Your buyers need to compare suppliers and secure parts for production. Instead, they are chasing acknowledgements, correcting invoices and asking for the missing page of a quote. More orders mean more follow-up, and the team is running out of time to do both.
You can hire, outsource the work, build a tool or buy software that runs it. The useful comparison is what each option completes, what it costs and what your buyers still have to do. A salary, a software fee and a prototype estimate cover different responsibilities; put them against the same job before comparing the numbers.
Use the build, buy, hire or outsource workbook (Excel) to compare the same job over 12 months in one currency and keep the quotes behind each estimate. The worked example uses made-up costs to explain the calculation. Use your own quotes and staffing estimates for a decision.
Start with the work you need done
Pick one recurring job and describe when it is finished. For purchase order confirmations, that means chasing the reply, checking quantities and dates, resolving changes with the supplier and recording the accepted plan. For sourcing, it means sending the RFQ, obtaining complete quotes and bringing the comparison to the buyer for a supplier decision.
List the records the work depends on, how suppliers respond, the usual volume and who approves changes. Include unanswered messages, partial replies and changed dates. Identify where the buyer or planner expects to find the final result.
Keep supplier selection and commercial approvals with the people responsible for them. State what can happen without another approval, such as chasing a missing acknowledgement from an established supplier. Then identify which decisions need a buyer, planner or technical reviewer.
Also check whether an existing ERP capability or process improvement already addresses the issue. Correcting a missing configuration, removing a duplicate approval or clarifying supplier instructions may be the most economical first step. Use the ERP workflow guide to distinguish that work from a new purchase.
Hire for supplier decisions and relationships
Hire when you need someone to own a category, negotiate terms or build supplier relationships. Those responsibilities need a buyer who understands the business and can make decisions as priorities change.
Estimate the capacity the role can actually devote to the target workflow. The person will also attend meetings, resolve unfamiliar issues, cover colleagues and learn the business. Comparing a full salary with the cost of one narrow automation job assumes all of the person's value comes from that job.
Include the cost of recruiting and training, the manager's time and any cover needed during absence. Allow for the time between the start date and the point when the buyer can work independently. Compare how quickly orders are growing with how quickly you can hire and train people.
Hiring and automation can complement each other. A business may need an experienced category owner and a way to keep routine follow-up off their desk. Specify the decisions the new hire will own and the volume the team should be able to handle once the chasing is taken care of.
Outsource repeatable work with clear handoffs
An external team can handle repeatable work, cover additional hours or clear a backlog. Give it the records, instructions and contacts needed to do the job, including who decides when a supplier proposes a change.
Examine what the service includes after a supplier replies. Does it only send reminders, or does it reconcile the answer? Who checks a changed unit of measure? Who follows a disputed amount until the supplier responds? Who updates the accepted result, and who verifies it? A low rate per touch can become expensive when one order needs many touches and internal reviews.
Ask how the service charges, what the minimum fee covers, who trains the team and how mistakes are checked. Find out which supplier problems it handles and which come back to your buyers. Agree whether it is responsible for sending reminders, getting a complete reply or resolving the order change.
Test a handover as well as ordinary work. An absent buyer, changed supplier contact or unclear commercial term should have an owner and next step. Check that a buyer receives the proposed action, relevant terms and supplier messages together. Include the time needed to review them in your comparison.
Build when you want to own and maintain the workflow
Internal development can fit a company-specific process that your team wants to maintain. Reading one standard document format or moving data between two stable systems may be a small project. Following supplier work over days or weeks adds more responsibilities: unanswered messages, changed orders, approvals and updates after the decision.
Before approving a broader build, ask what must remain dependable after the demonstration. The work may span supplier formats, changing order records, permission boundaries, unanswered messages and human intervention. The buying team will need support when a new convention appears or a connected system changes.
Include the work after launch in the estimate: testing with buyers, maintaining connections, investigating errors, supporting users and adapting to changes. Name the team that will maintain the tool when the original developer moves to another priority.
Test orders and supplier replies the developer has not used while building. Include a supplier who goes quiet, a changed delivery plan and a reply covering several POs. Record where the buyer or developer has to step in. Use those results to estimate the work still needed before the tool can handle the intended volume.
Compare that ongoing commitment with the other work your engineers could do. A custom build can make sense, but the owner needs time and budget to keep it working as the purchasing process changes.
Buy when a product can carry the work through
Mandel runs the operational work across direct-materials sourcing and ordering, from RFQ through invoice. It sends requests, chases replies, checks the documents against what was agreed, resolves discrepancies and updates the ERP. It acts within the rules you set and brings your team the decisions that need approval.
