Reverse Auctions

Speaker: Bill Broderick, County of San Diego

On-line reverse auctions take advantage of the internet to give companies & agencies an edge in the bidding process. Traditionally, bidders submit either sealed bids or competitive proposals to a customer. The customer then analyzes each bid and awards the contract to the company that best meets their requirements. This process can take weeks to complete.

On the other hand, on-line real time reverse auctions typically take 30 to 45 minutes. They can allow bidders to see the other bids but not the identity of the other bidders. The nature of the auction saves time while the transparency of the bidding can save money.

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Speaker biography: William J. Broderick

Bill Broderick is a Senior Procurement Specialist with the Department of Purchasing and Contracting for the County of San Diego. In this role he is the Administrator of the Reverse Auction Internet system. In addition, he is the Contracting Technical Representative (COTR) for over 50 contracts to include the County Procurement Card (P-card) Program. This represents approximately over 100 million dollars in products or services to County departments.

Bill has also held numerous procurement positions in the private sector in his 20-years prior to joining the County of San Diego. He began his purchasing career in Home Health in San Diego. After working as a driver for several companies he became the start up Operation Manger for Shield Healthcare, a subsidy of C.R. Bard Inc. After Shield he spent time at Tri-City Hospital and Patterson Dental Supply, which is one of only two national distributors of dental suppliers in the country. His role with Patterson Dental was to purchase capital equipment and coordinate deliveries for dental supply remodels and build outs.

He graduated from San Diego City College, with AA degree in Purchasing and Material Management and holds a C.P.M. certificate from the National Association of Purchasing Management (N.A.P.M.). He is also an active member of California Association of Public Purchasing Officers (CAPPO). He has been responsible for the San Diego County Cooperative Public Auctions and the closing of the County Central Stores Warehouse by moving two million dollars of inventory to a Just in Time environment.

Since joining the County of San Diego in 2001, Bill has worked on various projects such as overseeing the County of San Diego auction process, Material Manager, and he currently supervises the Procurement Card process and is the Administrator of the Reverse Auction Internet system.

Bill will be giving a presentation on the reverse auction process at the July dinner meeting. Listed below is background information on the Reverse Auction process.

Over the last two and a half years, the County of San Diego’s Department of Purchasing and Contracting has conducted several web based electronic reverse auctions.

The first reverse auction was held in December 2002 for the San Diego District Attorney (DA), who wanted to buy a mix of undercover vehicles such as Toyota, Nissan, and Honda. The County saved approximately 6-8% ($12,000-$15,000) using this aggressive pricing technique over conventional methods i.e. the formal sealed bid process.

Since the first reverse auction, the County has run over $40 million worth of procurements through the reverse auction process with a documented savings in excess of $4 million dollars. The County will continue to expand the use of the reverse auction process for different types of competition.