Integration · IFS Cloud
AI quote and order automation for IFS Cloud
ERP Agent reads the customer’s request from email, PDF or Excel, identifies the right sales parts in IFS Cloud, brings in that customer’s prices from your price lists and customer agreements and creates a sales quotation or customer order once your rep has approved it. We set up the IFS Cloud connection for your company during onboarding.
What ERP Agent reads from IFS Cloud
The connection runs through the IFS Cloud REST APIs: OData services that IFS calls projections, listed with their OpenAPI specifications in the API Explorer. ERP Agent works from your sales parts as they are today.
| Data in IFS Cloud | Where it comes from | What ERP Agent does with it |
|---|---|---|
| Sales parts | The sales part records your sales team quotes from | Identifies the right sales part for every request line from the customer’s own wording, and checks each part number exists before anything is written |
| Customers | The customer records, with their addresses | Finds the customer behind the request, warns the rep when none matches and flags a delivery address that differs from the one in IFS |
| Customer prices | Your sales price lists and customer agreements, built on the sales part base prices | Brings in the price IFS sets for that customer, so the rep reviews the draft with real prices |
Your sales parts, price lists, agreements and customer records stay exactly as they are: the agent reads them and never changes them.
What ERP Agent writes to IFS Cloud
Two documents, both written only after a rep has approved the draft.
| Document | In IFS Cloud | What is written |
|---|---|---|
| Sales quotation | A quotation header and quotation lines, saved in Planned status like any new quotation | The customer and every approved line with sales part, quantity and price, from IFS or as your rep set it in review |
| Customer order | An order header and order lines | The customer and the same approved lines, ready for your normal order flow |
Both are ordinary IFS Cloud documents. Your team releases and sends the quotation as usual, and when the customer accepts, it becomes a customer order the usual way.
Why IFS teams add an AI quote agent
The hard part of a quotation is not entering it in IFS. It is reading “6310 2Z C3” or a customer’s own part number and knowing which sales part that is, what this customer pays for it and which lines need a second look. According to our case study, a sales rep spends on average 4–7 minutes per line when creating quotes and orders by hand; for a 30-line enquiry, that is two to three and a half hours.
ERP Agent does that groundwork. It is the first agentic AI layer for wholesale distribution ERP systems, and on IFS Cloud it works on top of the system you already run: no replacement project, and quotations and orders stay ordinary IFS documents. Customers get answers sooner, reps spend their time on judgement and selling, and new reps are productive sooner. Put a number on today’s manual work with the quote cost calculator.
The same agent runs quote automation and order entry automation on any ERP; this page covers what it does inside IFS Cloud.
How IFS Cloud quote automation works
A request reaches the agent
Reps forward the customer’s email from Outlook to your company’s own agent mailbox, or paste it into the web app as it is and choose quote or sales order. PDF (scanned too), Excel, CSV, Word, images and forwarded emails all work. Your own systems can send requests through the REST API or the MCP server.
It finds the customer and the sales parts
The customer is identified from the request and matched in IFS. Abbreviations, dimensions, materials, part numbers and customer codes are mapped to your sales parts, and candidates that contradict a stated size, voltage or pressure class are pushed down. A request in one language finds sales parts described in another. A line too vague to identify goes on your placeholder part with the customer’s wording kept, never a guess.
Prices come from IFS
Each line carries the price your price lists and customer agreements in IFS set for that customer. Standard fee rows, such as packing, are added following your rules.
A rep reviews the draft
Lines appear in the table as they are matched. The rep checks the marked ones, takes an alternative where needed, makes changes in quote chat and approves.
It is created in IFS Cloud
Every part number is checked against IFS first, so a document never carries a number IFS doesn’t know. A short countdown lets the rep cancel. The lines your team sends teach the agent: the next time a customer writes the same thing, it picks the same sales part.
Example: a shutdown enquiry becomes an IFS Cloud sales quotation
A paper mill’s maintenance team emails a PDF enquiry to an industrial distributor of bearings and power transmission parts that runs IFS Cloud. The rep forwards it to the agent mailbox, which is set to create quotations.
“Please quote the below for the shutdown in week 44. Delivery to the mill stores.”
- 8 x 6310 2Z C3
- 4 x V-belt SPB 2240
- 2 x roller chain 16B-1 5m
- 6 x shaft seal 60x80x8 NBR
- 10 x our part PM-2210
- 1 x gaskets for gearbox overhaul
| Request line | Proposed IFS sales part | Qty | Match | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6310 2Z C3 | Deep groove ball bearing 6310-2Z/C3 | 8 | 95 | “C3” read as the radial clearance class; the normal-clearance version pushed down. |
| V-belt SPB 2240 | Wedge belt SPB 2240 Lw | 4 | 93 | Profile and length match. |
| roller chain 16B-1 5m | Roller chain 16B-1, simplex, 5 m | 2 | 89 | “-1” read as simplex; duplex chain pushed down. |
| shaft seal 60x80x8 NBR | Radial shaft seal 60 × 80 × 8 mm, NBR | 6 | 78 | Lip type not stated: the one this customer usually buys is proposed, a dust-lip version kept as an alternative. Marked for review (under 80). |
| our part PM-2210 | Plummer block housing, two-bolt, 65 mm shaft | 10 | 98 | The customer’s own code, learned from an earlier quotation. |
| gaskets for gearbox overhaul | Placeholder part, wording kept | 1 | – | Gearbox type not stated; the rep asks the customer. |
Illustrative example with sample parts, codes and scores. In a real draft each line also carries the customer’s price from IFS, and a delivery address that differs from the customer’s address in IFS is flagged.
