Industries/Higher education/Intake Agent
Sole-source and equipment,sponsor-aware routing.
PIs email sole-source justifications while buyers reformat into the ERP and route chairs and procurement. The Intake Agent structures narratives, checks policy thresholds, attaches market-check prompts, and routes approvers by amount and sponsor rules research administrators expect.
Scenarios in higher education
Document-level examples buyers in this industry run through Intake Agent.
Sole-source justification for specialized instrument
PI narrative is structured; market-check prompts attached before chair approval.
Research equipment quote with export-control note
Export references required fields trigger compliance routing you configure.
Core facility recharge request
Recharge service mapped to facility rate schedule and grant allowability.
What the agent checks
Core Intake Agent rules, phrased for higher education procurement.
- Sponsor rules when configured
- Blocked vendor → block
- Risk warnings on single-source lab vendors
- Budget vs line
- Split orders within 14 days
- Lead time vs grant end date
How it works
Same pipeline as the live Intake Agent module.
- 1
Parse the request
Extract units, needed-by dates, and budget phrases from free text — including informal quantities like “a pair of” or “around $25k”.
- 2
Match catalog and supplier
Score catalog keywords and names against each line need. Prefer contracted items and infer category and supplier from the best matches.
- 3
Run policy checks
Evaluate contracted pricing, preferred supplier tier, supplier risk score, budget overrun, split-order patterns, and lead time vs the requested date.
- 4
Build the approval chain
Add the requester’s manager, category manager for IT spend, Finance above $25,000, and the CPO above $250,000 — skipping redundant steps when limits already cover the total.
- 5
Submit and issue the PO
After approvers sign off in sequence, the agent creates a purchase order with supplier payment terms and links it back to the request.
Questions buyers ask
Can sponsor rules be enforced?
You configure allowability; agents apply consistently.
Will agents approve research buys?
No. PIs, chairs, and procurement retain authority.
Export control?
Workflows require references you define; agents do not classify.
Integrate with Banner or Workday?
Pilots map to exports per campus IT.