This section provides Terms and Definitions which will help you understand the concepts of the SmartSource System.

Activities: Endeavors that mark milestones and tasks, and assist in attendee tracking to keep the project on schedule. Activities created will populate as the project timeline.

Attachments: Files of any format uploaded to SmartSource servers and attached to projects for distribution to attendees.

Automatic Proxy Bid: Dutch auction option allowing bidders to submit bids before or during the auction (but before an interval that would accept the bid) and have SmartSource save them for possible submission in a future interval. Bidders do not know how many intervals there are,  but with automatic bids enabled, they can submit a bid value and SmartSource will submit it for them if an interval with the correct range opens. Bidders have no guarantee that a saved bid will be submitted as the auction could close or the saved bid could be out of range of all intervals.

Attendees: Users invited to take part in projects as administrators, spectators, or bidders.

Bid Interval: For Dutch auctions, the span of each interval's allowable bidding range. Each interval has a specific range of bids that can be submitted. SmartSource uses the Minimum or Maximum Price to start the first range. For example. With a Reverse Dutch Auction and a Minimum Price set to $200 and a Bid Interval of $50, the first range would be $200- $250, the second range would be $250-$300 and so on.

Bidders: Users invited to a project to place bids on lots and Items placed up for bid. In a reverse auction, bidders are potential bidders. For a forward auction, bidders are potential buyers.

Bidding Projects: Bidding projects are set up to allow bidders to place competitive bids for lots and items. Bidding projects can be created either as reverse auctions, forward auctions, or sealed bid projects (forward or reverse). These projects are private to invited attendees.

Cost Breakdown Sheet: A spreadsheet submitted as part of both the preliminary bid process as well as subsequent to the final bid in order to distil aggregate lot level bids into the discrete items. The spreadsheet typically has columns for the item description, estimated quantity, and item bid which automatically calculates the lot-level bids (multiplying quantity by the bids and summing the totals.) Bidders may fill out their item-level bids and the spreadsheet will provide the lot-level bids for the auction project.

Closing Type:  Dutch Auctions generally encourage suppliers to bid quickly by closing auctions based on when the first bid is placed rather than a specific time. The close type controls how a Dutch auction ends for an individual lot: 

• Immediate with Bid: auction ends when the first bid is posted.
• End of Interval with Bid: auction ends at the end of the interval containing the first posted bid.
• End of Final Interval: allows all scheduled intervals to complete regardless of when bids are submitted.

Current Bid Range: The range of bids that can be submitted in the currently open interval of a Dutch auction lot.

Documents: Documents in the SmartSource System are typically RFXs attached to projects.

Dutch Auction: A type of auction with a structure consisting of a series of bidding intervals for each lot. Each interval has a defined duration (usually a few minutes) and a specific range of acceptable bids (e.g. $70-$90). For reverse Dutch auctions, when one interval ends a new interval begins with an incremented bid range. Bidders can only submit a bid that is in the range of the current interval so when an interval closes, the bidders can no longer submit a bid in that range.

Excel Bidding: Feature that enables bidders to submit bids into a Live Event using a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.

FlexRank: An optional feature of a bidding project which enables bidders, spectators, and administrators the ability to calculate and view rank, aggregate bids, or savings "on the fly" for a user-selectable collection of lots.

Forum: An optional feature of a project which enables attendees to submit questions to administrators prior to a deadline date and receive posted responses in a controlled manner.

Instant Messaging: An optional feature of a bidding project which enables for messaging to be conducted between administrators and other attendees during open time of a Live Event.

Interval: A segment of a Dutch Auction Live Event with a specific range of allowable bids, e.g. $70-$90, and a scheduled duration, e.g. 5 minutes.: A segment of a Dutch Auction Live Event with a specific range of allowable bids, e.g. $70-$90, and a scheduled duration, e.g. 5 minutes.

Item: Represents a specific good, service, or contract placed up for bid.

Live Event: If you are working with a bidding project, it will include a Live Event. The Live Event displays an actual bidding project taking place.  Bidders place their bids here, and buyers may the watch as the live bidding event unfolds.

Lot: Discrete units consisting of one or many Items put up for bid.