What the rep sees before anything reaches IFS
- A match score from 0 to 100. Lines under 80 are marked, so review starts where judgement is needed. How the match score works.
- Reasoning. Open a line to see why the agent chose that sales part.
- Alternatives. Runner-up parts are kept for every line; take one instead with a click.
- Quote chat. Add or remove rows or change quantities and prices, then approve or reject each proposed edit line by line.
- Your team stays in control. The rep approves the draft before it is created in IFS, and nothing reaches a customer without approval.
Security and control
- GDPR-compliant, zero data retention. ERP Agent is GDPR-compliant, and models run with zero data retention. More on security and data handling.
- Access agreed first. Before setup, we agree which data the agent needs and which systems it can access.
- Only the permissions the work needs. The connection signs in as its own IAM client with a service account, using the OAuth 2.0 client credentials flow that IFS recommends for integrations, and its permission set grants only the projections we agree.
- A person approves. Nothing is written to IFS until a rep approves the draft, and nothing reaches a customer without your team.
- Reads, never rewrites. Sales parts, prices and customer records are read; the agent creates quotations and orders and changes nothing else.
Onboarding: what we need from you
We set up the IFS Cloud connection for your company during onboarding. Your reps don’t wait for it: they start with a catalogue file the same week.
A catalogue export
An export of your sales parts from IFS, for example to Excel or CSV. Reps forward real requests from the first week, reviewing every draft in the web app. See starting from a catalogue file.
An IAM client
Your IFS administrator creates an IAM client for ERP Agent with service accounts enabled, and grants its service user a permission set with the projections we agree. We send the exact list.
Your company and site
Which company and site the agent works in, and the defaults new quotations and customer orders should carry. Start in a test environment if you prefer.
Your rules and history
Which placeholder part takes lines too vague to identify, which fee rows the agent adds, and past quotations or Outlook email history, so the agent learns how your customers write.
Live in IFS Cloud
Once the connection is live, customer prices come from IFS and approved quotations and orders are created there directly.
ERP Agent in numbers
- 4–7 min
- per line to create quotes and orders by hand, according to our case study
- 95%
- average automation across our customers
- 3–8 min
- for the agent to prepare a typical request
- 1–3 min
- in fast mode, for requests of up to about 50 lines
IFS Cloud today, any ERP tomorrow
ERP Agent integrates with Business Central, SAP, NetSuite, Visma, IFS, Sage and any other ERP or CRM. We set up the connection for your company during onboarding, and you can start with a catalogue file the same week. Group companies on different systems use the same agent and the same review screen on each. See Infor M3, SAP S/4HANA and all integrations.
ERP Agent is live with steel, HVAC and fastener distributors. What it checks on each line follows your trade: bearing designations and belt profiles for industrial distributors, grades and lengths for steel stockholders, DIN and ISO codes for fastener distributors.
Frequently asked questions
Does ERP Agent work with IFS Cloud?
Yes. ERP Agent reads sales parts, customers and prices from IFS Cloud through its REST APIs and creates sales quotations and customer orders there after a rep approves. We set up the connection for your company during onboarding, and you can start with a catalogue file the same week.
Does it create sales quotations or customer orders in IFS?
Both. In the web app the rep chooses quote or sales order for each request; emails forwarded to the agent mailbox become the document type your company has chosen. For customer purchase orders arriving by email, see purchase order to sales order automation.
Does ERP Agent replace IFS.ai?
No, it adds a dedicated quote and order agent alongside it. IFS.ai’s quotation and order automation extracts data from uploaded RFQ and purchase order documents into IFS Cloud’s scan assistants. ERP Agent takes the request as it arrives, email body, PDF, Excel or Word, identifies the right sales part from the customer’s shorthand in requests of several hundred lines, scores every line from 0 to 100 with its reasoning and alternatives, matches across languages and learns from the lines your team sends.
What does ERP Agent need access to in IFS Cloud?
Read access to sales parts, customers, price lists and customer agreements, and permission to create sales quotations and customer orders. Access runs through an IAM client whose permission set grants only those projections, and we agree the scope with you before setup.
Which IFS versions does it work with?
IFS Cloud, through its REST APIs. For IFS Applications 10 or an earlier version, we look at the interfaces your version publishes and agree the route during onboarding.
Where do the prices on an IFS quotation come from?
From IFS: the sales price lists and customer agreements set up for that customer apply to each line. The rep can review and edit any price before sending.
How do we get started?
Book a call and bring a few real requests. You start with a catalogue file the same week, and we set up the IFS Cloud connection during onboarding. Pricing is a setup fee plus a monthly subscription, with an itemised quote before you start. See pricing.
Related
- AI quote automation for distributors and wholesalers
- Order entry automation for distributors: customer POs to sales orders
- ERP integrations for AI quote and order automation, on any ERP system
- Industrial supplies distributor quote automation: from MRO enquiry to reviewed quote
- Steel distribution quote automation for stockholders and metal service centres
- AI quote and order automation for Infor M3
Let’s look at your quote workflow
Bring a request from your inbox
Book a 30-minute call with a few real requests; we’ll show how the agent handles them with your sales parts and what connecting your IFS Cloud involves.
- Your requests and product catalogue
- Your pricing and review process
- A clear scope for the next step
Lauri Pelkonen
Founder & CEO
Book a 30-minute call Request a demo by emailOr use the address directly