AI automation · AI agent development
Webro: a bespoke AI agent that cut purchase-order processing from up to 48 hours to around two minutes, delivered in three weeks
Customers sent Webro purchase orders with hundreds of lines in their own part numbers, and someone matched every line by hand. Our AI agent now does the matching and prepares the quote; Webro's team approves it.
- AI automation
- AI agent development
- Document processing
- Data matching
The brief
Same product, different number
Vimana Digital built Webro a bespoke AI agent that receives purchase-order emails, extracts the PDF, reads hundreds of line items, matches each customer part reference to the correct Webro product and prepares a quotation for the team to review and send. Processing that could take up to 48 hours now takes around two minutes.
This wasn't a website problem. It was an internal process conventional development had failed to fix.
Customers around the world emailed purchase orders, with the order attached as a PDF, containing hundreds of parts in their own part numbers. Webro used completely different references internally. The descriptions identified the same product, but the numbers didn't correspond, so someone had to work through the order line by line, find the equivalent Webro product and prepare the quotation. For large orders that could take up to 48 hours.
A simplified example: a customer calls three products ABC, XYZ and PQR; Webro calls the same three 1, 2 and 3. The codes have no useful relationship. The connection lives in the product description, and a person can see it. Repeating that judgement across hundreds of lines is slow and tedious.
The bottleneck wasn't the people. It was the process they'd been forced to work with.
The project came as a referral from our East Midlands Chamber Business Advisor. Before discussing the client in detail, we were asked to review the technical brief and say whether we could solve it. We were confident in the approach and proposed a three-week delivery.
Only then were we told the history: another team had taken the project on with a three-month expectation and handed it back undelivered, and Webro's own internal technical resource had also tried without producing a solution.
How we did it
Three weeks, and why complex didn't mean slow
01
Review the brief first
We assessed whether the problem was solvable, then committed to three weeks.
02
Understand the process, not just the specification
After meeting Webro's director we went straight into the operational process: how orders arrive, where the exceptions are, and what the outcome had to look like.
03
Design for inconsistency
The hard part wasn't speed. It was building a workflow that copes with messy, real-world purchasing data instead of assuming tidy inputs.
04
Keep a human approval step
The system automates receiving, reading and matching, then stops. Webro reviews and actions the outgoing quotation.
05
Go beyond the brief
Understanding the underlying problem let us spot additional functionality, which we built in alongside the original requirements.
06
Demonstrate at three weeks
Every core requirement discussed with the client was addressed. Nothing was dropped to hit the date.
What we built
An AI agent built around the workflow, not a chatbot bolted on
Six connected stages:
An AI agent, in plain terms, is software given a goal and the tools to reach it, which works out the steps itself rather than following a fixed script. It suited this job because real purchasing data is inconsistent: customers don't structure references, descriptions and order data in the same way.
The purpose was not to insert a chatbot into an existing process but to remove repetitive work from the process itself. The agent does the reading, matching and preparation; the business keeps the decision.
I can't believe that not only were you able to deliver everything I ever dreamed about, but you did it in only three weeks and on less budget than the previous agency charged.
The outcome
From hours to minutes
- Complex purchase orders that previously could take up to 48 hours of manual processing are now handled in around two minutes, for the type of order the solution was designed to address
- Delivered in three weeks, on less budget than the previous agency charged (in the client's words)
- Every core requirement in the brief addressed, plus additional functionality identified during the project
- Webro retains control: nothing is sent to a customer until the team has reviewed it
Related services
Questionsabout thisproject
Not covered here? Call and ask. We reply within 24 hours.
Can AI read purchase orders sent as PDFs by email?
Yes. Webro's agent starts from the incoming email, identifies the PDF attachment, and extracts the order lines and product information from it. The workflow was designed around the fact that customers don't structure their references, descriptions and purchasing data in the same way, so it has to interpret each document rather than expect a fixed layout.
Can it match our customers' part numbers to ours when they're completely different?
That was the core of the Webro project. Customer references and Webro's own references had no direct relationship; the link existed only in the descriptions. The agent interprets each line and reconciles it against Webro's product data, doing in minutes what took a person up to 48 hours on large orders.
Does the AI send quotes to customers on its own?
No. The agent prepares the quotation, then stops. Webro's team reviews what has been prepared and actions it before anything goes to the customer. That approval step means you remove the repetitive work without giving up control of what leaves the business, and we'd discuss where it belongs in your own process.
How long does an AI agent project take?
It depends on scope, but complexity doesn't have to mean slow. Webro's agent went from brief to demonstration in three weeks, after another team had planned three months and withdrawn. As with Webro, we review your process first and then propose a delivery timescale.
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What does your team still do manually?
The same principle applies in finance, accounting, legal, sports administration and operations. If a process is slow, repetitive or buried in admin, show it to us and we'll investigate whether AI, automation or bespoke software can remove the bottleneck. Call 0115 647 0444 or send the form. 5.0 from 50+ Google reviews.