Ask what the subscription actually includes: supported workflow, connected systems, implementation, usage charges, support and the work left with internal users. Establish whether a quoted integration means reading a record, preparing an update or completing and verifying an authorized change. Those are different levels of responsibility.
Follow a delayed order through the demonstration. With Mandel, the work can include requesting quotes from approved alternatives, chasing missing terms and bringing the buyer a comparison. The buyer selects the supplier. After approval, Mandel arranges the replacement and updates the order. Check the complete sequence in the workflow being offered, including the work after approval.
Ask how your team would take over if you stopped using the service. Buyers need the open orders, supplier conversations, decisions already made and next actions. Confirm which records you can keep and how you can retrieve them.
Compare a full year of costs for the same workload
Use the same 12-month period, currency and workload for each option. Separate setup, annual fees or staffing costs, work left with your team and other ongoing costs. Keep the source and date of each quote or estimate.
Use this simple starting model:
- One-time cost: additional recruiting, training, implementation, migration or initial build costs required for this option.
- Recurring base cost: the annual cost of the role, service, software or continuing internal ownership assigned to this workflow.
- Retained internal work: hours per month multiplied by a loaded hourly cost and 12 months.
- Other recurring cost: distinct support, usage, infrastructure or coverage costs not already included above.
Count each cost once. If the recurring build estimate includes maintenance engineers, do not add those same hours again as retained work. If a service fee includes routine quality review, add only the extra internal review you still expect. Put inclusion notes beside each amount.
Putting a cost against staff time helps compare how much work each option leaves behind. It does not mean payroll will fall by that amount. Show both the spending required and the buyer capacity freed up, so finance can see which budget changes and which team can take on more work.
Worked example: the quote is only part of the cost
In an illustrative 12-month comparison for one defined workflow, Option A has a $48,000 recurring base cost, $10,000 setup cost and 10 hours of retained buyer work per month. At an assumed $60 loaded hourly cost, retained work is $7,200 for the year. With no additional recurring cost, the first-year total is $65,200.
Option B quotes $36,000 per year and $4,000 setup, but leaves 40 hours of internal work per month. At the same hourly assumption, retained work is $28,800 and the total is $68,800. The lower quote costs more once the extra buyer work is included. Check that both options cover the same tasks, approvals and volume before drawing that conclusion for your team.
Illustrative 12-month cost comparison
Include the work that stays with your team.
Include implementation or onboarding, plus the annual software, service or staffing cost.
Hours per month × loaded hourly cost × 12 months.
Check whether both options complete the same job at the required volume.
Show staff time separately from changes in spending. Count each cost once.
If both options cover 12,000 eligible work items in that year, the modeled first-year cost per eligible item is approximately $5.43 and $5.73 respectively. The workbook divides by all eligible items. To calculate a cost per completed order instead, you would need the number each option actually completed.
Change the retained hours, expected volume and recurring cost assumptions to see whether the conclusion holds. If a small change reverses the result, check those assumptions with the supplier or team proposing the work. Keep missing costs blank until known; the workbook marks incomplete inputs instead of treating them as free.
Include the value of work getting finished
The cost worksheet is only one part of the business case. A lower subscription fee tells you little about whether agreed prices are checked, expiring quotes are followed up or supplier credits are collected. Compare the commercial work each option covers as well as the time it takes.
Use your own orders to assess those opportunities. An invoice above the agreed price gives you a specific discrepancy to investigate. A supplier rebate gives you a claim to pursue. Keep potential amounts separate from credits issued and amounts finance has verified. The value guide explains how to track each result without counting it more than once.
Also compare completed orders per buyer, time taken to resolve a change, corrections required and work still waiting. Check peak periods and suppliers with different formats or response habits. Agree any requirements that must pass, such as obtaining approval before a supplier substitution; a low price cannot make up for a failed requirement.
In the decision worksheet, distinguish what a provider says it supports, what you have seen demonstrated and what you have observed on live work. Apply the same checks to an internal build.
Choose what to try first
Different jobs may need different answers. You could hire a category owner, keep an existing service for invoice processing and use Mandel to chase confirmations and resolve order changes. Assign the follow-ups and record updates so two teams do not chase the same supplier.
Write down the option you want to try, the job it will handle, the expected cost and who owns the decision. Include any unanswered questions and a date to review the results. State what needs to work before you add more orders or another team.
Use the AI evaluation scorecard when testing a product, and the rollout guide to prepare the first live job. If testing reveals a missing supplier instruction or incorrect order data, fix it before starting.
Bring Mandel a few orders that took too much chasing to finish. We can review what happened, what needed a buyer's decision and which steps Mandel could have carried through. Use that review to judge the fit, then compare the cost and remaining workload against hiring, outsourcing or building.
