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Navy Signs a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for use of GSA's Reverse Auction eTool

Navy Signs a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for use of GSA’s Reverse Auction eTool

WASHINGTON—On January 18, 2017, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) and the Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the Department of the Navy (DoN), including the U.S. Marine Corps, to use GSA’s government developed and managed Reverse Auction (RA) eTool to drive more speed and savings into their acquisition process. The RA platform delivers increased savings on the most commonly purchased office products, equipment, and services, while also making it easier for small business to compete for DoN business.

“GSA and the DoN have a longstanding partnership for reverse auction procurements,” said Erv Koehler, Acting Regional Administrator and FAS Regional Commissioner for GSA Region 4, Southeast Sunbelt Region. “Since the introduction of the RA platform in 2013, the Navy has been GSA’s most active user - awarding over $22 million in reverse auction procurements with an average savings of 7.82 per cent over standard pricing.“

In a reverse auction, sellers compete to win business from agencies, with prices decreasing as the competitive auction progresses. This approach allows competing vendors to know where they stand in the auction process and if their current submitted price is the “apparent low” bid. It’s a dynamic pricing environment and vendors are allowed to revise their submitted prices until the auction ends. This allows goods and services to be more competitively priced, driving down the total cost of procurements and increasing savings to customers and taxpayers.

Launched in 2013, the RA platform facilitates reverse auctions on GSA and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Contracts, Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs) issued by GSA and Federal agencies against Schedule Contracts, Non-GSA contracts, and Open Market procurements and has delivered millions of dollars in savings to federal, state and local customers. Reverse auctions provide greater transparency into prices paid, which improves the government’s ability to negotiate with vendors to receive best pricing possible. The reverse auction platform also captures line-item data by agency bureau, which helps agencies perform prices paid analysis and provides insights into purchasing behavior for strategic sourcing opportunities.

The DoN has been a pilot agency for GSA in rolling out major system enhancements to the GSA Reverse Auctions platform, including the addition of Open Market procurements in June 2015. “NAVSUP has enjoyed the opportunity during the past three plus years to work closely with GSA on its continued enhancement of the Reverse Auctions platform, said NAVSUP Assistant Commander for Contracts, Mark Bennington. “The Navy Strategic Sourcing Program Management Office (SSPMO) is actively reviewing existing GSA etools and the integrated use of those etools. The Navy SSPMO focus is on determining if additional potential savings can be realized by Navy through more effective integration of the multiple etools provided by GSA.”

For more information about this MoU and/or GSA Reverse Auctions, visit www.reverseauctions.gsa.gov (platform has been decommissioned).

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