The work as it was
The order desk read its mailbox by hand: someone looked up each part in the customer's own format, checked the price list, typed the quote, then typed the order into the ERP.
Every re-keyed line could go wrong, and the customer found out when the wrong part arrived. When the mailbox was busy, a customer who heard nothing ordered elsewhere.
What was built
- 01
Reading the inbox
Every quote request and order is read on arrival, as part numbers in an email, a PDF or a spreadsheet, and customer, parts, quantities and dates are extracted.
- 02
Matching and preparing
Each part is matched to the company's own SKU, whatever number the customer wrote. Prices are checked against the customer's terms, and the order is prepared in the ERP.
- 03
Drafting the reply
A reply is drafted with the prices, quantities and dates. Nothing is sent until someone on the desk reads and approves it.
- Reads
- Quote requests and orders in the mailbox; customer, price and stock records in the ERP
- Checks
- Customer terms, each part against the company's SKUs, prices against the price list, quantities against stock
- Writes
- The quote or sales order in the ERP, source document attached, and the drafted reply
- To a person
- Every drafted reply for approval, and orders with an unknown part, a price mismatch or no agreed terms
One ordinary day
- 07:45
Overnight emails are read; each request and order is extracted and matched to the ERP.
- 08:30
The desk opens to prepared orders and drafted replies; a clean repeat order is approved and sent.
- 09:15
A request lists a part the catalogue does not know; it is held beside the closest matches.
- 13:30
A PDF purchase order arrives against last week's quote; its lines are compared and the order prepared.
- 17:00
Every prepared order, held line and sent reply is recorded against its document.
What changed
Replies go out the same morning, and the desk approves them instead of typing them. Errors that surfaced as a wrong delivery are caught at the desk.
The team still decides what is sent; the re-keying is gone. The owner's estimate of the first-year value at this company's volumes, in hours saved, errors avoided and revenue protected, is €126k.
How it was delivered
Delivered as implementation partner behind another company that owned the client relationship, and live in two months. Rules first: which customers have agreed terms, what counts as a mismatch, that no reply leaves unapproved. The ERP was not changed and stays the system of record.