Quotations are some of the most repetitive work in manufacturing and trading: a customer message, an engineer who reads it and searches the catalogue and price lists, and an Excel file built from scratch. Most of that time is not pricing; it is moving data.
What the system does
It understands the request from the chat, matches each line to a code in the live catalogue, calculates quantities and weights using your rules, and produces a draft in the template your team already uses. Any unclear line is flagged instead of guessed.
What needs approval
The final price, discounts, lines without a clear code, and special delivery dates. The reviewer sees the draft and only the flagged lines, then approves or edits. Once approved, the quote goes to the customer in the same chat.
One source of truth
The system is only as accurate as the catalogue it reads. Name one approved price file, who owns its updates, and the effective date of each list. Most errors in automated quotes come from an outdated catalogue, not from the model.
How to measure it
Compare system-prepared quotes with manual ones for the same requests: the share of lines matched correctly, the time from message to approval, and how many edits the reviewer made. Those numbers tell you when to expand.