Capture interview — pilot clarification call, cylinders department (2026-07-06)

Source: raw/meetings/transcript/pilot-questionere.txt (Fathom, 56 min, Greek — auto-transcript with heavy ASR noise; uncertain readings are flagged below). Conducted as Phase 0 of the pilot discovery plan using the pilot questionnaire. Participants — TPL: Spyridon Kotsalidis, Nikolaos Tsamis, Ioannis Taranas; Prime Products: Kostas Vanos (sponsor), Fotini and team (cylinders department). Prime Products attendees joined on @primeltd.com accounts.

The pilot department

• “Τμήμα φιαλών” — the calibration-gas cylinders department. Prime Products supplies gas-detection instruments (gas meters) used to measure the atmosphere aboard vessels. These instruments must be calibrated frequently against cylinders containing certified gas mixtures; the department handles the requests/orders for those cylinders.
• Some cylinders are flammable — dangerous goods, which makes shipping them to ports the hard part of the trade.
• Team: 3 people (a third person was just hired). Lead / pilot champion: Fotini (the transcript also mentions “Ioanna” amid an on-call name mix-up — names/roles to be confirmed via the team-details email, see action items).
• Fulfilment network: 5 Prime Products offices worldwide holding stock, partner suppliers in some ports; for uncovered ports (example given: Bilbao) a major supplier with UK/US stock and dangerous-goods licenses ships by air (FedEx; provides the AWB for tracking).

As-is process (as understood on the call)

The flow decomposes into three linked sub-processes, confirmed with the interviewees:

1. Request intake → quote → order

1. Customer requests (RFQs) arrive ~99.9% in English, almost all by email into a shared “Customer Service” mailbox (3–4 company mailboxes exist overall (ASR-uncertain)); staff label/assign each message to the owning department (labeling inside the mailbox — not forwarding). Formats vary: PDF (often generated by the customer’s system), Excel, free-text cover letters. Additionally ~3 customer procurement platforms exist where Prime Products must log in (username/password) to pull RFQs; some platforms provide tooling to fill in prices (described as “apps” — verify). Suppliers, by contrast, have no platforms at all — see below.
2. Each incoming request is manually registered in SoftOne (~1–2 min when clear; sometimes the product must be clarified with the customer first). Product codes are stable in SoftOne; requests carry 1–3 lines; entry errors are not a pain point; SoftOne data is trusted (“single source of truth” — confirmed by the sponsor).
3. Sourcing: own stock/offices where possible, otherwise RFQ emails to suppliers. Suppliers accept email only — no supplier has an API or B2B portal (explicit correction of our earlier assumption). A port→supplier mapping exists (known, not formalized as a table); a port may have 2–3 candidate suppliers. Selection criteria, in order: (1) stock availability, (2) price (incl. delivery cost — some charge, some free), (3) ability to deliver within the vessel’s port time window. If a supplier declines, they may ask 1–2 more; if the port cannot be served, the customer is told and the process restarts at the vessel’s next port.
4. Quoting: offer = supplier cost + margin, with the customer’s commercial/pricing policy applied automatically by SoftOne once customer + vessel are entered. Exception — contracts: some customers work on contract, not per-order (e.g. the largest customer, MSC — a contract covering ~1,000 vessels, entitling e.g. N free-of-charge cylinders per vessel per year, prepaid; only transportation is charged). SoftOne does not surface contract status/consumption automatically — Fotini checks a separate contract list manually (is the vessel on contract? how many cylinders consumed? remaining entitlement?). When an entitlement is exhausted, the case reverts to the standard flow. This manual contract/consumption tracking is a named pain.

2. Vessel tracking

• The delivery deadline is the vessel’s port call window; the customer communicates it. Public AIS-type trackers don’t help (they show where a ship is now, not a reliable forward schedule/ETA-ETD).
• MSC provides a web application (username/password) with vessel schedules, so Prime Products can plan the most economical delivery; other customers do not.
• When an approved order misses its port window, it stays open — sometimes 1–2 weeks of “chasing the vessel” to the next port, re-running sourcing each time. This is where much of the workload accumulates.

3. Agent delivery & confirmation

• Physical delivery at the port goes to the agent (πράκτορας/ατζέντης) — appointed by the customer/shipowner, announced with the order or requested by Prime Products (“both happen”). The agent takes the goods aboard.
• Paperwork: Prime Products issues from SoftOne a commercial invoice / delivery note plus the purchase order to the supplier; the supplier usually delivers against Prime Products’ paperwork. Confirmation = signed & stamped delivery note from the vessel (local deliveries) or FedEx AWB tracking (air shipments from the main UK/US supplier).
• A case closes only when delivery to the vessel is confirmed.

