8 June 2006

The latest electronic auction (e-auction) organised by the Office of Government Commerce's (OGC's) procurement workstream team saved £2.7 million for the UK taxpayer.

These savings were the largest achieved in an OGC e-auction so far and delivered a 41 per cent price reduction against the starting value of £6.5 million, with 12 buyers from central government, local authorities and the NHS taking part.

Around 400 bids for IT hardware and related products were made by suppliers of these organisations.

Commenting on future plans on for IT e-procurement in the public sector, OGC procurement programmes director Richard Abbott said: "OGC will be continuing to look at leveraging significantly larger and more strategic engagements with the key players in the IT hardware market."

The government has identified e-auctions as an extremely effective way to ensure buyers involved the procurement process get good value for money.

Benefits of this system include a reduction in tender and bid costs to both suppliers and users, ease and flexibility of use, instant efficiency gains that are both cashable and non-cashable, and less bureaucracy.

© Adfero Ltd

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