Pacifica vs email and spreadsheets
Most procurement teams don't have a supplier system. They have Outlook, Excel and a very good memory.
What email and spreadsheets do well
They are free, everyone already has them, and suppliers on three continents can use them without being taught. Email is also the record of truth in a dispute. Any replacement has to keep those properties or it will be quietly abandoned.
Where they break
At scale and at hand-over. Forty suppliers, two hundred open orders and three colleagues means the status of any one order lives in several inboxes and a sheet that was accurate last Tuesday. Finding a document means searching. Answering “what arrives next week” means asking five people. When the colleague who knew leaves, the knowledge leaves with them.
At a glance
| Email + spreadsheets | Pacifica | |
|---|---|---|
| Where status lives | Whichever inbox saw the last email, and a sheet updated by hand | One dashboard, updated from the emails and ERP records themselves |
| Suppliers | Reply to email | Reply to email — and the reply updates the order |
| Documents | Attachments, found by search | Filed under the order and classified: B/L, CO, packing list, invoice, certificate |
| Shipping schedule | A sheet with ETDs typed in | One schedule across all suppliers, fed by carrier tracking, with free-time countdowns |
| Invoice status | Ask finance; the supplier asks you | Received → processing → blocked (with reason) → approved → paid, visible to both sides |
| Customers | Forward emails | A magic link that shows every update |
| Setup | None | 30 seconds; twelve months of history assembled on day one |
| Cost | Free, plus the hours | First month free |
What stays the same
You keep your email. Your suppliers keep theirs. Every message Pacifica sends is a real email from your own address. If you stop using Pacifica nothing is lost; it was reading, not replacing.
Who should stay on spreadsheets
A handful of suppliers, one buyer and no imports: a spreadsheet is fine and we'd say so. Pacifica earns its place when the order count, the number of parties or the distance between them makes “where is it?” a daily question.
Related
See it on your own orders.
Launch your workspace in 30 seconds. First month free.