After learning of the great success several other local universities were having with reverse auction bidding, this CA University decided it was their turn! They partnered with eBridge to run a reverse auction for their purchase of dorm room furniture. For the live competitive auction, suppliers were required to bid a lump sum total for the entire scope of service (included: purchase of furniture, delivery and handling, installation as well as removal and relocation of existing furniture). Immediately following the live auction, suppliers had 3 hours to electronically submit their unit pricing, giving a complete breakdown of the final lump sum bid placed during the live auction. During the 25 minute auction, 4 suppliers placed 41 bids resulting in 5 first-place turnovers. The spread between 1st and 2nd place was 0.32% with an estimated savings of $19,800 or 12.5%.
Posts Tagged ‘Change Management’
CA University Will Sleep Better After Saving 12.5% on Their Dorm Room Furniture Through eBridge’s Reverse Auction Process
Achieving successful change with reverse auctions
Last week on ZDnet.com guest blogger Barbara Kivowitz, shared insights in adopting new technology successfully. Kivowitz writes:
One of the most formidable challenges an organization faces when implementing new technology is simply getting employees to use these tools and the new processes they support. Senior management budgets development costs and training, but typically under-invests in the change management efforts needed to turn technology into the strategic transformation the business expects.
Underestimating the impact of technology-driven process change on employees is a key factor in project failure, even when deploying excellent technology.
Communication, collaboration, and knowledge sharing are the critical factors for achieving project success.
At eBridge, we work with customers to make reverse auction procurement an integral part of their purchasing strategy. And that doesn’t just include running an auction. Our team of procurement professionals work hand-in-hand with our customers, providing the tools to implement the reverse auction process and also the leadership through education and training to achieve long-term success.
In the most literal sense, implementing new technology into an organization requires individuals to perform their job in a new way. While senior management might buy in to the reverse auction process, we also deliver extensive training and education so our customers are comfortable and ready to take on a new opportunity that will achieve remarkable results for their organization.
How is your organization adopting change?
Audio interview on IT success and failure
Below is a link to a recorded audio interview discussing IT success and failure from a CIO perspective. It includes discussion of collaboration and knowledge sharing on the subject between Mike Krigsman from ZD Net’s blog “IT Project Failures” and Mike Gammage, consultant for consulting firm, Nimbus Partners.
Click here to listen!
Getting Employees to Accept Change- in eProcurement and Beyond
In a blog post by Anne Field of Register Rep, the author writes about the importance of communication and collaboration when implementing a change and then offers practical tips for adoption.
From the post:
You know what they say: The one constant is change. That said, there’s another eternal truth: The one constant about change is that people hate it. And since your employees undoubtedly are people, you can expect that they, also, feel uncomfortable when facing the prospect of a disruption to their routines. But that can make it very difficult to try to introduce changes, large and small, into your practice. We’re talking about anything from a new CRM system to an all-out revision of strategic direction. Making matters even trickier, according to Daniel Crosby, an organizational psychologist in Huntsville, Ala., who specializes in change management for financial advisors, the natural inclination for many results-oriented advisors is to move at top speed, completely ignoring the time-consuming spade work they might need to persuade their staff to get on board.
Trouble is, if your employees don’t embrace whatever change it is you want to introduce, you can forget about it: You won’t succeed. “Trying to make a change without staff buy-in is a recipe for disaster,” says Crosby.
Still, introducing change is quite doable if approached with sufficient finesse and patience, as Story discovered. “Change is a process,” says Crosby. Understand what’s involved and you, most likely, can make just about any change stick.
First place to start is a reality check. That means acquiring an understanding that you and your employees might regard a specific change very differently—and that you need to respect their point of view.
Like any sale, however, introducing change ultimately is about convincingly demonstrating the benefits of whatever you’re pushing. In other words, you need to show employees how the move will help them and the practices do better. “When people are well-informed and understand the decision, change is much easier,” says Palaveev. In some cases, that might take some doing—but the effort is essential.
After you’ve made your case, then you have to persuade employees they have a stake in the outcome. And you do that by, as the jargon goes, getting them to assume ownership of the change. Best is to identify the people directly affected by the change and incorporate them into the decision-making process.
By getting employees involved in the decision-making process, you also can save time in unexpected ways.
How are you including your employees in decision-making processes, particularly when it relates to new procurement processes?
The Individual is the Unit of Change: Implementing Reverse Auction Procurement
A few weeks ago I wrote a post entitled, Organizational Change and Reverse Auctions. It stated “organizations don’t change, people do or they don’t”.
Expanding on the topic of the individual’s role in change management, the Change Management Learning Center states, “The essence of change management is encouraging and enabling individual transitions resulting from a project or an initiative. Because change happens one person at a time, change management provides a critical component for achieving project outcomes and results.”
When applied to the reverse auction, organizations will not realize the efficiencies of the new technology if individuals are not challenged to do his or her job in a different way. The reverse auction is not a big change, but it is new technology and management is asking employees, as individuals, to do their jobs slightly different to yield greater results.
This makes having an effective change management strategy that focuses on the individual in your organization essential to affecting change and sustaining change.
How are you focusing on the individual to take advantage of new opportunities for your business?