SOURCING & PROCUREMENT

Six suppliers. Six different quote formats. None of them comparable.

You know how the week goes. Search, shortlist, email, chase — then sit down on Thursday with six quotes that measure different things and try to work out which one is actually cheapest. Here’s the method that fixes it, and a working demo you can drive yourself.

Try the demo

How do you compare supplier quotes that aren’t like for like?

Rebuild every quote as the total cost of the same job. Convert day rates and weekly rates into one figure for the actual quantity and duration, then add the costs suppliers report differently: delivery, fuel, weekend loadings, minimum hire periods and damage waivers. Rank on that number, not on the rate in the email.

The fastest way there is to force the structure at the start — ask every supplier the same numbered questions in the request, so the replies arrive in a shape you can line up.

The cheapest day rate is usually not the cheapest job

A real shape of job: 20 diesel light towers, seven days, delivered to a site in western Sydney. Five suppliers quoted. Here’s what they sent, and what it actually cost.

SUPPLIER WHAT THEY QUOTED TRUE COST WHAT WAS MISSING

Supplier B — $1,050 / week per unit — $23,100 — Delivery included
Supplier C — $178 / day per unit — $25,820 — Mid-hire refuels billed at cost
Supplier A — $165 / day per unit — $26,600 — Delivery billed separately: +$1,400
Supplier D — $172 / day per unit — $31,020 — Weekends at 1.5×: +$5,160
Supplier E — $1,120 / week per unit — $50,484 — Two-week minimum hire

Supplier B — $1,050 / week per unit — $23,100 — Delivery included
Supplier C — $178 / day per unit — $25,820 — Mid-hire refuels billed at cost
Supplier A — $165 / day per unit — $26,600 — Delivery billed separately: +$1,400
Supplier D — $172 / day per unit — $31,020 — Weekends at 1.5×: +$5,160
Supplier E — $1,120 / week per unit — $50,484 — Two-week minimum hire

Supplier A sent the lowest number anyone quoted. They finished third.

Supplier A sent the lowest number anyone quoted. They finished third.

The gap between the quote that looked cheapest and the one that was cheapest: $3,500 on a single week’s hire. Nobody was being dishonest. They answered a question that wasn’t asked precisely enough.

What the agent does, and where it stops

Smart AI in a broken process is still a broken process. This doesn’t replace your sourcing process — it runs the parts that are typing and waiting, and hands back the three decisions that need a person.

01 Turns your brief into a specification — Describe the job the way you’d say it in the yard. The agent produces a structured request and adds the six questions buyers usually forget. YOU APPROVE

02 Finds and shortlists suppliers — Searches directories and mapping data, filters on fleet, rating and distance from site, and shows why each one made the list.

03 Drafts the request for quote — One identical email, same numbered questions to everyone. Read it, change what you want, choose who receives it. YOU APPROVE

04 Sends, tracks and chases — Follows up suppliers who go quiet on day two, so you’re not awarding from a half-full field.

05 Normalises every reply — Rebuilds each quote as the total cost of your job and surfaces the loadings, minimums and exclusions in the fine print.

06 Recommends, then waits — Presents the ranked comparison with reasoning. You award it. YOU APPROVE

Six hours becomes eighteen minutes

A routine multi-supplier cycle costs a manager six to seven hours across three or four days. The three approval gates take about eighteen minutes total.

It doesn’t negotiate, and it doesn’t send

Two deliberate limits. Nothing leaves under your business name until you click send, and the agent prepares your negotiating position rather than conducting it.

WORKING DEMO

Drive it yourself

Not a video. The real interface, with the numbers from the job above. Brief the agent, approve the spec, review the shortlist — then see five incomparable prices collapse into one ranking. About two minutes.

Stage 1 of 8: Brief

Scope brief captured

Need 20 light towers for a week at our Parramatta site, starting Monday 17 August.

Questions people ask before they try this

Why are supplier quotes so hard to compare?

Because suppliers quote in different units and include different things. Until every quote is rebuilt as the total cost of the same job, the numbers cannot be ranked.

Can AI send quote requests to suppliers automatically?

It can draft them, but it shouldn’t send them unattended. The email carries your business name, so a person signs it off.

Should an AI agent negotiate with suppliers?

No. The useful version prepares your negotiating position and drafts the counter-offer. A person sends it.

NO JARGON. NO HYPE. NO SALES PITCH.

AI2Easy — practical AI systems for Australian field services, aged care and professional services businesses. Sydney, NSW.

Figures on this page are drawn from the shape of typical multi-supplier hire cycles. Supplier names and quotes are illustrative.