Vague Specs, Uncomparable Quotes
Ambiguous requirements get ambiguous answers. Different inclusions, different lead times, different terms. The tabulation becomes a guess dressed up as a comparison.
RFQ Agent
Autonomous Request for Quotation
Every Quote. Every Supplier.One Comparable Number.
The RFQ Agent runs the entire quotation cycle on its own: spec, suppliers, bids, award. Every quote is normalised onto a like-for-like basis, with the reasoning attached. Procurement decides. It doesn't chase.
Spec written for youQuotes normalised to true costAwarded terms enforced downstream
See It Work
From Approved Request to
Award Recommendation in Four Days.
Watch the RFQ Agent take a single approved spend request through a full competitive quotation cycle, spec, suppliers, bids, tabulation, award, without a procurement analyst touching a spreadsheet.
RFQ Agent · Competitive Quotation Cycle
LiveDay 009:12
Inbound from Intake Agent
“3 servers for the data pipeline · CapEx IT Infrastructure · PO required · est. $48,000 · CFO approved”
Day 009:14
Spec drafted
The agent builds the quotable requirement: quantity 3, technical spec pulled from the request thread, delivery to LA facility by 30 Sept, 12-month warranty minimum, Net 45 terms per policy.
Flags one gap: "Rack depth not specified, confirm with requester?"Day 011:40
Suppliers selected
4 approved vendors from the vendor master, two incumbents, two challengers. All four cleared by Trust Agent risk scoring.
One excluded automatically: "Vendor D, insurance certificate lapsed 12 days ago."Day 011:41
RFQ issued
Identical package to all four. Deadline set to Day 3, 17:00 PT. Quote validity requested: 30 days.
Day 114:22
Clarification handled
Supplier B asks about rack depth. The agent answers, and distributes the same answer to all four bidders simultaneously. Fairness preserved without anyone remembering to do it.
Day 317:05
Tabulation + award
4 quotes normalised. Unit price, freight, duties, warranty value, lead time and payment terms folded into landed cost.
Recommendation
Supplier C · $46,200 landed · 18-day lead · Net 45
Not the lowest unit price. The lowest true cost.
Agent reasoning: “One approved request, four suppliers, four normalised quotes. Awarded on landed cost with the reasoning attached, no analyst, no spreadsheet.”
Four suppliers. Zero spreadsheets. One defensible award.
Where It Sources
It Already Knows Who
You're Allowed to Ask.
The RFQ Agent doesn't start from a blank supplier list. It draws on every source of vendor truth you already have, and only invites suppliers who are actually eligible to win.
Vendor master (ERP)Approved & preferred listsContracts & price listsTrust Agent risk scoresAward & performance historySupplier email & portal
If a supplier's insurance has lapsed, their contract has expired, or their risk score has slipped below policy, they never make the invite list. The screening happens before the RFQ goes out, not after the quotes come back.
The Problem
The Problem
The RFQ is where the price gets decided. It's also, in most organisations, where the least infrastructure exists. A buyer writes a spec in Word. Emails it to three suppliers they remember. Pastes the replies into a spreadsheet. Compares unit prices because that's the column everyone has. Picks one. Moves on.
Every part of that is judgment-free work, done manually, on the single step that determines what the company actually pays.
Lowest Price Isn’t Lowest Cost
Freight, duties, tooling, order minimums, warranty scope. Price-only evaluation ignores all of it. Teams award the cheapest unit price, then pay more over the life of the order.
The Awarded Terms Evaporate
Procurement negotiates a rate. Nine months later AP is paying something else, because the terms never travelled from the RFQ into the PO. The negotiation happened. The savings didn’t.
What It Does
It Answers One Question:
What Should This Actually Cost,
and Who Should Supply It?
The RFQ Agent doesn't send emails and collect replies. It runs the quotation as a governed decision, structuring the requirement, screening the field, normalising the responses, and producing an award recommendation that survives an audit.
01 · Requirement Structuring
Is this actually quotable yet?
