ausschreiben24.com in practice!
Find out what our satisfied customers have to say!
Energieversorgung Oberhausen
Increased security
There are many aspects to consider when issuing public tenders. Since Energieversorgung Oberhausen AG has been using ausschreiben24.com, we have records covering every step of each tendering process and we can access these documents at the touch of a button.
“That used to be extremely time-consuming for us”, explains Thorsten Löll, Purchasing Manager at Energieversorgung Oberhausen AG. He can remember the days when they used to write to potential bidders by post. Around 40 to 50 pages needed to be copied for each letter. Some letters were sent with photos and USB sticks, as well as pre-labelled self-addressed envelopes. The bids that we received needed to be inputted into Excel tables by hand. We needed to invest so much time and effort because of the particularly strict regulations governing public tenders. “The regulations are still as strict as they were back then. But today, it’s so much easier to comply with them”, states Mr Löll.
User-friendly
The key benefits that ausschreiben24.com brings for Energieversorgung Oberhausen are the ease of use and the fact that the solution is web-based. “In the past, we sometimes dealt with small trade businesses that didn’t have Excel on their PCs and weren’t able to take part in tenders. Everyone has internet access, however, and thanks to the platform’s user-friendliness, these businesses have no problem using the solution”, adds Mr Löll. Monika Wiemer, another purchasing manager at Energieversorgung Oberhausen AG, also considers the tender record files a significant advantage. “Every step of the process is documented and the records are only a click away. This increases security tremendously”, she explains.
Nagel-Group
Procurement made easy!
The Nagel Group procurement team is involved in purchasing indirect goods such as investments in lorries and trailers, a wide range of consumer goods and all kinds of services. In response to this diverse range of requirements, the international provider of food logistics has implemented ausschreiben24.com for its procurement.
“One of the major challenges we face is responding to the heterogeneous requirements of tenders for indirect goods and services using a system-based platform. This pushed us to look for a flexible tendering solution – and we found exactly what we were looking for with ausschreiben24.com”, says Thomas Menzel, Director of Central Purchasing at the Nagel Group. Thomas Menzel and his project team decided to introduce the flexible interactive platform provided by prego services in winter 2013. One of the factors that swayed our decision was that the system is very user-friendly. “The solution is self-explanatory, so you can use it straight away. And because it’s in the cloud, the solution doesn’t need to be installed on individual computers”, explains Mr Menzel.
Better comparisons
Other key points to consider were profitability and process optimisation. “Data transfer is now a standardised, digital process. This improves the comparability of the bids and bidders”, explains Mr Menzel. Earlier, the calls for tender and specifications were compiled by the department concerned. They were then sent out by post or email, either to the central purchasing department or directly to suppliers. We requested prices by phone sometimes, too. ausschreiben24.com, however, enables us to conduct all the steps in the process using a single platform. This removes redundant tasks and media gaps, and makes awarding contracts a logical, objective process. Because all data is available digitally, the audit process is also more reliable.
Warsteiner Gruppe
Bridging the media gap
The Warsteiner Group uses ausschreiben24.com to conduct the entire purchasing process in a single system. Manual data transfer, which used to be time-consuming and prone to errors, is now a thing of the past.
Madeleine Knoop, central procurement manager at Warsteiner Group, was looking for an application that lent itself to the procurement processes of medium-sized companies and didn’t require a considerable investment. She first read about ausschreiben24.com in a brochure for the Digital Solutions Days hosted by the Association for Supply Chain Management, Procurement and Logistics (BME-eLösungstage). After testing the system for several months, which included coordination with the IT and auditing departments and tests with selected business partners, the company decided to implement ausschreiben24.com.
High level of satisfaction
The feedback from suppliers played a key role in the purchasing decision. “We were unsure, at first, how well the change in system would be received. The feedback we received was nothing but positive”, confirms Ms Knoop. Suppliers gave particularly good feedback concerning the intuitive design of the solution. Initially, the solution was implemented in a privately owned brewery – just for the procurement of promotional material. It was rolled out to other product categories later. By introducing ausschreiben24.com, Warsteiner has managed to consistently expand its goal to modernise and digitalise its business processes.
LEAG
Digitalised purchasing process
Lausitz Energie Bergbau AG (LEAG) and Lausitz Energie Kraftwerke AG, both based in Cottbus, use ausschreiben24.com to conduct their entire purchasing process digitally. It has put paid to the need to send documents by post and file them in the archives.
