SmartSource projects are set up to allow a specific set of individually invited bidders to compete for the project sponsors business. Participating in a project can mean any or all of the following types of activities:

Reviewing documents, files, and other information provided by the sponsor about a project.

• Responding to one or more surveys published by the project sponsor
• Posting questions and receiving answers in a project forum
• Performing activities and answering questions to meet project time lines
• Submitting bids during a live auction over the internet
• Submitting sealed bids

There are 6 types of projects in SmartSource:

• Standard Reverse Auction: Project sponsors invite suppliers to meet online for a live bidding auction (or "Live Event"). With enough bidders, the lowest possible market price for the items is attained as all of the bidders see how they rank and can be as competitive as possible to win the business. In addition, reverse auctions provide a way for bidders to benchmark themselves to their competition and gives them instant feedback regarding their performance by letting them know when they are the lowest bidder.
• Standard Forward Auction: Project sponsors invite bidding buyers to meet online for a live bidding auction (or "Live Event"). With enough bidders, the highest possible market price for the items is attained as all of the bidders see how they rank and can be as competitive as possible to win the business. In addition, forward auctions provide a way for bidders to benchmark themselves to their competition and gives them instant feedback regarding their performance by letting them know when they are the highest bidder.
• Sealed Bid (reverse): Bidding suppliers use SmartSource to submit a private bids during a Live Event. Project Administrators may then decide to use the sealed bids to award the business, or promote the project to a standard reverse auction with another Live Event scheduled for a later date.
• Sealed Bid (forward): Bidding suppliers use SmartSource to submit private bids during a Live Event. Project Administrators can then decide to use the sealed bids to award the business, or promote the project to a standard forward auction with another Live Event scheduled for a later date.
• No Live Event: No Live Event projects are typically used to create a "container" project for documents and/or surveys for bidders or suppliers. No Live Event projects do not include any type of explicit auction. Project Administrators can decide to use the document or survey results to award the business, or promote the project to a standard or sealed bid auction with a Live Event scheduled for a later date.
• Dutch Auction: The auction for each lot consists of a series of bidding sessions called intervals. Every interval has a defined duration (usually a few minutes) and a specific range of allowed bids (e.g. $70 - $90).