The agent converts an approved spend request into a precise specification, quantities, technical requirements, delivery dates, quality standards, applicable terms. Where it’s ambiguous, it says so and asks one targeted question.
02 · Sourcing Decision
Does this even need an RFQ?
Not every purchase should go competitive. If a valid contract price already exists, the agent applies it and routes straight to the Commit Agent. RFQs get run when they earn their cost, not because a policy box needs ticking.
03 · Supplier Selection
Who is eligible to win this?
Suppliers are drawn from the vendor master and filtered against live compliance status, Trust Agent risk scores, category capability, and past performance. Incumbents are balanced against challengers, and every invite is documented.
04 · Issue & Clarification
Is the process defensible?
Identical packages to every bidder. A fixed deadline. Every clarification answered once and distributed to the whole field simultaneously. Late bids flagged, not quietly accepted. Audit-grade fairness, enforced automatically.
05 · Quote Normalisation
What is the real number?
The agent folds unit price, freight, duties, tooling, MOQ, currency, warranty scope, lead time and payment terms into a single landed-cost figure per supplier. Quotes arrive in different shapes. They leave in the same one.
06 · Award & Handoff
Who wins, and what happens to the terms?
A scored recommendation with full reasoning, ready to accept or override. On acceptance, awarded price, terms and validity pass to the Commit Agent as PO conditions, and to the Clause Agent as guardrails. The terms you negotiated become the terms you pay.
Five Ways It Decides
Every Sourcing Scenario.
One Agent.
The RFQ Agent handles five distinct quotation outcomes, each with a different decision path. No manual routing. No sourcing backlog.
Contract Price Applies
Input
"We need 40 more licences of the analytics platform"
Decision
Active contract · Tiered price applies at 40 units · No RFQ required · Route to Commit Agent
A valid negotiated price already exists for this category and volume tier. Running a competitive quotation would cost more than it could save. The agent applies the contract rate and moves on.
Explainability
Every Award.
Fully Defensible.
The RFQ Agent never recommends a supplier without showing its working. Every award produces a human-readable rationale, visible to procurement, finance, the requester, and the audit log. If a decision is ever questioned, the answer already exists.
Award Recommendation Summary
#RFQ-4471Requirement3 × rack servers · data pipeline
Suppliers invited4 · 2 incumbent, 2 challenger
Quotes received4 of 4 · all within deadline
RecommendedSupplier C
Landed cost$46,200
Policy appliedCompetitive Bid Policy v3
Confidence91%
Agent Reasoning
Supplier C is recommended despite quoting the second-lowest unit price. Supplier A's unit price is $1,400 lower in total, but excludes freight ($2,100) and offers a 12-month warranty against Supplier C's 36 months. On landed cost, Supplier C is $3,500 cheaper and delivers 9 days earlier. Supplier D was not invited, insurance certificate lapsed 12 days ago. All four bidders received the same clarification response on rack depth on Day 1.
Visible toRequesterProcurementFinance TeamAudit Log
Agent Handoffs
The RFQ Agent Sources.
Then Hands the Terms Over.
The RFQ Agent doesn't commit spend and doesn't pay anyone. It establishes what the company should pay and who should supply it, then transfers ownership, with the awarded terms intact.
If a valid contract price already covers the requirement, the RFQ Agent runs no quotation at all. It applies the rate and steps aside. Restraint is a design principle.
Free Resource
Looking for an RFQ template for quick processing?
Not ready to hand the whole cycle to an agent? Start with the spec. Our free RFQ template covers the fields that actually make quotes comparable, scope, quantities, delivery, quality standards, terms, quote validity, and the evaluation basis you'll be judged on. It's the same structure the RFQ Agent builds automatically.
FREE RFQ TemplateFree · No signup wall on the preview
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See the RFQ Agent
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We'll take one of your recent sourcing events, replay it through the RFQ Agent, and show you what the award would have been, in your ERP environment, against your supplier list.
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