Procurement intake in plain words — every request routed the right way to buy, with the clause behind it
Anyone asks in plain words, and every request takes the right way to buy and reaches a purchase order in under two days.
See one case, screen by screen ↓Most employees do not know the buying policy, and they should not have to. They know they need a survey tool, a courier for samples or a lab to validate an assay — and often a supplier they already like. So the request arrives as an email with a quote attached, and procurement operations starts the back-and-forth: is there personal data, which cost centre, when is it needed, is this even a purchase?
Then someone has to check the catalogue, every agreement and rate card, the licence register and the supplier master before deciding the route — catalogue, existing contract, new supplier, quotes or a sourcing event, a statement of work, or another process altogether. When that check is skipped, a new supplier is onboarded for work an agreement already covers, and 15 to 25 working days of set-up land on a request that could have gone out in two.
Estimated split for a typical services request that an existing agreement covers, by hand and with the solution. Days are working days.
Six specialist agents ask, classify, match, route, pre-fill and track every request; the procurement operations lead decides the exceptions.
A patient-advocacy lead needs a survey tool, and a scientist needs an assay validated by a lab she named herself. Here is what happens at Northwind Bio’s front door, screen by screen, in the working solution.
Priya opens the request network: 209 open requests on five buying routes, 38 purchase orders issued today, 96% routed without a buyer. Four requests are waiting on her, the oldest for 17 h 40 m. Each station shows how many requests sit there and how many are late.
“Not a purchase → HCP engagement, grants, travel · 5 today”
Sam writes: “We need a survey tool for our patient advisory panel — about 40 seats, roughly $18,000 a year. We liked Pollen Survey.” The intake guide reads it as a software subscription and asks two questions with answer chips. The request builds itself on the right as he answers — category, value, named supplier, personal data, need-by date, cost centre 4410.
“Will the tool hold names, emails or health information of panel members?”
The classifier puts it in the $10,000–$100,000 band. The matcher finds 312 unassigned seats on the company’s Fieldnote Research Cloud licence, and notes that Pollen Survey is not a supplier. The policy router applies the channel order and finds Fieldnote already security-assessed. The answer: use the Fieldnote licence — seats ready tomorrow, no cost to Sam’s budget, no PO needed.
“Pollen Survey as a new supplier needs an IT security assessment, a privacy review and three quotes — typically 4 to 6 weeks.”
Every reason carries a citation. Sam clicks one and sees the exact passage of buying policy GP-PRC-001, version 6.2, approved by the CFO. He sends the request; his tracker shows the seat request going to the Fieldnote administrator.
§7.5: “Unused seats on an enterprise licence are used before a new tool is bought.”
REQ-24117: Dr. Maya Chen needs the sTRX-7 ligand-binding assay validated on VLT-302 serum samples, 12 weeks, starting by Nov 3 — and Kestrel Bioanalytics quoted $182,400. The intake guide read the quote and asked two questions: coded patient samples, and cost centre 3120. The agents are 88% sure of the route, and because Maya named another supplier, it waits for Priya.
“Needs your decision. Maya named a new supplier, and an existing agreement covers the same work — the route needs your decision.”
Is it a purchase — yes, a research service. Catalogue item — none. Existing contract — Larkspur MSA-0418, rate card item BA-14. Competition above $100,000 — the agreement was competitively sourced under RFP-2025-031. Coded samples leaving Northwind — covered by the agreement’s data-transfer schedule. Kestrel is not a supplier, so onboarding and a sole-source justification would be needed.
Larkspur: start Oct 27, $164,800, a statement of work under MSA-0418, about 2 days to a PO — and Larkspur ran sTRX-7 for VLT-201 last year. Kestrel: start about Nov 24, $182,400, due diligence and a sole-source form, 15–25 working days to a PO. Priya confirms the Larkspur agreement, and the approval chain is built from delegation of authority FIN-DOA-004.
Dr. Henrik Lund, budget owner → Grace Whitfield, VP R&D Operations (DoA $150k–$500k) → Omar Haddad, Procurement sign-off above $100k.
Work order SOW-0418-031 under MSA-0418: rate card item BA-14, coded VLT-302 serum transferred under Schedule 4, milestones at weeks 2, 3–9 and 12, acceptance against ICH M10 signed by the Northwind study bioanalyst, $164,800 fixed. A plain-words note tells Maya why Larkspur, and that it is $17,600 below the Kestrel quote.
Drafts only — a person posts the requisition, and agreed prices are never changed.
Maya sees the request the way she would follow a parcel: asked, route chosen, contract matched, release drafted, approval, purchase order expected before Nov 3. The request tracker nudges approvers with the request and its reasons attached, and records every step on the request’s activity trail.
The same front door, seen by the requesters, the procurement operations lead and the category manager — what their week looked like, and what it looks like now.
Six specialist agents ask, classify, match, route, pre-fill and track every request; the procurement operations lead decides the exceptions.
Talks with the requester in plain words, reads attached quotes and SOW drafts, and asks only the questions the route depends on — personal or patient data, need-by date, cost centre, named supplier, whether a person works under Northwind direction.
Sets the category, the value band and whether it is a purchase at all — goods, software, services, or a payment to a person that belongs in another process.
Searches, in order, the catalogue, agreements and rate cards, enterprise licences with unused seats and the supplier master — including near-name duplicates.
