Understanding Bidding

When the created event is posted, bidders receive notification of the event. They can browse events based on various search and sort criteria, place bids based on the parameters that you have set for the event, and receive notifications about the status of the event. For bidders who enter their bids using fax or mail, you can enter the faxed or mailed bids online for them.

PeopleSoft Strategic Sourcing enforces the event rules that you set and maintains a bid history audit trail.

When a bidder posts a bid, PeopleSoft Strategic Sourcing:

  • Verifies that the event end date has not passed.

  • Saves any changes that the bidder has made, if a previous bid is being updated.

  • Verifies that bid responses have been entered for each required bid factor.

Depending on the situation, other edits can occur when a bid is posted. Here are some of the possible scenarios and how posting is affected.

Auction Event

The system verifies that the posting is the best bid received so far:

  • If the bid currency is not the same as the event currency, it converts the bid price to the event currency to determine whether the bid is a winning bid.

  • If the bid does not score higher than the current winning bid, it lists the bid's score compared to the winning score on the Create Bid Response page.

    The bidder can choose to post a bid that does not beat the current winning bid or revise the bid to obtain a higher score.

  • If the bid scores higher than the current winning bid, it generates an email notification to the previous high bidder with information that the previous bidder has been outbid.

Auction event options depend on the combination of several different settings on the Business Unit Definition page (Set Up Financials/Supply Chain, and then Business Unit Related, and then Sourcing).

  • If the On the Basis Of option is set to Price, then the bidder is competing based solely on price, not on score.

  • If the On the Basis Of option is set to Score, then the bidder is competing based on score.

  • If theBids Compete At option is set to Event Level, then the bidder is competing based on total event price or total event score.

  • If the Bids Compete At option is set to Line Level, then the bidder is competing based on each line's unit bid price or line score.

  • If the Bidders Must Beat option is set to Winning Bid, then the bidder must always beat either the current total winning bid (which again is determined as either the total event winning price or total event winning score) or each line's winning bid (unit bid price or winning line score) for the lines upon which the bidder bids.

  • If the Bidders Must Beat option is set to Own Bid, then the bidder must always beat either his or her own previous total bid price or score or his or her last unit bid price or line score depending on what the Bids Compete At and On The Basis Of fields are set to.

    The bidder is not alerted if his or her bid does not score higher. Instead, depending on the options on the Event Settings and Options page, the bidder can see either the winning score on the create response so that the bidder can know whether his or her bid beats the winning bid. If the winning bid does not appear to the user, then the bidder can see his or her rank or bid status after bid posting.

  • If Display Winning Bid to Bidders is not selected, bidders can see only their bid statuses (winning or outbid) or bid rank, depending on whether displaying the bid rank has been selected.

    Bidders cannot see the winning bid.

See Event Settings and Options Page.

Event Extension Is Enabled

The system checks to see whether the posted bid is within the last bid received time frame and what number of extensions are set on the event:

  • If the posted bid date is not within the last bid received time frame, the event end date is not updated.

  • If the posted bid time is within the last bid received time frame and the number of extensions has not already been allocated, the event end date is extended based on the parameters set on the event.

  • If the posted bid time is within the last bid received time frame, but the number of extensions has already been allocated, the end date is not updated.

  • If the event has events lots associated with it, the Preview, Start, and End Date fields are updated for all subsequent event lots when an event extension is triggered.

Event Is a Sealed RFx

The calculated score is not visible to the bidder.

The event originator cannot view either bids or bid history until the event end date is reached.

Event Is an RFx But Not a Sealed Bid

The calculated score is not visible to the bidder.

The event originator can view the bid once it is posted.

RFI Events

When you bid on RFI events, you respond only to header bid factors; there are no line bid factors.

If the RFI is being scored, the calculated score is not visible to the bidder.