As the name suggests, an Auction Management System is a web-based platform that makes managing an auction house easier, faster and more efficient. By addressing the full lifecycle of online, physical and hybrid auctions, everything becomes more agile, integrated and controlled. You can focus on the growth of your business and eliminate manual, siloed, error-prone and time-consuming tasks. So, let’s dive deep into the anatomy of an Auction Management System.
The perfect auction back-office system
An Auction Management System is a centralized back-office system, the core and backbone of the auction business management. It is where the business can effectively prepare, run and monitor any type of auction as well as follow-up on sold and unsold items to maximize the conversion rates to vendors.
CRP – Customized Resource Planning – the power of an ERP adapted to the unique specificities of an auction house.
From qualifying vendors and buyers to receiving and paying invoices, and everything in between, an end-to-end Auction Management System can take your auction business to the next level by guaranteeing features such as:
- CRM for both vendors and buyers
- Announcing and managing items
- Workflow-based inventory management
- Fully mobile-based logistics management
- Robotic process automation for increased efficiency
- Tasks tracking
- Powerful lotting tools
- Support to physical and hybrid auctions
- Integration with existing systems and online auction and e-sales platforms
- Invoicing and payments management
Benefiting Vendors and Buyers
The inventory management feature helps users to set up the stock for each auction through a dedicated and automated workflow and can virtually accommodate any kind of unit, perfectly distinguishing goods and services families – from Real Estate to Vehicles, Art, Antiques, Consumer Goods, etc.
Besides, you have access to all the tools to streamline and assist with the sales preparation (lotting, pricing, setting up fees…), tracking buyers’ attendance, running the sales and dealing with provisionals. Sales results become purchase and sales orders that can easily be converted into invoices and the financial tools help to keep track of receipts and payments. All of this with a smooth integration with e-sales tools, your existing auction platform or third-party ones. For instance, if you are in the fine art, antiques and collectibles auction business, take a look at Invaluable – one of the largest ones of its kind.
Increased efficiency and data at the center
An Auction Management System is designed to enhance productivity and efficiency and enabling a comprehensive view of the business.
And data (or database) is absolutely key in this area, it’s the foundation of the business, it’s what enables buying and selling today and in the future. It is the data that grants organizations to sediment internal knowledge and know the existing items, recreate the history of each one, classify them and keep them all properly available.
It is this knowledge that supports the auctioneer: bibliography together with expertise and know-how. Without a software that allows to rapidly and efficiently organize and typify everything, it’s really hard to successfully operate and scale this type of business.
The good news is that Blue Screen has it all in one single, robust and secure cloud solution named XPressBSS – an ERP customized for the auction industry. It especially addresses the challenges of large auction houses, with several employees, giant warehouses, and with physical and online auctions. Ask for a demo to see it in action and check in practice how it makes your business much more efficient and easier to run.