Ebidding: Taking Advantage of a Window of Opportunity during COVID-19

Ebidding, Shanghai Huizhao Information Technology Co., Ltd.’s key product, was China’s only “Internet+” integrated bidding and procurement service provider, integrating supply chain management consulting, project implementation, and electronic bidding platform operation. Its main business was to provide enterprises with a full-process electronic bidding and procurement solution. The Ebidding team had developed a full-process electronic bidding platform in 2012, and it had been upgraded and developed regularly since then. A business expansion opportunity emerged for Ebidding as a result of shutdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of precautions to combat COVID-19, offline bidding and procurement across China were severely curtailed. Electronic bidding procurement projects were also stalled due to the inability of experts to evaluate online bids. To seize this market opportunity, gain competitive advantage, and grow its business in the face of significant uncertainty, Ebidding would have to determine how to quickly develop a remote decentralized bid evaluation system, gain acceptance for it, and lead customers to accept the new system.

This case is suitable for teaching and discussing windows of opportunity in undergraduate- and graduate-level courses on innovation management. It focuses on the opportunities and challenges faced by Ebidding in moving from a centralized offline bid evaluation system to a decentralized online bid evaluation system during the pandemic, when social distancing and travel restrictions were in place. Through in-depth discussion and analysis, students can be guided to understand the notion of a window of opportunity, including its definition, influencing factors, and formation process, as well as to consider the window of opportunity for Ebidding and how to seize it.

• Ecommerce, COVID-19, China