Municipalities & eAuctionsAn analysis of the use of eAuctions in Czech and Slovak municipalities in 2011, 2012 and 2013

In 2005 we carried out our first "municipal" eAuction in Levice, a Slovak city with a population of 35,000. By that time we had already had several years of eAuction experience, having carried out hundreds of eAuctions in the private sector, but cities were a new thing for us. The motivation of the city authorities for trying something new was the need to deal with a tight budget and so their primary objective was making savings. In this we were successful. Subsequently, the first municipal eAuctions were mostly carried out in smaller cities like Levice, which in retrospect may be explained by the fact that saving every penny they could was important to them. In the Czech and Slovak Republics there are over 20,000 eAuctions a year using PROebiz software, of which about 2,000 are carried out in municipalities. By way of research we approached cities which had had wide-ranging and long-term eAuction experience. There were two parts to this research. In one part, we asked users of eAuctions in these cities to write a few paragraphs expressing their personal experience with eAuctions. In the other part, the results of eAuctions in more than two hundred municipalities were analysed. These municipalities either carried out eAuctions themselves or by outsourcing. In the light of our strong position on the Czech and Slovak markets, the results of this research and analysis should be sufficiently valid. The results are a real testament to the value of using eAuctions in the public sector and indicate that savings can be made in every procurement category.