Acs Powers Federal Government's Largest-Ever Online Reverse Auction - Government Activity

EDP Weekly's IT Monitor, Oct 9, 2000

ACS (NYSE: ACS), a leading provider of commercial and government IT solutions, completed the largest online reverse auction in the history of federal government e-business -- and the first under GSA's Buyers.gov portal. The Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) harnessed the power of ACS' B2GExpress(SM) to purchase over $7.6 million of IT commodities at a savings of more than $2 million over estimated cost.

A group of 12 pre-qualified IT commodity suppliers, including some of the most notable companies in the federal IT market, competed in a dynamic, real- time reverse auctioning event. The live bidding, scheduled to last only one hour, continued for over four hours, spurred on by descending prices. The auction is expected to result in awards to three vendors who will supply DFAS with over 6,000 desktop computers, nearly 1,500 printers and approximately 200 laptop computers. When tallied, the combined savings to DFAS are estimated to be 21.5% over best costs from an existing Blanket Purchasing Agreement.

The Federal Technology Service of the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) coordinated the historic auction through its web-based portal, Buyers.gov. This online procurement tool allows federal clients and GSA buyers to post requirements for information technology commodities directly on the Internet, thereby significantly increasing the speed and efficiency with which commodities can be purchased.