- Before
- “I spend a week copying last year's RFP and another chasing people for answers.”
- Now
- Works with the agents in one thread beside the draft; accepts, edits or declines each proposal, and releases when every approval is in.
One request, from four sentences to a released RFP
Kestrel & Vane Group needs a new payroll provider for 6,230 people in Mexico, Brazil, Poland and Spain. Marta Lindqvist, the sourcing manager, works on it with eight agents in one conversation beside the RFP they are writing. Here is what happens, screen by screen, in the working solution.
- 01Tue 13 Oct, 16:20
Four sentences, and the intake agent's proposal
Daniela Ortiz · HR director, global payrollDaniela writes her need in plain words: four countries, about 6,200 people, the incumbent's contract ends 31 Mar 2027, Brazil has had 3 late eSocial filings this year, budget around €1.4M a year. A minute later the intake agent proposes an RFP: €1.42M a year is above the €100k quote limit in the sourcing policy, and five years come to €7.10M, so the procurement director approves it. It spots REQ-2026-0416 from HR Brazil as the same need and suggests merging it.
Marta, 17:40: “Accepted. Draft it from template v7 and our last payroll events. Ask Daniela directly for anything missing; I want it out on Friday.”
- 02Wed 09:02 – 09:08
26 pages, and every paragraph says where it came from
Gatherer and Drafting agentThe gatherer brings 8 sources: services RFP template v7, three past HR events with their bidder questions, the approved clause library 2026.2, the 36-point completeness checklist, the incumbent contract and the HR system's headcount. The drafting agent assembles v0.1: 9 sections, 64 paragraphs — 25 from the template, 16 from past events, 9 from the request and the HR system, 9 library clauses and 5 it wrote, marked for review. One click on a tag opens the passage it came from, here page 7 of the 2023 payroll RFP.
Drafting agent: “Where a fact was missing I did not guess: the completeness agent asked.”
- 0309:14
31 of 36 checks met, and five questions to the right people
Completeness agentThe completeness agent tests the draft against the 36 checks and matches each gap to the questions past bidders sent. It asks Daniela four questions and Joost van Rijn, the data protection officer, one — whether Brazilian payroll data must stay in Brazil — each in plain words, with the reason and a Friday due date. Q1 asks whether Mexico's IMSS, INFONAVIT and state payroll tax filings are in scope.
Q1: “3 of 5 bidders asked this in RFP-2023-HR-007. Left out, it became change order CO-2024-03: €96.0k a year.”
- 0409:16 – 09:22
The phrases past bidders questioned, rewritten
Clarity agent · Marta LindqvistThe clarity agent compares the draft with 64 past bidder questions and flags 7 phrases and numbers. “The supplier shall process payroll in a timely manner” drew two questions in 2023; the rewrite says results are delivered by 12:00 local time, three working days before each pay date. Marta accepts four rewrites (v0.2). Three stay open: year-end extras, parallel runs, and Schedule 5 listing one Spanish entity where 2.1 lists two.
The clarity agent never changes meaning without approval: a rewrite is a proposal.
- 0509:31
Her answer becomes a paragraph Marta can accept
Daniela Ortiz · Completeness agentDaniela replies in the thread: “Yes: IMSS, INFONAVIT and the state payroll tax, for both Mexican entities. And the provider must hold REPSE, we were caught by that in 2021.” The completeness agent turns it into paragraph 2.2.4, cited to her answer, and shows what it closes: check S3, the three IMSS questions from 2023, and REPSE as pass or fail requirement M4. Marta has three choices: Add to scope, Edit first, or Not now with a reason.
- 0609:41
A new scope line, and its price line in the same minute
Marta Lindqvist · Pricing builderMarta adds 2.2.4: completeness 32 of 36, version v0.3. She writes “Added. Make sure bidders price it.” The pricing builder has already found the gap — 2.2.4 is a scope line with no price line, which is how the 2023 change order happened — and proposes P3.4: IMSS, INFONAVIT and state payroll tax filings for Mexico, priced per entity per month. She accepts it.
Pricing builder: “Left like that, bidders price it differently or not at all; that is how CO-2024-03 happened.”
- 07Schedule 5
Every scope line priced, in bands bidders cannot misread
Pricing builder · Rahul VenkataramanThe price schedule has 16 lines in 6 groups, plus P3.4: per employee per month by country and pay frequency, off-cycle runs, year-end extras, one-off implementation and interfaces, changes and exit. From the 2025 Poland re-tender, prices sit in two volume bands: up to 110% of today's 6,230 employees (6,853) and 110% to 125% (7,788). The internal estimate of €1.42M a year stays out of what bidders see.
The pricing builder never puts a target price in the bidder workbook and never reuses a past bidder's prices.
- 08Terms
Library clauses only, locked; a deviation goes to Legal
Clause agent · Owen AchterbergNine clauses from library 2026.2 are placed and locked, from data processing under GDPR Article 28 to liability of at least €5M and payment at 60 days. Daniela asked that the supplier pay statutory penalties in full, without a cap; that conflicts with the liability clause, so the clause agent sends it to Owen Achterberg with the library alternate CL-LIA-05. The buttons stay locked for everyone but Legal.
Clause agent: “I cannot accept a deviation; Legal decides.”
- 09Approvals
Each part approved with a reason code; release held until all land
Six reviewersSix people approve their part: Daniela the scope, Joost data protection, Ilse Brandt information security, Owen the legal terms, Rahul pricing and evaluation, and Catherine Dufresne, procurement director, because €7.10M is above €5M. Ilse approved section 4 and the security questionnaire at 09:36 with AP-01, “Approved as drafted”. The release gate lists everything still holding the RFP, by name.
Only the sourcing manager schedules the release, and it stays held until every approval lands.
- 10Target: Fri 16 Oct, 09:00
Seven suppliers, the same RFP and dates at the same moment
Marta Lindqvist · Sourcing managerSeven suppliers are invited, the incumbent included, each checked against the supplier master: one needs light onboarding first, one has no REPSE found for its Mexico partner and is tested at bid, and one covering only Poland is not proposed. Before release, a checklist confirms the approvals, the locked terms, a 12-day question window and a 21-working-day bid window. Release now stays disabled until every check passes; bids are due Mon 16 Nov, 12:00 CET.
“Nothing reaches a supplier until you release.”