City of Chesapeake, Va., Saves 28.5 Percent on Annual Vehicle Tire Contract Using Orbis Online's Dynamic Pricing; Reverse Auction Yields Tremendous Savings for Chesapeake
SAN ANTONIO--June 17, 2002--The City of Chesapeake, Va. (Chesapeake), recently made a significant advance in its use of electronic commerce and saved its taxpayers close to 30 percent on its annual contract for motor pool vehicle tires.
Chesapeake joined an ever-growing number of municipalities that use reverse auctioning, via the Internet, to achieve lower prices on the goods and services they purchase. Chesapeake purchases tires for police vehicles, regular-duty automobiles, and both light and heavy-duty trucks.
Using traditional sealed bids to acquire pricing, Chesapeake's tire contract last year was valued at $325,000. This year, using Orbis Online's reverse auction platform, Chesapeake saved $99,541, or 28.5 percent off that price. York County and the City of Chesapeake School Bus Garage will also utilize the favorable terms generated by Orbis Online's dynamic pricing, extending the benefits of a single procurement event further.
Major Savings on a Single Contract
"We're very happy with the results of our first reverse auction. Using Orbis' services we will save almost $100,000 this year -- just on tires," said Patricia Barber, procurement specialist with the City of Chesapeake. "Orbis had approached us last year. It took us some time to decide to try a reverse auction, though we were so impressed with their offering we put a link to Orbis on our City Web site. Now that we have completed an event and it went so well, we're actively planning our next venture into dynamic pricing."
"Our customers have one principal goal: to get the appropriate product or service at the best price at the right time," explained Dr. James Strader, chief executive officer of Orbis Online. "We offer extensive knowledge and expertise in dynamic pricing techniques and an easy-to-use technological tool suite. Orbis ensures a fair, transparent, competitive environment for both buyers and suppliers."
Active Vendor Bidding
Extending Chesapeake's ability to find new suppliers, Orbis Online contacted tire vendors nationwide to participate in the event. Competition among participating suppliers turned a scheduled 30-minute event into a 65-minute competitive event in which seven five-minute extensions took place.
The Orbis Online dynamic pricing platform promotes competition to the fullest extent possible by including time extensions. A bid placed in the last five minutes of an auction triggers a five-minute extension that prevents last-second bidding and keeps all participants on an even playing field.
Reverse Auctions Offer Efficiency and Savings
The benefits of reverse auctions are not exclusive to the buyer in a dynamic pricing event. Vendors also benefit, because they spend less time preparing extensive paper documents for a static one-chance bid. Vendors that participate in reverse auctions benefit by seeing their competitors' bids and having the opportunity to submit counter offers to better compete in a transparent market environment, significantly improving their chances to secure the business.
About Orbis Online Inc.
Orbis Online Inc., headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, offers patent-pending dynamic competitive pricing tools that significantly reduce the cost of products and services versus historical procurement methods. Orbis transforms the traditional competitive bidding process into more powerful events that are live, online and worldwide. Orbis' value proposition is unique. The superior functionality of the solution includes all the benefits customers can normally experience only by purchasing or developing custom systems and requires no up-front costs or software installation.
For more information about Orbis Online Inc., please visit our Web site at www.OrbisOnline.com, or call 210/576-7600. Demonstrations of Orbis Online's unique auction platforms are available at the Web site: www.wsdemo.com, or can be facilitated by contacting Orbis Online directly.
Reader Contact Information: Orbis Online Inc., 100 NE Loop 410, Suite 500, San Antonio, TX 78216, Tel: 210/576-7600, Fax: 210/576-0760, www.orbisonline.com, marketing@orbisonline.com.
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