“Digitalisation presents companies with a wide range of different solutions for improving existing procedures and structures. Our aim was to facilitate the work of our purchasers and adopt a more organised approach”, says Oliver Mrosk, a member of the LEAG procurement team. The largest east German energy company purchases goods and services worth more than 800 million euros per year. To request prices before, all necessary documents usually had to be printed out and sent by post to potential suppliers, sometimes accompanied by a CD-ROM.
Reduced workload
Reduced workloadThanks to an SAP ERP Materials Management (MM) module interface, developed by top flow GmbH, ausschreiben24.com enables the digitalisation of the entire purchasing process – including purchase requisitions, communication with bidders and legally compliant documentation. The feedback from Mr Mrosk is positive: “The amount of work involved in the tendering phase has been reduced, the ways in which we can track open tenders have significantly improved and because everything is saved centrally, employees can stand in for absent colleagues much more easily. Everything is saved in the right place – we don’t have to painstakingly wade through piles of paperwork to find what we need”, he explains.
Schweizerische Bundesbahnen
Telephone calls are a thing of the past
Copper wires, steel nuts and bolts: The Swiss national railway uses ausschreiben24.com for auctioning recyclable materials. Once common practice, requesting prices by phone is now a thing of the past.
“Before we started using ausschreiben24.com to forward-auction our recyclable materials, we used to contact the relevant partners and potential buyers by phone”, explains Stefan Linder, head of Reporting Monitoring & Planning for the SBB AG Competency Centre for Waste Disposal and Tanks. SBB, the Swiss national railway, is the largest transport company in Switzerland. It regularly auctions off sorted materials that have been reclaimed from contact wires and train tracks. The majority of these materials are copper wires, as well as steel plates, springs, nuts and bolts.
Good partnerships
The online tendering platform ausschreiben24.com is primarily known as a procurement platform for purchasers. However, some companies also use it for selling items. “The number one advantage of ausschreiben24.com is improved transparency. What’s more, the same terms apply to all bidders, so they all have equal chances. Our partners also appreciate the platform’s simplicity and the ability to connect to the platform from anywhere, using a smartphone or tablet”, adds Mr Linder.
bofrost*
A standardised purchasing process
A single solution for everyone: ausschreiben24.com enables bofrost* Dienstleistungs GmbH & Co. KG to implement a standardised, documented procurement process for its technical products.
“Up until now, every employee could decide how they conducted their own calls for tender. Of course, everyone had their own way of doing it”, explains Lars Jankowski, head of technical purchasing at bofrost* Dienstleistungs GmbH & Co. KG. Mr Jankowski and his team of twelve are responsible for the procurement of the majority of commodities, including services and energy for the head office in Straelen and the 115 subsidiaries in Germany and other specific countries. We use the lead-buyer concept for our technical procurement”. This means that one employee is responsible for a specific procurement category.
Positive feedback
Mr Jankowski was particularly impressed that the platform could be used to conduct reverse auctions. First of all, selected suppliers are asked to submit an offer. The bidder who has submitted the lowest offer will then be awarded the contract at the end of the specified time. Jankowski recognises the benefits for technical procurement: “We have already recognised a decrease in our workload. We have bridged our media gaps, we achieve better prices and everyone in the team can track the entire tendering process in the tender records, including all communication with bidders – even once the tender has been closed. This is great value added for an international company like bofrost*”, he explains.
Walser GmbH
Increased transparency
Walser GmbH sources the majority of its goods from abroad, primarily from China. The specialist in interior car fittings introduced ausschreiben24.com to boost efficiency and transparency in its purchasing processes.
“There is no procurement market for us within the German-speaking region. That’s why we exclusively use the English version of ausschreiben24.com,” explains Markus Fleisch, head purchaser at Walser GmbH. The company subcontracts the production of car fittings such as seat covers to its partners around the world, as well as sports and leisure products. Mr Fleisch believed it was essential that all employees involved in the procurement process used the same system. “If someone needs to stand in for a colleague who is away on sick leave or holiday, he shouldn’t have to wade through a different filing system or search through personal emails”, he adds.
Trouble-free launch
Mr Fleisch was initially unsure how international suppliers would react to the launch of the new system. To test the waters, he started off by sending an email to a few Chinese suppliers, instructing them to click on the link in the mail. Much to his surprise, he didn’t receive a single query. “Our suppliers knew how it worked straight away. We didn’t notice any difficulties arising as a result of cultural differences”, confirms Mr Fleisch. Gradually, other countries were included, some of which were reputed to be problematic. “We had heard that some of the North African countries were meant to have significant reservations about using digital solutions. But even here, the system was accepted without any problem”, Mr Fleisch reports.
