Technology supplier Lanyon today relaunched a recently acquired electronic request-for-proposals tool, expanding its functionality to cover a broader range of procurement categories.
Lanyon, best known in the travel industry for its electronic RFP services in the hotel sector, now claims to have an e-RFP platform that covers all corporate supply categories, not just in travel but also in other categories including human resources and such products as mobile telephones and stationery. The platform, LanyonBid, was created out of the U.K.-based ETABid tool, which Lanyon acquired last year
(BTNonline, Feb. 12, 2007).
The online tool is database-driven and provides a library of best practices, said Lanyon COO Roland Tanner. Company information is stored, reducing data-entry labor, and bids automatically are ranked upon receipt, he said.
The tool is targeted largely at midmarket companies, for which large-scale e-procurement systems, such as that provided by Oracle, might not be feasible, although some multinational companies also have used it, Tanner said. Most users issue from 10 to 200 bids each year, he said. Shifting RFPs online can save as much as 70 percent of the time needed for the process, he said.
"Procurement tools are still few and far between," Tanner said. "People still like to construct something on a Word document or an Excel spreadsheet, but that takes a lot of time."
Upon its launch in 2004, ETABid was used solely to automate the RFP process for travel management companies, but it later launched versions to handle online booking tools and car rental. Tanner said car rental remains one of the most popular categories in its use.
"It's popular because car rental usually consists of five or six car rental companies priced slightly differently," he said. "This takes away the subjectivity of whether you prefer this bid or that bid, because the system will process that for you."