Purchase products or services
Part of the output can be produced by software today.
An agent can propose the plan, chase the replies and keep the record current. To actually change anything it needs write access to a calendar or work system, and a person still owns the tradeoffs when two plans collide.
| How automatable | Partly automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Scheduling, planning and resource control |
| Jobs that do it | 13 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | Tools and auth, Builders |
| O*NET activity | Monitoring and Controlling Resources (4.A.4.c.3) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 13 occupations that perform it.
- Purchase, for further processing or for resale, farm products, such as milk, grains, or Christmas trees.
- Examine, select, order, or purchase merchandise consistent with quality, quantity, specification requirements, or other factors, such as environmental soundness.
- Purchase the highest quality merchandise at the lowest possible price and in correct amounts.
- Identify or procure needed resources to implement sustainability programs or projects.
- Order or purchase merchandise to maintain optimal inventory levels.
- Purchase investments for companies in accordance with company policy.
- Provide direct assistance to farmers by performing activities such as purchasing or selling products and supplies, supervising properties, and collecting soil and herbage samples for testing.
- Procure beverages, food, and other items as requested.
- Shop for groceries, clothing, and other items needed for children's care.
- Purchase or sell financial derivatives for customers.
- Purchase and stock supplies of feed and medicines.
- Buy and sell jewelry, or serve as agents between buyers and sellers.
- Order tooling for jobs.
- Prepare purchase orders, solicit bid proposals, and review requisitions for goods and services.
- Create, manage, or automate orders or invoices, using order management or invoicing software.
- Purchase new or used items from online or physical sources for resale via retail or auction Web site.
- Select and purchase technical web services, such as web hosting services, online merchant accounts, shopping cart software, payment gateway software, or spyware.
- Devise, select, or purchase domain name and web address.
What we would actually use
One recommendation rather than a shortlist, because a shortlist is just your problem handed back. This is what we would buy for scheduling, planning and resource control, and what it costs.
Scheduling is a connector problem rather than an intelligence one, and $9 a month of Make covers both the calendar and the chasing. An agent platform priced per seat adds nothing you would notice here.
Chosen for the cheapest thing that does the job, not the best funded. Nothing on this site is sponsored, and the full landscape is there when you want to disagree with us.
The rest of the category
Context, not alternatives to weigh up. We name the layer rather than promise a named product does your specific task.
Matched from the kind of work, not from vendor marketing. Check any of them can reach the system your records actually live in — that connection, not the model, is where these projects stall.
How people actually do it
No workflow names this activity yet, but these automate the same kind of work, with the prompts to paste and what to keep for yourself.
Who does this work
13 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Animal Breeders
- Buyers and Purchasing Agents, Farm Products
- Computer Numerically Controlled Tool Programmers
- Farm and Home Management Educators
- Financial and Investment Analysts
- Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Workers
- Locker Room, Coatroom, and Dressing Room Attendants
- Nannies
- Online Merchants
- Purchasing Agents, Except Wholesale, Retail, and Farm Products
- Securities, Commodities, and Financial Services Sales Agents
- Sustainability Specialists
- Wholesale and Retail Buyers, Except Farm Products
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Purchase goods or services”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
Method. The activity, its taxonomy placement and the occupations that perform it come straight from the public-domain O*NET 30.3 database. The automatability band is ours: we map each of O*NET’s 41 generalized work activities to how much of its output current software can produce, assuming a person still reviews and owns the result. It is a coarse three-way judgment on purpose. A precise-looking percentage here would be invented.