Unison Marketplace

Unison Marketplace formerly known as Fedbid was created as a reverse e-auction website to help support the federal government and its procurement efforts. Two sites use this idea and they are Unison Marketplace and FedConnect.

Unison is mainly used for products while FedConnect is more heavily used for services. Both require you to have an active System for Award Management (SAM) registration to sign up and use their services.

These sites can be used by more than just the federal government, they are also used by state and local government agencies because of how fast the process can be.

How They Work

Reverse e-auction functions as the seller places their pricing and the buyer sorts through the prospects by price first and then whether they are technically acceptable to fully perform the job.

These opportunities are always bid on through each system. You would start the application in the system and validate that you are following the regulations they have set for each one. If there is information that is needed, they would be attached to the opportunity. You would also be able to attach supporting documents for your proposal if needed.

The pricing is set by your starting bid and depending on the opportunity, they may allow a bid decrement. This means that your starting bid has the possibility of being lowered by a fixed amount set by the buying agency.

When using these systems, the government agency knows that they will have to spend a little more for these fast results. Unison and FedConnect increase the bid by a set percentage. The government agency pays this back through the winning vendor. That vendor, when they have signed up to use the service and when they have been awarded, is stating that they will pay the percentage from the increased amount they were given for their product or service.

Benefits to the Buyer

There are several benefits for an agency to use these systems, even knowing that they have to pay extra for it. Some of those benefits are listed below:

• Saves Time - Since a lot of this is automated, it saves time and consolidates information to being sent inside of their systems.
• Improves Procurement Documentation - Unison provides complete and detailed information for each procurement, including all the sellers that were contacted, their bids, and whether they did not bid.
• Improves Regulatory Compliance - The Unison systems deliver regulatory compliance, price reasonableness, and process transparency to help Buyers eliminate waste and misuse of taxpayer dollars.
• Increases Small Business Utilization - Since the system improves access to multiple opportunities, it has also made it easier for contracts to be awarded to small businesses.