Every buyer on Auxionize has the opportunity to create various IPS`s located in the “My IPS Nomenclature” section. Each IPS contains products from one category, similar in function and application, making them mutually replaceable and a suitable alternative for one another. Even though the products in every IPS carry similarities between each other, they may vary in certain attribute characteristics. For example, there might be 10 laptop items in one IPS, all appropriate for personal use, however differing in attribute values such as RAM, display type, graphics card, operating system, etc. This does not exclude the option of IPS consisting of only one product when the buyer knows exactly what the company is looking for.
An IPS could be either fixed or flexible. To create a fixed IPS, any user needs to first search for a desired type of product from the Product Catalogue and filter through the categories and subcategories. Once all available products from the search appear in a listing style below the search field, the buyer selects those of interest and creates the Fixed IPS (step-by-step process explained below). The newly created IPS will prevent any similar products with identical attributes, functionality, and appearance, becoming available in Auxionize, to enter it, as it stays limited to the initially-entered products only. That could change anytime if the creator of the fixed IPS makes a decision to execute some changes regarding its content.
The creation of a flexible IPS also starts with category search until a listing of the final desired products appears, but with the help of the filters. Instead of separately handpicking the products, the buyer sorts out the listed items by selecting certain attributes of interest, located on the left side of the product listing. When finished with the attribute selection, the flexible IPS creation takes place. The flexible IPS’s will allow any newly created products with similarities in description and attributes to enter them.
Buyers may decide to follow an IPS by searching for already existing and shared ones in the IPS Library, based on the operational and managerial needs, specific to their business. IPS Library contains IPSs that are set Public by the buyer that has created it. Any changes, made by the owner inside the followed IPS`s, may lead to unfollowing by buyers based on loss of interest and discontinuance of suitability for the specific business. Another reason to unfollow (at any time) an IPS for a specific company might include its change in strategic and operational management, shifting its demand for products and services. The IPS Library also allows IPSs to be simply copied and modified so that the buyer does not receive updates made by the IPS owner.
IPSs are applicable in the auctions setups, as well as for receiving price quotes from sellers for public IPS variants in the nomenclature. Hence, the nomenclature is not only a list of buyers` products, contained in the IPS, used for auction setups. It is also a place where the sellers are able to place offers for IPS variants. It is possible that an IPS could contain just one product, but there might be an unlimited number of variants to the IPS each of them containing the minimum quantity of purchase (for more details please refer to “Create an IPS”). The visibility of any given by a seller offer in a nomenclature depends on the visibility settings the buyer has determined at the time of the variants creation (for more details about visibility please refer to “Create an IPS”). In such cases, the buyer can directly place an order from an offer in the nomenclature, without having to specifically set an auction. The expiry date of any offer is determined by the seller, who is placing the offer in the nomenclature.