Start with elapsed time, not software
Manual quoting rarely looks expensive because the work is spread across inboxes, supplier portals, spreadsheets and short interruptions. The visible task might take twenty minutes; the elapsed process can occupy three people over two days.
Choose ten recent quotes and write down every hand-off from the first enquiry to the final send. Record active handling time, waiting time and rework separately. That gives you a baseline you can defend.
Count the work that hides around the quote
The costly part is often not the document itself. It is finding the current price, checking availability, asking for missing details, copying customer information and remembering to follow up.
- Time spent locating product, labour and supplier information
- Corrections caused by stale prices or copied details
- Approval and exception handling
- Follow-up work after the quote is sent
- Delay cost when a ready-to-buy customer is waiting
Automate the stable middle
Keep judgement with the person who understands the job. Automate the repeatable middle: collecting complete inputs, pulling approved data, assembling a consistent draft, routing approval and scheduling follow-up.
A useful first phase should reduce handling without hiding exceptions. If the team cannot see why a price or status changed, the automation will create more checking rather than less.