A purchasing portal in Microsoft Teams, live in 8 weeks and used by 80+ staff

The Challenge

Kaiser Enterprise designs and builds large industrial facilities: paint shops and battery plants for automotive manufacturers, hyperscale data centers and wastewater treatment plants. Every project needs equipment and services bought from a large network of vendors.

Until 2025, engineering and operations sent purchase requests to the purchasing team by email and phone. The details lived in inboxes, and nothing tracked a request from start to finish. It was easy to lose track of which requests were cancelled and which were out for quote.

What We Built

We built the Purchasing Portal on Azure, to fit Kaiser’s existing Microsoft setup. Staff sign in with their Microsoft accounts. The portal opens as a tab in Microsoft Teams, and updates arrive in Teams and by email.

Departments submit requests in one place. Purchasing triages them, assigns them to buyers, and asks for more details when needed. Every request is tied to a project and an accounting cost code, so spending can be tracked by project. The first release went live in 8 weeks, and we continue to support Kaiser as questions come up.

Key features

• One place to submit and track every internal requisition
• Single sign-on with Microsoft Entra ID
• Opens as a tab in Microsoft Teams
• Notifications in Teams and by email at each workflow step
• Triage and assignment to buyers
• Requests for more information, back to the department