Instil's latest on-line auction and exchange deployment for palletauction.com is set to revolutionise the £6 billion materials handling and Iogistics industry

Citation

(2001), "Instil's latest on-line auction and exchange deployment for palletauction.com is set to revolutionise the £6 billion materials handling and Iogistics industry", Facilities, Vol. 19 No. 1/2. https://doi.org/10.1108/f.2001.06919aab.024

Instil's latest on-line auction and exchange deployment for palletauction.com is set to revolutionise the £6 billion materials handling and Iogistics industry

Instil's latest on-line auction and exchange deployment for palletauction.com is set to revolutionise the £6 billion materials handling and Iogistics industry

Keywords: Purchasing, Internet

London-based dynamic pricing innovator, Instil (www.instil.com), has developed an online auction solution in conjunction with Palletauction Limited, www.palletauction.com (Figure 1). It is the UK's first online auction site dedicated to the sector, providing companies within the £6 billion materials handling and logistics industry with a new forum through which to buy and sell goods and services such as pallets, racking, shelving, handling equipment, containers and machinery.

Instil developed the site for palletauction.com using its AuctionServe software. AuctionServe is a Web-based trading system that supports multiple business models, dynamic re-branding of content and presentation, and virtual hosting of different businesses – all using the same core trading engine. AuctionServe is designed to support system longevity and reduced long-term costs. It is fully scalable, allowing palletauction.com to support an expanding user base.

Figure 1 Palletauction.com homepage

AuctionServe is an ASP product and is therefore designed to be fully remote controlled by its clients using just a Web browser. All aspects of deploying a customer can be completed on-line, including setting-up the auction, implementing auction rules and uploading "lots". The system uses a fine-grained security policy to determine aspects of user access and provides a full-featured set of reporting tools to manage administrator and end-user reporting. Each auction can be set-up with selected timing rules, commission charges and bidding rules (English, proxy, sealed-bid, fixed-price and reverse tender).

Matt Simester, Instil's marketing director, explains, "Instil's deployment for palletauction.com demonstrates the continuing acceptance of online auctions and exchanges as profitable, reliable and efficient channels to market. This is highlighted by research from industry analysts, Forrester and IDC, that identifies online auctions as the fastest growing segment of the e-commerce market, with the market value predicted to be $52 billion by 2002."

About Instil

Instil is a leading UK-based dynamic pricing consultancy with proprietary technology to support auctions, business exchanges and e-procurement. Instil has an established track record of delivering successful solutions for a variety of markets – including ISPs, the automotive, leisure, manufacturing and banking industries.

Instil has often out-performed and out-manoeuvred third-party suppliers by employing a flexible, proactive and business-focused approach. As a result Instil has gained recognition and preferred status from key brands such as Freeserve, Airtours and Jones Lang LaSalle. Instil has also re-licensed its technology for reverse tender procurement systems in the USA.

For further information about Instil and dynamic pricing visit the Instil Website at www.instil.com or contact Michael Oakes or Steve Douthwaite, Lindsay Brown Associates. Tel: +44 (0) 20 7490 1030; Fax: +44 (0) 20 7490 223; Web: www.Ibapr.com; E-mail: michaelo@Ibapr.com. Or contact Matt Simester – Marketing Director, Instil. Tel: +44 (0) 20 7580 0400; Fax: +44 (0)20 7580 5556; Web: www.instil.com; E-mail: matt@instil.com