The Challenge

• A construction company’s Purchasing department was overwhelmed by purchase requests coming in from every direction—emails, text messages, phone calls, and in-person conversations. This chaotic flow made it difficult to track requisition statuses, leaving the team constantly chasing updates with no centralized system to communicate order progress to field staff or project managers. While the company’s Purchase Order system did include a Requisition feature, it lacked flexibility and was inaccessible to anyone outside the corporate network.

The Solution

• Our team was tasked with extending the functionality of the company’s Purchase Order system by building a cloud-based requisition center. This system needed to integrate with both the field labor job management platform—so Foremen and Superintendents could track order statuses—and the Project Management platform, allowing Project Managers and Project Engineers to stay informed.
• The process began with a web form on the cloud-based project management platform. Since the Purchase Order system only accepted CSV imports, the system was designed to export requisition data in CSV format for seamless integration.
• Each requisition was assigned a status and linked to a designated Purchasing Agent. The system could generate vendor-ready PDF quote requests directly from the requisition, eliminating the need to manually copy and paste emails. Once an order was placed, the Purchasing Agent could update the requisition with estimated delivery dates, improving communication and visibility.
• Requisitions originated from multiple sources—field teams, office staff, warehouse personnel, and satellite offices—each with unique field requirements. To streamline the process, the form dynamically adjusted based on the request source and included features aimed at reducing completion time.
• In parallel, we developed a separate notification system to alert Foremen and Project Managers when items arrived at the warehouse for their respective jobs. The biggest pain point prior to this system was the lack of real-time visibility into order statuses—something this solution directly addressed.

Results & Growth

• The new system immediately resolved longstanding pain points for both Field and Project Management teams by providing a single source of truth for tracking order statuses.
• Implementation was rolled out gradually over the course of a year, paced by the availability of training. One notable challenge was a persistent bug in the accounting system responsible for generating Purchase Orders—it would occasionally reject CSV imports at random times. Fortunately this had nothing to do with our system. Despite this issue, the project was a major success.
• Because the Requisition Management System operated independently, it allowed the company to continue using their existing accounting platform while laying the groundwork for future flexibility. If a new Purchasing and Requisition system were adopted later, it would be feasible to build a new integration without having to rebuild the entire requisition process.
• The overall impact was a measurable increase in efficiency: field personnel no longer needed to make calls or send emails to track the status of their orders.
• The entire project was completed in approximately eight weeks.