• Standard Lot: Standard lots accept bids on an entire lot/project basis.
• ItemBid Lot: ItemBid lots allow bidders to place bids on an individual item basis during a project.
• FlexBid Lot: FlexBid lots represent a collection and aggregation of other Standard or ItemBid lots and allow bidders to supply a percentage discount or premium in an attempt to obtain the business of all of the lots. FlexBid lots can also be used without collecting bids to show bidders their current rank on a selected collection of lots. You must enter a bid for each individual lot in the FlexBid lot before you can enter a discount for the FlexBid lot.
• ActiveBid Lot: ActiveBid lots represent a collection of other Standard lots allowing bidders to automatically apply percentage discount or premium bids to the Standard lots.
• Dutch Auction Lot: The type of lot that is used in Dutch auctions. It includes price and time settings for intervals.

Lot Status: The current bidding status of a lot.

• Future: The open time of the lot is in the future.
• Prelim: The lot is open to collect private preliminary bids.
• Open: The lot is currently open and accepting competitive bids in a live auction format.
• Pending: The lot's closing time has passed but remains in the pending length time period alerting bidders that the lot may be re-opened by administrators in case of technical difficulties.
• Closed: The lot has closed and is no longer accepting bids.

Project: A project represents a scheduled bidding project or No Live Event project.

Project Package: A term often used for describing all documents (RFx), attachments, and surveys inside a project.

Pending Length: An advanced setting of a lot which dictates the amount of time a lot will stay in pending status after the closing time of the lot to allow sufficient time to respond to any possible technical difficulties experienced near the end of a lot's open time.

Portal Site: The SmartSource Portal site is a thin-client website that bidders (and spectators) may use to access projects, place bids, view and/or add forum questions and answers, and respond to RFx.

Preliminary Bids: A highly recommended practice of soliciting private sealed bids (either online or manually) prior to the scheduled project date. Preliminary bids require the bidders to prepare early valid bids which frequently uncover unresolved significant questions or potential problems, allowing sufficient time to restructure the project or deal with the issues.

Respondents: Users requested to provide answers and upload attachments in response to a survey.

Reverse Auction Project: A bidding project set up to help procure goods and services in a dynamic online bidding project where bidders compete for the sponsor's business in real-time.

RFX: Shorthand for RFI (Request for Information), RFQ (Request for Quotation) or RFP (Request for Proposal). SmartSource provides a convenient way to manage the RFx process through dynamic Surveys.

SmartSource: The integrated software solution provided by Iasta which enables the distributed execution of eSourcing

• SmartSource: The integrated software solution provided by Iasta which enables the distributed execution of e-sourcing:
• SmartSource Desktop: A downloadable Windows-based software application that Project Administrators use to create and manage  e-sourcing projects. Bidders, evaluators, and spectators can also use this application to participate in e-sourcing projects instead of the SmartSource Portal Site, if desired.
• SmartSource Portal Site: A password-protected website that provides bidders, evaluators, and spectators with easy, secure access to  e-sourcing projects through a web browser. The following browsers are supported:
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01 or higher on Windows
• Mozilla Firefox 1.4 or higher on all platforms
• SmartSource Server: This component of the SmartSource portfolio deals with the SmartSource Servers that facilitate the execution of e-sourcing projects by either the SmartSource Desktop or the SmartSource Portal Site and provides security, encryption, and high availability.
• SmartSource System: All components of SmartSource as they work in concert.

Spectator: A user invited to a project as an attendee with read-only access to the project, including the ability to view the results of the bidding from the viewpoint of the sponsor. Typically used for internal stakeholders who do not require administrative access to the project, but wish to view the results.

Sponsor: The role of the administrator and the administrator's company creating the project. For a reverse auction project, the sponsor is typically acting as a buyer, and for a forward auction project the sponsor is typically acting as a bidder. For surveys and RFIs, the sponsor can be any entity requesting information.

Subdomain: Subdomains are created on the SmartSource servers allowing an organization a private, isolated area to create user accounts and conduct projects.

Subdomain Classifications: Tool that can be used by subdomain administrators to create and edit classifications and classification categories used to organize buyers, bidders, Project Administrators, and projects within a specific subdomain.

Surveys: Surveys are custom questionnaires created to solicit information from respondents and scored by evaluators to provide detailed quantitative analysis reports. Surveys can be created inside of bidding projects or No Live Event projects.

Time Interval: The duration of a Dutch auction interval in minutes and seconds. If the close type is set to "Immediate with Bid" the auction will end as soon as a bid is submitted by anyone participating in the auction regardless of whether the interval's time has expired.

Timeline: The project timeline enables you to set up deadlines and create a schedule for required actions associated with a project.

Users: User accounts with user names and passwords allowing specific access to a subdomain to take part in projects.