The Custom award rule

You can use the Custom award rule to hand-pick the winners for lots and to combine scenarios. After you edit the rule settings, click Save changes at the top of the tab.

Figure 1. Custom award rule

Manual override

To hand-pick the lot winners, use the Manual override feature. There are a number of prerequisites to be aware of, and steps that you must follow when using this feature.

Enabling Split Award

First, Split configuration must be enabled. The default Minimum share size is 10%. If you want to award a share of less than 10%, ensure that you adjust this number. For more information, see Configuring split awards.

Creating a column for the bidder-specific values

Before configuring this feature, you must first create a column that assigns the volume or percentage share of the lots that bidders are to be awarded. When creating this column ensure that Input by is configured as Purchaser with bidder specific values, and Requirement is set to Optional. It is recommended that Visibility is set to Hidden from bidders. For more information about configuring these column settings, see Adding an input column.

Identifying the volume type

The values entered in the column work differently depending on whether or not you have assigned the Volume column role to a column in your bid sheet. For more information about assigning the Volume column role, see Assigning a column role and Enabling volume-based bidder discounts.

  • If you have not assigned the Volume column role, the values in this column indicate the percentage of the lot to be awarded to the bidder, and must be between 0.01 and 1. For example, a value of 1 means the bidder will be awarded 100% of the lot; a value of 0.5 means the bidder will be awarded 50% of the lot.
  • If you have assigned the Volume column role, the values in this column indicate the units of demand to be awarded to the bidder. For example, if a lot has a volume demand of 50, a value of 40 means the bidder will be awarded 80% of the volume for the lot.

When populating this column, if you do not want to specify allocation for a bidder-lot combination, ensure that you leave the cell blank. You cannot allocate more than 100% to a lot. If the total allocation specified is less than 100%, the remainder will be awarded according to the scenario rules.

Entering the bidder-specific values

To enter the share sizes for each bidder, use the Surrogate Bidding page. You can submit these values online or offline. For more information, see Surrogate Bidding page.

Selecting the column

Figure 2. Custom award — Manual override

Finally, you must add a Custom award rule to your scenario and select the column which specifies the shares that are to be awarded.

  1. Go to Evaluate > Scenarios.
  2. Click Add a scenario, or click on an existing scenario in the Scenarios table.
  3. On the Rules tab, on the Custom award rule, click add.
  4. Under Manual override, click the Choose a column list.
  5. Select the column which specifies the shares that are to be awarded.
  6. At the top of the Rules tab, click Save changes.

Combine scenarios

To combine scenarios, use the Combine scenarios feature. With this feature, you can merge the results from other evaluated scenarios with the scenario to which you are adding this rule.

Figure 3. Custom award — Combine scenarios

Any lots which are not awarded by the selected scenarios can be awarded by the current scenario.

For example, if the selected scenario or scenarios award lots 1, 2, and 3, but not lots 4 or 5, the current scenario is used to award lots 4 and 5.

If you want to enable the current scenario to award lots 1, 2, and 3, use the override rules at the bottom of the tab. Enter the lowest number of lot awards that can be overridden in the At least field and enter the highest number of lot awards that can be overridden in the At most field. The lots to override will be chosen to optimize for the best final outcome.

By default, combined scenarios override all lot awards.

To combine scenarios, complete the following steps:

  1. Go to Evaluate > Scenarios.
  2. Click Add a scenario, or click on an existing scenario in the Scenarios table.
  3. On the Rules tab, on the Custom award rule, click add.
  4. Under Combine scenarios, click the Choose a scenario list.
  5. Select the scenarios to merge with the current scenario.
  6. Optional: Enter values for the least and most lot awards which can be overridden in the At least and At most fields.
  7. At the top of the Rules tab, click Save changes.