What do firms see during auctions? What are all the auction types and are firms blind / are bids sealed?

• RFP (no auction) - you can run a request and not enable the auction function in which case all the bidders are always completely blind and do not know: 1) how many firms have been invited or 2) where they rank or 3) the fee amounts of any other bidders

• Auction Type 1: Rank Only - in this auction firms would have an initial proposal due date upon which they are still blind. Once the auction starts the firms are provided their "Price Ranking" and can then see where they rank vis-a-vis their total price compared to the other bidders (e.g. Rank 1 out of 4 means lowest and Rank 4 out of 4 means highest). They can't see the prices of other firms.

• Auction Type 2: Rank + Lowest Bid - in this auction firms would have an initial proposal due date upon which they are still blind. Once the auction starts the firms are provided their "Price Ranking" AND the anonymous fee amounts of the lowest priced firm only. This allows them to see the lowest bidder's total fee and fee at every phase including any hourly rate cards that would be redacted to remove any identifying information.

• Auction Type 3: Rank + All Bids -  same as Rank + Lowest Bid except that the anonymous fee amounts and redacted rates of every firm are visible to all auction participants during the auction. 

Hourly Rate Cards: