System 01
Email to order
Many wholesalers and manufacturers still receive a large share of their orders by email: in the message body, as a PDF, as a spreadsheet, or as a photo of a filled-in form. Someone then retypes those into the order system. That is exactly the work a computer does better.
Why this stayed manual for so long
The reason this is still done by hand is that every customer sends it differently. One sends a tidy PDF with article numbers, another an email saying "same as last time but three boxes". Classic software trips over that, so it stayed human work.
Language models are good at this. They read messy input, extract the intent, and can flag when they are unsure. That last part is the crucial one: a system that recognises doubt and passes it on is usable. A system that always proceeds is not.
How the system fits together
Four steps between an incoming email and an order in your system.
- 01
Collect and recognise
A mailbox is read. Attachments in PDF, spreadsheet, Word or image form are converted to text, including scanned forms and phone photos.
- 02
Interpret
A language model extracts who is ordering, which articles, how many and when it is needed. Articles are matched to your own numbers, even when the customer uses their own naming.
- 03
Check
Each field carries a confidence score. If the system is unsure about a quantity or an article, the order goes to a review screen rather than into the order system.
- 04
Write through
Confident orders go straight into your ERP or webshop through the API. The customer receives a confirmation of what was understood, so a mistake surfaces before anything ships.
How it gets built
- 01
One week of measuring
We take a few hundred real historic order emails and see how messy reality is. That determines whether this pays off and how much will stay manual.
- 02
Three to five weeks building
The system first runs alongside people without writing anything, so you can compare. Only once the results hold does the integration go live.
- 03
Let go gradually
Start with only the straightforward customers automated. As confidence grows the threshold drops and more shifts to automatic.
What the system does
It takes over the retyping for orders that are unambiguous, and hands the rest to a person with everything already filled in.
- Orders from email, PDF, spreadsheets and scanned forms
- Customer naming matched to your own article numbers
- A review screen for anything the system is unsure about
- Orders landing directly in your ERP or webshop
What it costs
What an engagement costs depends on its scope and on how many systems are involved. I work with a fixed price per phase rather than open-ended billing: you know what a phase costs before it starts, and you decide after each one whether to continue.
I only quote a figure once I know what we are talking about. That takes a half-hour conversation, at no charge.
Whether this fits
This works well when
- a substantial share of your orders arrives by email or PDF
- your order system has an API for creating orders
- your article data is reasonably in order
- someone can keep reviewing the uncertain cases
This fits less well when
- nearly all orders already arrive through your webshop or EDI
- every order is bespoke with negotiation on price and specification
- you expect a flawless system with no human review at all
Questions about email to order
What if the system reads an order wrong?
That is what the confidence threshold is for. Anything the system is unsure about goes to a person rather than into your ERP. You set that threshold yourself and can lower it as you see it holding up. On top of that the customer receives a confirmation of what was understood, which is a second safety net.
Does our customer data go to an AI vendor?
That depends on the choice you make. With the major providers you can enforce processing inside the EU and there are terms stating your data is not used for training. If you want none of that, the model can run on your own infrastructure; it costs more but nothing leaves your environment. We make that choice before anything is built.
Does this work with handwritten orders?
Only partly. Printed text and tidy forms work well, including as photos. Handwriting is considerably less reliable and will nearly always go to the review screen. If the bulk of your orders arrive handwritten, the gain is small.
Let's discuss how I can help your business grow
A short call is enough to tell whether there is a good fit. No sales pitch, just an honest read on what is possible.