People love talking about labor productivity. But here's what actually matters:

Materials are 45-55% of project cost. That's where procurement lives.

So if procurement touches the biggest dollars on every job, why are we still running it like it's 2006?

Spreadsheets. Email chains. Phone tag. Manual takeoffs. RFQ tracking "systems" that are really just a stressed PM and a color-coded Excel tab.

That's not a workflow. That's a gamble.

The Real Cost of Manual Procurement

Even if you get decent pricing, manual procurement creates three expensive problems:

1. Your team wastes time on work that doesn't build anything

RFQs. Follow-ups. Quote leveling. Scope gaps. Compliance checks. Submittal chasing.

None of it puts a single piece of material in place. It just burns hours.

In AGC's 2025 workforce survey, 45% of firms reported worker shortages caused delays. When time is already constrained, wasting it on admin isn't annoying. It's expensive.

2. You shrink competition without realizing it

If it's hard to scope cleanly and send consistent RFQs, your team naturally narrows to "who we already know."

That feels safe until you realize what it costs:

Fewer bids
Less leverage
More complacency
Higher variance in schedule reliability

You're not choosing the best vendor. You're choosing the vendor you had time to chase.

3. You lose institutional knowledge every time someone leaves

When a PM or estimator walks, they take pricing context, vendor behavior patterns, and "what we always miss" with them.

Your next project starts at zero.

Poor Data Creates Rework. Rework Kills Margin.

Industry research shows miscommunication and poor project data are major drivers of rework on U.S. jobsites.

If you're serious about protecting schedule and profit, you don't just need more bids. You need clean scope, clean comparisons, and feedback loops that get smarter over time.

Mercury: The Procurement Operating System

Mercury takes you from plans to purchase orders in hours, not weeks. And it learns from every project so you don't keep paying the same tuition.

What Mercury Does

Scope Analysis

Extracts materials, quantities, and requirements from drawings and specs. Ready for RFQ. Already have takeoffs? Upload them. Mercury makes them smarter.

Conflict Detection

Flags plan vs. spec issues with page citations so you can resolve scope gaps before procurement locks the wrong thing in.

CSI-Organized SOW Generation

Generates scopes of work with traceability back to source documents. The part most teams skip because it's tedious, until it costs them.

Automated RFQ Workflows

Sends RFQs to multiple vendors with automated follow-up and response tracking. Quotes come back faster with less chasing.

Bid Leveling

Compares quotes side-by-side with best-value scoring. Not just "lowest number wins." Factors lead time, reliability, completeness.

PO Generation + Delivery Tracking

Doesn't stop at "bid received." Tracks procurement outcomes, learns real lead times, alerts before delays hit.

Vendor Performance Analytics

Builds a performance record: who delivers, who drifts on lead times, where pricing trends, where scope gaps repeat.

Agentic Intelligence for Leadership

Synthesizes outcomes into intelligence VPs and executives can actually use. No digging through 12 tools and 40 email threads.

This is how procurement becomes a system instead of tribal knowledge.

Who It's Built For

Mercury is one workflow environment across stakeholders:

Project Engineer: RFQ tracking, vendor follow-up, quote normalization
Estimator/Precon: Scope extraction, spec alignment, bid leveling
Project Manager: Buyout confidence, delivery tracking, scope gap prevention
VP/Leadership: Performance analytics, vendor reliability, pricing benchmarks

The point isn't tech. The point is leverage.

Want to See Mercury in Action?

Bring your takeoffs. Connect your tools. Use your vendors. Mercury fits your process and makes it better.

Book a Demo

Procurement Isn't a Feature. It's Where Projects Win or Lose.