Solution Template: Procurement Sourcing Agent¶

What this builds. A Copilot Studio agent that takes a purchase or sourcing request, returns a shortlist of qualified, preferred vendors, and enforces the policy gates — spend thresholds, approval routing, preferred-supplier rules — so requesters get a fast, compliant starting point instead of going off-contract by accident.

🛠️ Build it step by step → Procurement: request to vendors to policy gates — the click-by-click Studio build for this blueprint.

Pattern: Capture sourcing request → return qualified vendor shortlist → apply policy gates (thresholds · approvals · preferred-supplier rules) → route for approval

Two harnesses for this use case

This template's system prompt and topic specs target the standard harness — predictable and covered by a Microsoft 365 Copilot license inside Microsoft 365 channels. The same use case also has a GitHub Copilot harness version that plans and runs the task with generative orchestration (autonomous; bills Copilot Credits for all usage, and a license never covers it). Compare the engines.

What the agent does¶

Capability	Detail
Request intake	Captures what's needed, quantity, budget, category, and required-by date
Vendor shortlist	Returns preferred/approved suppliers for the category, with why each fits
Policy gating	Applies spend thresholds, sole-source rules, and required approvals
Compliance flags	Flags off-contract, over-threshold, or non-preferred choices early
Approval routing	Tells the requester who must approve and starts the request
Guardrails	Never commits spend or negotiates — it prepares a compliant request

System prompt — copy and adapt¶

You are the Sourcing Assistant for [Company Name]'s procurement team.

Your job is to help employees source goods and services compliantly: take the
request, return a shortlist of approved/preferred vendors for the category, and
apply our procurement policy gates before anything is approved.

When someone needs to buy something:
1. Capture the essentials: what, quantity, estimated budget, category, and
   required-by date.
2. Return a shortlist of preferred/approved vendors for that category, with a
   one-line reason each fits.
3. Apply policy gates: spend thresholds, preferred-supplier rules, sole-source
   justification needs, and which approvals are required at this spend level.
4. Route the request to the right approver and summarise next steps.

Rules:
- Enforce policy. If a request is over threshold, off-contract, or non-preferred,
  flag it and state what's required to proceed compliantly.
- Never commit spend, sign anything, or negotiate terms — you prepare a compliant
  request for a human to approve.
- Don't recommend a vendor that isn't approved unless the requester provides a
  documented sole-source justification, and then flag it for review.

Knowledge sources¶

Source	What to include	What to exclude
Preferred-supplier list	Approved vendors by category, contract status, negotiated terms summary	Lapsed contracts, vendors under review/blocked
Procurement policy	Spend thresholds, approval matrix, sole-source rules, competitive-bid rules	Region-specific exceptions that don't apply to the requester
Category guide	What goes in each category, typical specs, standard items catalog	One-off historical purchases that aren't repeatable
Approval matrix	Who approves at each spend level and for each category	Personal delegation details that change often

Policy is the product

The value of this agent is compliant sourcing — so the policy gates have to be right. Keep the threshold and approval-matrix content authoritative and current; an out-of-date threshold either blocks legitimate purchases or waves through ones that needed approval. The agent prepares requests, it never approves them.

Topics to configure¶

Topic 1 — Sourcing request intake¶

Trigger phrases: "I need to buy", "source", "purchase", "vendor for", "get a quote for"

Flow: - Capture what's needed, quantity, estimated budget, category, required-by date - Ask once for anything missing before recommending vendors

Topic 2 — Vendor shortlist¶

Behaviour: Return preferred/approved vendors for the category with a one-line fit reason and contract status. If a standard catalog item exists, surface it first. Never list a blocked or under-review vendor.

Topic 3 — Policy gates¶

The core value. Evaluates the request against policy:

Gate	Check	If it fails
Spend threshold	Is the budget above an approval band?	State the required approval level
Preferred supplier	Is the chosen vendor on contract?	Flag off-contract; require justification
Sole source	Single supplier without competition?	Require documented sole-source justification
Competitive bid	Over the bid threshold?	State how many quotes are required

Topic 4 — Approval routing & handoff¶

Behaviour: Identify the correct approver(s) from the matrix and summarise next steps:

"This is a $X purchase in [category]. Required approvals: [manager] then [procurement]. Vendor [name] is on contract. I've started the request — track it here: [link]."

Power Automate action spec¶

Inputs from agent: requester, item, quantity, budget, category, vendor, required_by, policy_flags (list), approver_chain.

Flow steps: 1. Receive inputs from Copilot Studio (instant cloud flow) 2. Create a purchase requisition in [your procurement system — e.g. SAP Ariba, Coupa, Dynamics] 3. Attach the policy flags and required approval chain 4. Route to the first approver and notify them in Teams 5. Return the requisition number and tracking link to the agent

Error handling: If requisition creation fails, the agent returns the full request summary and says: "I couldn't open the requisition automatically — submit it manually with these details and approvals: [summary]. Procurement portal: [link]."

Starter prompts¶

"I need 25 laptops for a new team, budget around $30k"
"Who's our approved vendor for facilities cleaning services?"
"I want to use a vendor that's not on our list — what do I need?"
"Source a one-year SaaS subscription, about $12k"

Test cases¶

#	Input	Expected behaviour
1	Standard item, under threshold	Vendor shortlist + simple approval path
2	Over the approval threshold	Flags required approval level
3	Off-contract vendor requested	Flags it, asks for justification
4	Sole-source request	Requires documented justification, flags for review
5	Over competitive-bid threshold	States how many quotes are required
6	Missing budget/category	Intake asks before recommending
7	Compliant request, PA enabled	Requisition created, approver notified
8	PA connector down	Request summary returned with manual fallback

Deployment checklist¶

[ ] Preferred-supplier list current; blocked/under-review vendors excluded
[ ] Spend thresholds and approval matrix verified with procurement leadership
[ ] Sole-source and competitive-bid rules encoded and tested
[ ] "Never approves spend" boundary tested across edge cases
[ ] Power Automate requisition flow tested including the error path
[ ] All 8 test cases pass
[ ] Piloted with one department before broad rollout
[ ] Off-contract / maverick-spend rate baselined for review

What to build next¶

Budget check — confirm the requesting cost center has budget before routing
Quote intake — let the requester attach vendor quotes the agent normalises for comparison
Spend analytics — log requests so procurement sees category demand and contract-coverage gaps

📚 References. Copilot Studio docs · Add knowledge sources · Power Automate connector

Want the full story first?

The Procurement Sourcing walkthrough covers how to encode policy gates, where requests tend to go off-contract, and what to verify before it touches a real requisition.

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