When Motorola Inc. began conducting online reverse auctions last summer, the benefits quickly became apparent--especially when the company saw double-digit decreases in some prices it had been paying.

Still, Motorola had an E-sourcing problem. Online requests for quotes, which the company had been doing for several years, were contained in one system, with the reverse auctions in a different system. Analysis capabilities for its E-sourcing were practically nonexistent. "We needed a fully integrated E-sourcing tool that linked all of that information together," says Robert K. Harlan, director of Motorola Internet Negotiations. To that end, the company chose Emptoris Inc.'s ePass software.

The tool lets Motorola easily create constraints for bidding results--something that had been cost-prohibitive, Harlan says. "We'd have to manually put results in a spreadsheet and try to run analysis that way." With ePass, the company can limit awards to some suppliers with lower manufacturing capacity, or it can indicate that a particular award should be split among three suppliers, with no single supplier receiving more than 70% of the award.

The need to link E-sourcing information has become increasingly important, since Harlan expects 10% to 15% of Motorola's total spending will be done through E-sourcing this year. Reverse auctions will account for more than $1 billion, and online requests for quotes will be in the neighborhood of $2 billion to $3 billion. Those numbers could be even greater, depending on how quickly Motorola employees learn the software, he says. With hundreds of sourcing employees around the globe, Motorola has found that software training is one of its biggest E-sourcing challenges. Harlan says Emptoris is hosting the application, which will be deployed behind Motorola's firewall in July.