What If AI Read Every Quotation for You? How to Speed Up Quotation Comparison Today

Picture a Friday afternoon. Five vendors have answered your request for a quote, and the quotation comparison starts now. One sent a PDF, one a spreadsheet, and one a long email with the prices in the third paragraph. Your manager wants a recommendation by Monday. You open a blank spreadsheet and start retyping.

It is a fair question to ask whether AI could just read all of that for you. We come back to it below. First, here are four points that make quotation comparison faster today, and how WeManage Procurement handles each one.

1. Make every vendor answer the same item list

What it looks like. Each vendor chooses its own format, so the same item shows up under different names, units and tax treatments.

Why it costs you. Someone must retype and reconcile every bid before comparing can even start. Retyping invites mistakes, and the best offer can hide in the format that was hardest to read.

How WeManage handles it:

1. The quotation owner lists the products or services and their quantities under the QUOTATION ITEM tab of the Quotation Plan.
2. Invited vendors receive an Invitation to Bid email when the quotation starts.
3. Each vendor opens the QUOTATION ITEM tab, which lists the items you want quoted, and enters the unit price and tax for each one. The vendor can also add a discount, then clicks SUBMIT. The status moves from Draft to Submitted.
4. In its quotation, a vendor also states for each item whether it intends to bid (Intent to Bid). Where the answer is Alternative or No, the price comparison leaves that item out.

2. See who has replied without chasing anyone

What it looks like. The deadline passes and you start asking around. Did vendor C reply? Why is vendor D silent?

Why it costs you. The decision waits while people chase, and nobody records why you moved ahead with fewer bids than planned.

How WeManage handles it:

1. Once the Quotation End Date passes, the status changes from AWAITING BIDDER SUBMISSION to OPENING. If every invited vendor has already submitted, the quotation owner can open the quotation earlier.
2. On the VENDOR LIST tab of the Quotation Plan, the quotation owner sees which vendors have submitted and which failed to respond.
3. To move on, the quotation owner clicks PROCEED RECOMMENDATION.
4. Where a minimum number of quotation submissions is set up and not met, the quotation owner enters a justification in the Recommendation Request form and submits it for approval. The status then moves to PENDING RECOMMENDATION.

3. Run quotation comparison from one price report

What it looks like. The comparison lives in a hand-built sheet. One vendor's tax is in, another's is out, and a missing document means another round of emails.

Why it costs you. Only one person can check the sheet. If a number is off, the wrong vendor can win, and every email round adds days.

How WeManage handles it:

1. Open the App launcher, choose Quotation under Strategic Sourcing, open the Quotation Plan and go to the VENDOR LIST tab. It shows the total amount each invited vendor submitted. Vendors that did not respond show 0.00.
2. Click VIEW COMPARISON to open the price comparison report. By default, only System Admins, Procurement Officers and Procurement Users can see quotation pricing here. An Application Setting in the Sourcing tab can change this.
3. Click the QUOTATION button next to a vendor to read its full submission.
4. If a bid is incomplete, the Procurement Officer clicks RESUBMIT, enters a reason and a due date, and the vendor receives an email asking it to resubmit.

4. Record the decision where everyone can find it

What it looks like. The winner is picked in an email thread or a chat, and weeks later nobody remembers why.

Why it costs you. You cannot show that the choice was fair, and any follow-up question sends someone digging through inboxes.

How WeManage handles it:

1. The quotation owner selects one or more recommended bidders and saves the selection. The owner then opens the SUBMISSION tab and clicks SAVE and RECOMMEND BIDDER.
2. Where the Application Setting requires approval for quotation recommendation, the approver receives an email, reviews the quotation details and approves the recommended bidder.
3. Once approved, the status changes to AWARDED. Within the quotation validity period, you can raise a purchase requisition, purchase order or contract from it.
4. Where budget control is switched on in the Budget tab of the Application Setting, the system checks the budget when bidders are recommended and reserves the recommended amount if enough is available. This does not apply to standalone quotations.

What's next in the industry

Industry commentary on AI in e-procurement highlights emerging capabilities such as reading supplier quotations in different formats, comparing bids automatically and flagging unusual offers. While these capabilities reflect broader market developments, they are not currently part of the functionality described in this article for WeManage Procurement.

Quick self-check: how many of these sound like your team?

• Vendors send quotations in different formats and someone retypes them.
• You find out who has not replied only by asking around.
• Your comparison sits in a spreadsheet that one person understands.
• An incomplete bid means another round of emails.
• You cannot easily show later why one vendor was chosen.

Two or more? Giving every vendor the same item list, with one comparison report and a recorded approval behind the choice, closes those gaps.

Compare quotations in one place

WeManage Procurement keeps every bid, comparison and approval together. Want to see it? Talk to the V-Work team and we will walk you through a quotation from invitation to award.