AI for procurement and sourcing
Test a supplier’s price-increase letter against the escalation clause and the index it cites, level three quotes onto one scope sheet, and build the should-cost, from the quotes, exports and contracts already in your folder.
QBR-Meridian-Components.pptxExampleAsk it for
“Read Northline Steel’s 8% price increase letter and test it against the steel-index escalation clause (4.2), then draft our counter showing the arithmetic.”
Price-increase-response-Northline.docx“Level the three quotes for the racking package against the scope sheet, plug the freight and installation exclusions, and rank the bids.”
Bid-tab-racking-package.xlsx“Build a should-cost for bracket 4471 from the BOM and routing hours: 6061 material with 8% scrap, cycle times at the machine rate, and a 9% margin.”
Should-cost-bracket-4471.xlsx“Cascade Paper shows up under three names in the Q3 AP and PO exports, so merge them into one supplier. Cube the data and flag off-contract items above $10,000.”
Spend-cube-Q3-2026.xlsx“Redline the supplier’s master services agreement draft against our standard positions and list every liability and payment change for legal.”
MSA-redline-issues.pdf“Turn this year’s OTIF and quality data into a supplier review deck for Meridian Components, with every miss and its cause on the slides.”
QBR-Meridian-Components.pptx
How it works
- 1
Open the sourcing folder
Supplier quotes and their cover letters, price increase letters, the signed agreement with every amendment, AP and PO exports, BOMs and routings, certificates of insurance and index clippings, as you already keep them.
- 2
Ask for the work
A leveled tab with every exclusion priced, an index test against the escalation clause, a should-cost marked known, estimated or assumed, and every number cited to the file it came from.
- 3
Check it and make the award
Rerun anything odd in Excel and check the index movements against the published series before you put what you accept into the PO. The tab, the abstract and the award stay with you, and nothing is sent or posted.
Inside the Procurement & Sourcing mode
Purchase orders and price variance
Run the supplier’s increase through the escalation clause it invokes and the index movement behind it, then split the month’s purchase price variance by driver.
Bid tabulation and leveling
Set the scope baseline, mark what each bidder included, excluded, qualified or left silent, price every gap with your plug values, and rank the leveled totals.
Should-cost model
Cost the part from buy weight, scrap, cycle time and machine rate, with profit on its own line, so the gap to the quote is the negotiation agenda.
Spend cube analysis
Cut the spend by category, supplier and month, and merge the name variants of the same vendor. State savings as reduction or avoidance against the baseline.
Contract abstraction and obligations
Abstract the signed agreement and every amendment in order of precedence, and compute each renewal notice deadline from the wording, clause by clause.
Certificate of insurance tracking
Check each certificate’s endorsements against the contract’s insurance section, from additional insured forms to primary and noncontributory wording.
Statement of work
Write the SOW or performance work statement with deliverables, acceptance criteria, exclusions, change control and the QASP the inspection team grades against.
Contract drafting and redlining
Mark up the supplier’s draft against your standard positions and hand legal an issues list that names the section behind each flag.
Landed cost and tariff exposure
Apply the duty in force on the entry date to each SKU, then add MPF, HMF, freight and brokerage, and show what moving origin would change.
Determinations and justifications
Draft the sole source justification or D&F with the required elements in order and the market research presented as it was.
Business case and capital allocation
Model the build-versus-buy case with cash flows, NPV and IRR, and keep every assumption visible on the sheet the CFO reviews.
Supply chain KPI scorecard
Compute OTIF, fill rate and defect PPM to the definitions agreed with the supplier, line by line, and show what was excluded from the count.
- Office skills
- Excel, Word, PowerPoint, PDF
- Tools
- Read, edit and write files, Search files, Run code, Search and read the web, View images
- Connectors
- SharePoint, Google Drive, Gmail, and additional custom connectors
- House style
- Your fonts, layouts and rules, on every file
Who it’s for
Everyone in a commercial purchasing or procurement team, from procurement clerks and buyers to category managers, supplier contract administrators and chief procurement officers.
Questions
Can I put supplier quotes, price lists and signed contracts into it?
Yes, and quotes and bids are often under NDA, so confirm with your compliance team before you load them. Ultramarine Work changes files only in the project’s folder. When a request needs it, it can read files elsewhere on your computer, never passwords, keys or app data, and you can turn that off in settings. The model runs on Paper Instruments’ servers, so the content it works on is sent there to be processed. Paper Instruments is SOC 2 Type II, and our security and compliance details are on our compliance page.
Can it score the bids and pick the winning supplier?
No, the scoring, weighting and award stay with the buyer or the evaluation panel. It builds the tab, prices the exclusions and shows the gaps, and it lists which clarifications still need a written answer from bidders before any total is final. Silence on scope is not a price.
How do I stop it inventing prices, index figures or clause numbers?
Its skills tell it to cite a source file for every number and statement it uses, and to note anything it could not find or reconcile instead of guessing. Verify every market figure against the published data before it crosses the table, and review every file it touched. That review is what makes the numbers defensible when a supplier contests them.
Can it redline liability and indemnity clauses?
No, liability and indemnity wording belongs to your lawyers. It can draft the first-pass commercial markup for price, payment terms, service levels and termination wording, and it flags the clauses that carry legal risk. Its redlines are proposals for review, never the wording that goes to the supplier.
What happens if we miss a notice deadline in a contract it abstracts?
The contract renews for another full term, because that is how auto-renewal clauses are written. Ultramarine Work computes the deadline from the contract’s wording, amendments included. The register still needs a named owner who decides on the renewal and gives notice before the window closes.