Volumes & effort

• ~5–10 customer requests/day; ~1,100 cases in the last half-year (requests, not all became orders).
• Per case, ~15 communications back-and-forth across customer + supplier(s) + agent to lock product/port/price/window — “each order is a small project of its own” (confirmed by the sponsor).
• The 3-person team is beyond capacity (“the work doesn’t get done”); quote success rate is low (no number given).
• Everything runs across Outlook + SoftOne + customer platforms — constant switching between three systems to move data by hand.

Systems facts

System	Fact	Confidence
SoftOne ERP	Has Web Services / API access (stated on the call)	To verify with a test call — Phase 2
SoftOne	Applies customer pricing policy automatically; contract entitlements NOT tracked	Stated
SoftOne version	Unclear on the call (ASR-garbled; “it keeps changing”)	Capture in IT interview
Customer platforms	~3 procurement platforms, username/password login; RFQs must be pulled from them	Stated
Suppliers	Email only — no APIs, no B2B portals	Stated, explicit
Mailbox	Shared “Customer Service” account; label-based assignment to departments	Stated
MSC portal	Web app with vessel schedules (username/password)	Stated
Vessel tracking	No tool in use beyond customer info + MSC portal	Stated
Email domain	Prime Products attendees on @primeltd.com (Fathom labels) — Cloudflare Access allow policy already matches	Observed

Pains (ranked as heard)

1. Email ping-pong per case (~15 comms) to coordinate customer–supplier–agent until port/product/price/window lock.
2. Three-platform juggling (Outlook / SoftOne / customer platforms) with manual data movement.
3. Vessel-window misses → weeks of chasing the next port, re-running the sourcing loop.
4. Manual contract/consumption tracking (separate list; MSC-scale: ~1,000 vessels).
5. Team over capacity; the same pattern burdens another 10–15 people on other product lines (quotes/offers) — no CRM exists; the sponsor’s need was framed by TPL as platform unification, not CRM.

Success criteria (in the client’s words)

1. Work from ONE platform instead of Outlook + SoftOne + customer platforms — “that alone would be a major success.”
2. Morning clarity: log in and see exactly what needs doing (a worklist).
3. KPI direction: requests closed without delay; measure time-to-close before vs. after (not currently measured — only judged empirically from the mailbox).

Constraints & boundaries

• Red lines for AI autonomy: none stated when asked (reconfirm in writing at Phase 3 scoping — the audio was poor).
• Budget: none defined (“Δεν υπάρχει κάποιο budget” — no budget figure exists).
• Timeline: urgent — “we have a huge problem”; no formal deadline.
• Customer expectation that matters most: delivery within the port window; fast, reliable quote turnaround. Earlier notice from customers helps but can’t be relied on.

Key people (client side)

Person	Role	Note
Kostas Vanos	Sponsor (management)	Drove the call; available for follow-ups
Fotini	Cylinders dept lead — pilot champion/owner	Name/role to confirm via team email (on-call mix-up with “Ioanna”)
Evangelia	IT — knows all systems; can grant email/SoftOne access	Intro requested (action item)

Needs that emerged (→ REQs)

Need	REQ
Pilot validated & reshaped: email-order desk for the cylinders dept — suppliers via email (not B2B), customer platforms in scope, vessel-window & agent legs identified	REQ-014 — updated captured → validated in the same change
Contract/consumption tracking (per-vessel entitlements, MSC-scale)	folded into REQ-014 scope for now — candidate for its own REQ at Phase 3 scoping
Platform unification for the wider quotes/offers pattern (10–15 more people)	expansion signal — record at Phase 3 / program level, not a pilot REQ

Action items from the call

• Fotini → email team details (names, roles, emails, tools, daily routine) + intro to Evangelia; then coordinate SoftOne/email/platform access (Fathom AI, ~6:00)
• Prime Products team → compile 20–50 representative order emails with attachments + the matching SoftOne orders, including ugly/exception cases, into one folder; data handoff discussed on a follow-up call (Fathom AI, ~41:00)
• TPL → send meeting notes to Kostas + team (Fathom AI, ~54:00)
• TPL → schedule the follow-up call (data handoff + Phase 1 department deep dive)

Follow-up / unanswered

• SoftOne version/edition + Web Services license — verify live (Phase 2)
• Names of the ~3 customer platforms; access model per platform
• Confirm team names/roles (Fotini/Ioanna mix-up) from the team email
• Contract-list format & location (the manual list Fotini checks)
• Written confirmation of autonomy red lines (none stated on the call)