Purpose
1. Automate supplier price comparison report generation for army & navy surplus retailers, enabling automated aggregation, analysis, and notification of price fluctuations from multiple vendor sources, thus optimizing procurement, cost control, and supplier selection.
2. Automates the collection of supplier quotes, catalog extracts, or real-time pricing via APIs, and compiles automated comparative analytics with historical data and price trend visualizations to inform purchasing decisions.
3. Automation ensures rapid, error-free price monitoring, and can trigger automated alerts or workflows for price drops, contract renegotiation, and bulk-buy optimization.
Trigger Conditions
1. Automator triggers: scheduled (hourly/daily/weekly), manual request, or API call from procurement system.
2. Automated triggers upon supplier email receipt, new product import, or when vendor portal is updated.
3. Automatedly initiates upon significant non-compliance with pre-set price thresholds.
Platform Variants
1. Microsoft Power Automate
• Feature/Setting: Integrate with Excel, SharePoint, or Teams; automate data extraction via scheduled flows; configure trigger “When a new email arrives” + HTTP actions for supplier portal API calls.
2. Zapier
• Feature/Setting: Automates supplier data app connections; webhook triggers; “Formatter” to compare price fields from multiple sources.
3. Google Apps Script
• Feature/Setting: Automate Google Sheets parsing; scheduled script to fetch supplier spreadsheets; use Drive triggers and Apps Script URL Fetch Service.
4. AWS Lambda
• Feature/Setting: Event-driven automator for periodic API fetch; automate parsing and storage with S3 and DynamoDB; set via EventBridge rule.
5. Integromat (Make)
• Feature/Setting: Multi-source data integration; HTTP module for supplier endpoints; automate Google Sheets update and email summary trigger.
6. Salesforce (Flows & APIs)
• Feature/Setting: Automate price comparison via Flow Builder; automate supplier contact record updates, Case Escalation rules trigger automated email for pricing anomalies.
7. SAP Ariba
• Feature/Setting: Automated Procurement Sourcing API for price extraction; automate scheduled reports; Sourcing Library triggers automate comparison report exports.
8. HubSpot
• Feature/Setting: Workflow automation for deal pipeline; automate supplier note parsing and scheduled pricing summary email.
9. Airtable
• Feature/Setting: Automate supplier price record imports via Airtable API; automation rules for change detection and report creation.
10. Smartsheet
• Feature/Setting: Automated forms for supplier uploads; workflow automator triggers comparison automation; cross-sheet comparison for delta calculation.
11. Monday.com
• Feature/Setting: Automate procurement boards; automation to pull supplier prices in pulses; Slack/email notification integration on price changes.
12. Oracle Procurement Cloud
• Feature/Setting: Scheduled price list comparison tasks; automate using REST API; report output automator to procurement dashboard.
13. Google Cloud Functions
• Feature/Setting: Automate regular price query scripts; Firestore event triggers for update notifications.
14. IBM Watson Orchestrate
• Feature/Setting: Automator for knowledge ingestion from supplier docs; automate comparison process; trigger pricing alerts.
15. UiPath
• Feature/Setting: RPA automation for web scraping supplier inventories; automated Excel comparison bots; queue-based triggers for batch operations.
16. Slack (Workflows)
• Feature/Setting: Automated reminders to procurement team; workflow bot posting comparison summary; "New File" trigger to automate report generation.
17. Notion
• Feature/Setting: Automated database sync for supplier price tables; Notion API automates notifications on price changes; use automator for status updates.
18. Trello (Butler Automation)
• Feature/Setting: Card creation for new comparison tasks; automated checklist population from supplier spreadsheet.
19. QuickBooks Online
• Feature/Setting: Supplier bill import automation; triggers comparative report on new bill entry; automatedly exports CSV for analysis.
20. Pabbly Connect
• Feature/Setting: Supply chain price API integration; workflow automation for report preparation and scheduled email delivery.
Benefits
1. Automates repetitive supplier data handling, saving effort and reducing manual errors.
2. Automated, up-to-date comparisons accelerate procurement approvals and negotiations.
3. Automation ensures real-time price visibility to avoid overpaying or missing cost-saving opportunities.
4. Automated report delivery enhances transparency and decision-making for procurement teams.
5. Scalable automator framework for integrating new supplier feeds or price formats as business grows.
Supplier & Procurement Automations