Pro Platforms, Inc. today announced MCP for ERP, an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that lets approved AI assistants query a building products distributor's ERP in real time. Sales representatives and contractors can check customer specific pricing, confirm availability, review order history, work from saved templates, build a quote, and submit the order from the assistant they already use: a chat window, a voice call, an email thread, or software they have built themselves.
Sales reps and contractors can check live pricing, availability, and place orders from chat, voice, or email — without API keys. MCP is the open standard that connects AI assistants to business systems. MCP for ERP sits on the order management layer Pro Platforms already runs in production, so access follows the distributor's existing permissions and single sign on. Distributors do not issue API keys to reps or contractors.
The problem: AI can take off a job. It still cannot place the order.
Sales representatives at large distributors already use corporate AI tools to take off material from contractor plans. Turning those takeoffs into orders still runs through email. A representative emails the takeoff to an ERP order entry address; another system copies the output into the ERP; the representative forwards the confirmation to the contractor. Manufacturers working the same accounts run a second chain because they never touch the distributor's ERP.
Contractors are building their own software and adopting assistants at the same time. Those agents do not want to email another AI. They want direct access so the path from job site to material delivery gets shorter. Direct API access is not realistic. Distributors will not hand out keys, and most ERPs do not carry the branch, catalog, and substitution context an agent needs to find the right product, or a suitable replacement, on its own.
MCP for ERP closes that gap. If a material is out of stock at one location and an alternative is available, the assistant can weigh project measurements, geography, contractor preferences, availability, and budget in one pass, then place the order. Work that used to require years of product knowledge and several people on the phone now happens in the same conversation.
"We are rapidly entering a world of AI being always on," said Santo J. Leo, founder and CEO of Pro Platforms. "We think it is months, not years, before a contractor is standing on a roof, picks up their phone, and plans an entire project through their preferred AI voice assistant. The platforms we power, for the contractor, the distributor, and the customer, provide the context, security, and control to give contractors, sales representatives, and their agents real-time access to the data they need to transact at the speed they want today."
For sales representatives: Pro Platforms already sits between the contractor facing platform and the distributor's ERP. It operates the order management layer and the SSO distributors use in production. Exposing that layer through MCP lets an approved assistant, including a corporate tool such as Microsoft Copilot, check live availability and contract pricing, look up open orders and history, work from saved templates, assemble a quote, and submit the order. The response returns in the same conversation. Access follows existing permissions and applies to contractor accounts on the platform, so adoption can be organization-wide without a new login.
For contractors: Contractors receive MCP access through Trellis, the distributor's free white-labeled field platform powered by Pro Platforms. A contractor's assistant can check availability and contract pricing, track open orders, reorder from past purchase orders, and work from templates the contractor built or the distributor published. Access will extend beyond ordering. Through MCP, a contractor's assistant can eventually use Trellis field service tools: estimating, invoicing, payment processing, financing, and scheduling. Signup ties the contractor to the distributor's ERP. The connection, including MCP, is administered in Gateway. The distributor controls the relationship and can see activity whether the contractor works in the branded app or in software they built themselves.
Every order lands in the distributor's ERP: Orders created through MCP by a sales representative, a manufacturer representative, or a contractor enter Gateway and are pushed into the ERP. A distributor can take over any order in progress and apply the same review, pricing, and fulfillment steps used for orders placed in the platform before it hits the ERP. One queue. Order entry time, phone calls, and email threads drop. ERP seat counts stay leaner than the sales floor would otherwise require. Email based AI order entry becomes optional instead of the only path.
"We think it is months, not years, before a contractor is standing on a roof, picks up their phone, and plans an entire project through their preferred AI voice assistant." — Santo J. Leo
About Pro Platforms
Pro Platforms provides e-commerce as a service for building products and materials distributors. Headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, the company gives distributors a fully white labeled CRM and field service platform to put in the hands of their contractor customers, with the distributor's catalog embedded as the checkout. The platform integrates with Infor, DMSI, and several Epicor editions, and is licensed internationally across exterior building products, HVACR, plumbing, electrical, flooring, and other trades. Software is free for contractor team members. Distributors and manufacturers pay only when the platform generates profitable orders.
