were invited to participate in the auction, which was held on a Thursday and included reps from EDS' human resource, information technology, procurement and accounting departments monitoring the action. For three hours, the suppliers submitted e-mails with their bids, watching how they stacked up to the competition along the way, and resubmitted even lower bids. After the auction closed and EDS verified the final bids, it announced its decision the following Monday. While the savings were the result of the negotiation, there was a higher requirement for the participating suppliers.
Quality is very important.
But we got down to the market price within a three-hour timeframe. Think of the time spent in negotiations, travel and other intangibles that we saved. Read other Human Resource Executive magazine stories from our archive. All materials copyright of Human Resource Executive magazine.