Postal Service software wins award

The U.S. Postal Service’s use of use of bidding software to save more than $57 million from 2005 to 2008 won the service an award from the Institute for Supply Management, USPS officials announced today. The service won the R. Gene Richter Awards for Leadership and Innovation in Supply Management, which is sponsored by the Institute for Supply Management.

Named optimization-enabled sourcing, the technology allows suppliers to submit multiple bids on a proposed contract based on different bundling options that best meet their capabilities. USPS' supply management organization can then examine and evaluate the bids in many ways to get the best possible deal, according to USPS.

Without the technology solution, collecting and evaluating multiple bid combinations is a manual process. The optimization tool enables multifaceted analysis on hundreds of business requirements to happen in minutes, and sourcing events can be completed in days, USPS officials said.

USPS implemented the system in 2005, primarily for transportation sourcing.

Expanding the use of optimization outside the transportation category resulted in greater flexibility for suppliers and an annual cost reduction for the Postal Service of $5.2 million per category, said Susan Brownell, vice president of supply management for USPS.