The U.S. Department of Energy has opted to do electronic commerce with full and open public competition. Simplix vendors were chosen for the first four awards. This award saved the taxpayer over $3000.00 compared with traditional procuremnt methods. This represented a savings of about 35 percent of the award value.

In a head-to-head comparison, shopping on GSA Advantage took hours, cost more, and had a delivery time of 90 days. Even after spending several hours not all of the items were available. DOE received their product in less than one week.

Saving over $3000.00 for the taxpayer and months on delivery; DOE proves once again that public RFQ's and electronic commerce make dollars and sense for the U.S. Government and the taxpayer. DOE coupled this procurement with the IMPAC card for payment. This demonstrates the fact that IMPAC is a payment tool not a procurement method.

DOE hopes to soon move on into electronic invoicing to increase savings even more. As an electronic invoice can be processed for pennies but the IMPAC card will raise government prices by between 3 and 5 percent. This would save the taxpayers hundreds of dollars more.

Over the next few months DOE plans to bring up 15 buying sites and support for the entire IMPAC program at DOE.

Government Benefits

• Greater Buyer Effectiveness

• Lower Prices

• Faster Reciept of Product

• Better Accountability

• More Competition

Vendor Benefits

• Easy Access

• Lower Cost to Bid

• Faster Response

• Single Face to Industry

• Level Playing Field