- Per request, from 30+ minutes
- 11 secPer request, from 30+ minutes
- Reduction in processing time
- 99.4%Reduction in processing time
- More requests bid on
- 2-3xMore requests bid on
- Document automation success rate
- 95%+Document automation success rate
Before
After
The challenge
Tail end requests are the awkward end of NHS supply: one-off items outside the contracted range, each needing a person to search suppliers, check availability, apply the right trust margin and build a quote.
Each request took thirty minutes or more, which capped how many the team could realistically answer and meant a share of them were never bid on at all.
Two regional teams were spending most of their working day on this processing rather than on customers.
What we built
- An automated sourcing engine that reads the incoming ticket, extracts every product line, and searches supplier and marketplace sources for a match.
- Trust-specific pricing rules applied automatically, including contract-first validation so contracted lines are always priced from contract before anything else is considered.
- Automatic generation of special product codes and a branded quote in the client's own format, returned to the ticket for review.
- A human review gate retained by design: every quote lands with a reviewer before it reaches the trust.
- Alongside this, supplier document automation, an RFP and tender tool, and a unified delivery tracking portal for customers.
What changed
Requests that took over half an hour of skilled searching are returned in eleven seconds, with the reviewer confirming rather than constructing.
Because the cost of answering a request collapsed, the client now bids on requests it would previously have let go, which turns a cost centre into revenue.
The processing load across two regional teams has been substantially removed, freeing that capacity for customer-facing work.
Systems
- Service desk integration
- ERP integration
- Supplier and marketplace sourcing
- Automated quote generation