Paperless Parts’ New AI-Supported Workflow Promises to Slash Quote Setup Time
March 4, 2024Comments
Paperless Parts, Boston, MA, has added artificial-intelligence (AI)-supported quote-setup workflow to its quoting and collaboration platform. The update, company officials say, significantly streamlines the repetitive, error-prone tasks associated with request for quote (RFQ) intake and prep work.
Says Jason Ray, company co-founder and CEO: “Some of the most experienced people inside a shop waste hundreds of hours per year performing repetitive administrative tasks just to get to the point where they can determine which quotes to prioritize. That is a process that, with the right tools, can largely be automated.”
For most shops, the process of receiving an RFQ and preparing to quote requires several time-consuming steps: receive the RFQ via email or from a supplier portal, log the RFQ in a project-tracking spreadsheet, download files to the estimator’s hard drive, organize them into line items on a shared drive, print out files for markup and review, and then build out the bill of materials in clunky spreadsheets or ERPs. With the average line item taking 2-5 min. to set up and review, this can lead to hundreds of hours of administrative tasks that may or may not lead to won revenue.
A beta user of the new quote-setup workflow from Paperless Parts, Justin Quinn, president at Colorado-based shop Focused on Machining, shares, “Getting through 30 to 40 quote packages, each with 5 to 15 files per line item, would have taken hours before; now I can get it done in 30 min. The new workflow also has improved communication within our team by allowing us to get started on quotes faster.”
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