Jacobs Procurement Automation Cuts Operational Headcount by 57% While Managing $600M in Annual Spend

The Client Profile

• Company: Jacobs Solutions Inc. (formerly Jacobs Engineering Group)

• Industry: Engineering, Infrastructure & Professional Services

• Headquarters: Dallas, Texas

• Employees: Approximately 47,000 employees globally

• Annual Revenue: Approximately **$**12 billion

Jacobs is a global professional services company providing consulting, engineering, design, program management, and lifecycle solutions for some of the world’s most complex infrastructure and business challenges.

Within the organization, one business unit operated as an outsourced procurement group responsible for approximately $600 million in purchasing annually. Its responsibilities stretched across the procurement lifecycle—from RFPs and vendor management to invoices, supplier certifications, payment reconciliation, and payment notifications.

Managing that volume required a large team and coordination across multiple disconnected systems, creating an opportunity to fundamentally rethink how the procurement operation worked.

The Challenge

Managing $600M in Purchasing Across Disconnected Systems

The procurement group was responsible for an enormous volume of transactions, documents, vendor information, and financial data but the processes supporting those transactions were fragmented across multiple systems and data sources.

The team needed to manage:

• RFPs and purchasing workflows

• Vendor onboarding and ongoing vendor management

• Invoice receipt and processing

• Payment reconciliation and notifications

• Supplier certifications and documentation

Critical information lived across Microsoft 365, Oracle, flat files, invoices, documents, and other enterprise data sources.

Employees frequently had to act as the bridge between these systems—moving information, processing documents, monitoring vendors, reconciling transactions, and communicating payment status.

Supporting the operation required approximately 140 employees.

The challenge wasn't simply improving one procurement process. Jacobs needed to connect its existing technology and orchestrate workflows across the entire procurement lifecycle without requiring employees to manually coordinate every step.

The Solution

Building an Integrated Procurement Ecosystem With Quickbase and Workato

Quandary developed a centralized procurement operations platform using Quickbase, with Workato serving as the integration and automation layer connecting the systems and processes surrounding it.

Rather than replacing Jacobs' existing enterprise technology, the solution brought those systems together. Quickbase provided the centralized environment for managing procurement operations, while Workato enabled data and workflow automation across the broader technology ecosystem.

The solution connected:

• Quickbase as the centralized procurement operations platform

• Workato for enterprise integration and workflow automation

• Microsoft 365 for communication and productivity workflows

• Oracle for enterprise and financial information

• Multiple flat-file data sources containing procurement information

• Google Vision OCR for intelligent document and data extraction

Together, these technologies created an integrated environment where information could move between systems automatically instead of relying on employees to manually transfer and reconcile data.

Connecting Disconnected Systems With Workato

Workato provided the orchestration layer between the applications and data sources supporting procurement. Automated workflows could detect events in one system, transform or enrich the associated data, and trigger the appropriate action in another.

Instead of employees repeatedly checking systems and moving information between them, Workato enabled workflows to coordinate those activities automatically. This helped turn previously disconnected applications into a connected procurement ecosystem.

Automating Vendor Management

Vendor management was one of the high-volume processes targeted for automation. Workato-powered workflows helped coordinate vendor information and actions across the procurement environment, significantly reducing the need for employees to manually manage routine steps.

The result was a vendor-management process approaching zero human interaction for key repeatable activities.

Creating Intelligent Invoice Workflows With Google Vision OCR

Incoming invoices represented another major opportunity for automation. Google Vision OCR was used to extract information from documents, reducing the need for employees to manually read invoices and enter data.

Workato could then orchestrate the movement of that information through the appropriate systems and workflows.Instead of employees manually receiving, interpreting, entering, and routing invoice information, OCR and workflow automation handled much of the process.

Automating Reconciliation and Payment Communications

Automation extended beyond invoice receipt. Information could move between procurement and financial systems to support payment reconciliation, while automated workflows triggered payment notifications as transactions progressed.

This reduced the need for employees to continually monitor transaction status and manually communicate updates. Combined, these automations created an increasingly touchless process spanning vendor management, invoice receipt, payment reconciliation, and payment notifications.

The Results

57% Reduction in Required Headcount Without Losing Productivity

Automating and integrating the procurement operation fundamentally changed the staffing required to support it.

Jacobs was able to reduce the operational headcount required by approximately 57% while maintaining productivity. The same procurement operation could function with approximately **43% **of its previous staffing requirement.

$600M in Annual Purchasing Managed

The automated environment supported a procurement organization responsible for approximately: **$600 MILLION **in annual purchasing activity. The solution wasn't automating an isolated back-office workflow. Workato and Quickbase were supporting processes at significant enterprise scale.

Near-Zero Human Interaction Across Key Workflows

Some of the most repetitive procurement processes were brought to near-zero human interaction, including:

• Vendor management

• Invoice receipt

• Payment notifications

Workato-powered automation handled the movement, coordination, and communication of information that previously required employees to intervene throughout the process.

80 Fewer Employees Required to Maintain Productivity

The operation went from requiring approximately 140 employees to 60—a difference of: **80 Employees **without sacrificing productivity. Rather than simply making individual employees faster, automation fundamentally changed the operating model required to support the procurement function.

The Impact

Jacobs didn't simply automate individual procurement tasks. By combining a centralized Quickbase platform with Workato-powered integration and automation, the organization created a connected procurement ecosystem capable of orchestrating processes across applications, documents, vendors, and financial data.

• **57% **Reduction in required operational headcount

• $600M Annual purchasing managed

• 80 Fewer employees required to maintain productivity

• **Near-Zero Human **interaction across key procurement workflows

The project demonstrates the impact of moving beyond isolated task automation toward end-to-end process orchestration. Quickbase Quickbase provided the centralized operational platform. Google Vision OCR digitized incoming document information. And **Workato **connected the ecosystem, automating the movement of data and triggering workflows between Quickbase, Oracle, Microsoft 365, and other sources.

Instead of employees acting as the integration layer between disconnected systems, the technology handled much of that coordination automatically.

The result wasn't simply faster procurement. It was an entirely different operating model—one capable of managing hundreds of millions of dollars in annual purchasing with dramatically less manual intervention.