Runs the policy tests — purchase or not, channel order, thresholds and competition, split purchases, after-the-fact, services and SOW, contingent worker, privacy and security — and builds the approval chain from the delegation of authority.
Drafts what comes next: a work order under an agreement, supplier set-up, a sourcing event, a privacy or security review, a sole-source justification, and the note to the requester.
Keeps the requester’s tracker live, nudges late approvers and reviewers with the request and its reasons attached, and records each step.
Decides each exception. The agents propose; a named person decides.
Procurement can ask in plain words about a request, a threshold, an approver or a supplier — or tell it what to change. Every answer cites the policy, the agreement or the record behind it.
Why is REQ-24117 going to the Larkspur agreement?
Maya asked for Kestrel Bioanalytics, but the Larkspur agreement covers the same work: rate card item BA-14 validates a ligand-binding assay with up to three analytes for $164,800, and Larkspur ran sTRX-7 for VLT-201 last year. The agreement was competed, so no new sourcing event is needed, and its Schedule 4 covers the coded samples. It is 88% sure because Maya named another supplier — so it waits for you.
Who approves $164,800?
The delegation of authority sets the approver by value: up to $25,000 the cost-centre manager, $25,001–$150,000 a director, $150,001–$500,000 a vice president, $500,001–$2M a senior vice president. Above $100,000 Procurement signs too, and no one approves their own request. So REQ-24117 goes to Grace Whitfield and Omar Haddad after Dr. Henrik Lund.
Show possible split purchases this month
One pair. Sam Patel asked for part 2 of the patient video series from Lumen Story Studio ($54,000) five days after part 1 ($54,000). Together they are $108,000, above the $100,000 line, and the policy adds requests to the same supplier within 30 days. Sam said it is the same series split across two quarters, so I recommend one sourcing event.
Add a rule: software under $5,000 with no company data skips the security review
Done. Software under $5,000 that stores no Northwind or personal data goes straight to approval, without the IT security assessment; everything else still follows §7.5. Over the last 90 days this would have applied to 47 requests. The rule is on in Settings and recorded in the audit trail; it reaches the agents after Jonas Weber approves it.
13 screens from the working solution, on its sample data. Pick one to see it large.
The thresholds and approvers come from your buying policy and delegation of authority — and each one is a setting.
| Setting | Default | Choose from |
|---|---|---|
| One quote below | $10,000 | $5,000 · $10,000 · $15,000 · $25,000 |
| Sourcing event above | $100,000 | $50,000 · $100,000 · $150,000 · $250,000 |
| Confirm a route automatically | 90% confidence | 85 · 90 · 95% confidence |
| Add together requests to the same supplier | Within 30 days | Within 30 · 60 · 90 days |
| Existing contracts and licences before new suppliers | On | Part of the policy — cannot be turned off here |
| Who decides routing exceptions | Priya Raman | Priya Raman · Omar Haddad |
| Who approves sole-source justifications | Omar Haddad | Omar Haddad · Priya Raman |
| Nudge approvers after | 1 working day | 4 hours · 1 working day · 2 working days |
Every figure is labelled: a target the solution is built to, an estimate, a typical published result, or a proven one.
“demo” = seen in the working solution, on its sample company data · “target” = the design goal, measured in the live solution (dashboard, last 30 days) · “estimated” = our estimate · “typical” = published figures (procurement-intake case study, top-five drug maker, 2024 — 55–60% less manual effort per request). People, companies and products named on this page are fictional — characters and sample data in the working solution.
One place where any employee asks to buy something in their own words, instead of picking a form or a buying channel. Procurement Front Door classifies the request, asks only the questions the route depends on, finds the right way to buy — catalogue, existing contract or licence, new supplier, quotes or a sourcing event, a statement of work, or another process — and tracks it to the purchase order.
The policy router runs your buying policy’s tests in order: is it a purchase, the channel order, value thresholds and competition, split purchases, services and statements of work, contingent workers, privacy and security. Each test cites the clause behind it, and the approval chain comes from your delegation of authority.
It checks the catalogue, agreements and rate cards, and licences with unused seats before a new supplier, as the channel order requires. When a requester names a supplier anyway, the request comes to procurement operations with both routes side by side — start date, price, steps and days to a purchase order.
Yes. Requests from the same cost centre to the same supplier within the window you set — 30 days by default — are added together when the thresholds are applied, and a possible split comes to procurement operations as an exception.
Yes. A route is confirmed automatically only above the confidence you set and when no exception applies; everything else waits for the procurement operations lead. The agents draft forms but never post a requisition, approvers sign in the order the delegation of authority sets, and no one approves their own request.
They are not purchases. The front door recognises them and hands them to the HCP engagement, grants or travel process with the details already filled in, so the requester does not have to start again.
The Agentic Solution Engine builds and deploys it from your requirements — your buying policy, delegation of authority, agreements, catalogue and a sample of past requests — and it goes live once every quality gate has passed. We will walk you through it on your own requests first.
Every CRO bid re-priced to the study you asked for and compared like for like, each number traced to its page.
1-min filmInvoice AuditorEvery invoice line checked against its contract, rate card and PO, and overcharges held before the money leaves.
1-min filmContract RegisterEvery supplier contract, acquired ones included, becomes one register of terms and deadlines, each value linked to its page.
1-min filmWe’ll run Procurement Front Door on a sample of your own past requests and your buying policy.