For the CPO & Director of Procurement

The Procurement's Guide to RFQs & Sourcing

Last updated July 2026

The short answer

To automate RFQs and sourcing, capture the request, benchmark it against fair market value, compare supplier options, and produce a quote in minutes instead of days. Maintained drafts the quote and flags any price above fair value; your team approves before it goes out.

What you're measured on

Speak in spend under management, percent on-contract, cost avoidance, and PO cycle time.

  • Cost savings / avoidance
  • PO cycle time
  • % spend under contract
  • Maverick-spend rate

Where the value is

  • Compress RFQ cycles from days to minutes
  • Benchmark every quote against fair market value to flag overpriced buys
  • Compare supplier options and internal surplus in one pass
  • Cut maverick and off-contract tail spend

The pains this removes

  • Maverick and off-contract spend at 20–30% of indirect
  • Slow RFQ and quote cycles
  • Paying above fair market value with no benchmark
  • Tail-spend leakage nobody is watching

The numbers behind it

days → under 2 hours
Manual RFQ cycles of 3–4 days can be compressed to under two hours with structured automation.
Elisa IndustriQ
20–30%
20–30% of indirect spend leaks to maverick, off-contract buying.
McKinsey (via GEP)
10 days
Top-performing procurement teams reach a 10-day procure-to-pay cycle versus roughly two weeks at the median.
APQC (via SDCExec)

Frequently asked questions

How should a Procurement approach automate RFQ and sourcing process?

Speak in spend under management, percent on-contract, cost avoidance, and PO cycle time. To automate RFQs and sourcing, capture the request, benchmark it against fair market value, compare supplier options, and produce a quote in minutes instead of days. Maintained drafts the quote and flags any price above fair value; your team approves before it goes out.

What outcome should a Procurement expect?

Quote in minutes, not days — and never overpay again. Compress RFQ cycles from days to minutes

See what your inventory is really costing you.

Tell us where the cash is trapped — excess stock, idle surplus, slow RFQs — and we'll show you the outcome Maintained can unlock.