Illustrative scenario · not a customer case study
Preparing supplier quotations for review
Starting situation
An operations team receives supplier quotations by email and compares them in spreadsheets.
Challenge
Information is copied repeatedly; missing details and approval requests move between people.
Possible solution
A possible workflow captures quotations, extracts relevant fields, checks data and prepares a comparison for review. Feasibility depends on the documents and available system interfaces.
Human control
The purchasing team checks sources, resolves exceptions and approves decisions. The workflow does not commit to purchases autonomously.
Evaluation
No measured results are available for this illustration. In a real project, baseline effort, completeness and exception rates would be agreed and assessed.
Inputs and review output
In this synthetic scenario, a buyer receives several quotation documents for the same request. A comparison could list the supplier reference, item, quantity, unit, currency, price, delivery terms and quotation validity alongside the source document. Missing values stay visibly missing; the system should not invent them or rank incompatible offers as if they were equivalent.
Checks and exceptions
Flag different currencies, pack sizes, delivery terms, expired quotations and unreadable fields for review. Keep extracted values linked to their source so the buyer can check them. A revised quotation should be distinguished from a duplicate. The buyer resolves ambiguity and decides whether to ask the supplier for clarification.
Where the ERP connection fits
A pilot could begin with a reviewable comparison without writing to the ERP. Any later integration depends on supported interfaces, matching item and supplier identifiers, permissions and an agreed test environment. Purchase-order creation and approval need explicit rules; the illustration does not assume autonomous purchasing or compatibility with a particular ERP.
How a pilot would be evaluated
Record the current time spent preparing and checking a comparison, the proportion of complete offers and the number of corrections. Repeat the same measurement on a representative pilot sample, including exceptions. Count human review and rework as part of the effort. Agree success criteria before the pilot; no savings or client results are claimed for this example.
Questions before starting
Do we need to replace our ERP?
Not necessarily. Discovery starts with the existing process and the interfaces available. A useful first step may be a reviewable output outside the ERP; a connection is proposed only after compatibility and permissions are assessed.
Will AI make purchasing decisions?
The examples keep approval with your team. Agree what can be prepared automatically, which checks are required and which actions need a person before implementation.
What should we bring to the first conversation?
Describe one process, the tools involved, approximate volume and where work gets delayed. Synthetic examples are enough to explain the task. Scope, timing and price follow that discussion rather than a generic promise.
