This paper, selected for the category "Best papers from 1959 to 2008", was first published in WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK 47(2)2005:126-134. Combinatorial auctions are promising auction formats for industrial and public procurement. Potential advantages of using combinatorial auctions include lower overall spend, low transaction costs for multi-item negotiations, fairness and market transparency for suppliers as well as high allocative efficiency. A number of fundamental design considerations are relevant to the application of combinatorial auctions in procurement. In addition, procurement specialists need to consider several domain-specific requirements, such as additional side constraints as well as alternative multidimensional bid types.