Systems integration and automatic document capture in logistics
Logistics and freight forwarding (TSL)
Industry and type of organization
A logistics company working on a TMS for transport management. Part of the data comes in by email and on scans, outside any system.
Business problem
Many companies work on systems that do not talk to each other. Data from one has to be re-keyed by hand into another, and every re-keying costs time and risks a mistake that someone has to catch later.
At this client the data came in by email and on scans, and an employee re-keyed it by hand into the TMS. The TMS itself did not exchange data with the other systems, so the same information circled around, re-typed at every seam. This is a textbook example of digital islands: separate systems between which a human carries data by hand.
Approach and scope of work
We started with a quick process mapping to see where the data actually flows and where it stops. On that basis we proposed a solution and, together with the client, chose the scope of the first implementation (MVP).
We based the capture on intelligent document processing (IDP): OCR pulls the text from the scan, and a rules layer recognizes which field is which, so the data enters the TMS ready to approve. We connected the systems through an API, that is a fixed way in which programs pass data to each other with no human in between.
The next planned stage is automatic data exchange between the TMS and the systems of public authorities, so that filings no longer require manual entry.
Business effect
minutes → seconds
handling a single document
from manual re-keying to verification only
exceptions only
require manual handling
standard documents pass automatically, cases outside the known pattern go by hand
Capture and entry happen in the background. The employee's role shifts from re-keying to checking and approving what the system has prepared, so a single document takes seconds instead of minutes.
In the standard flow, the step of moving the same information from one window to another disappeared. Only cases outside the known pattern go by hand. Less frequent re-keying also means fewer mistakes that used to have to be caught at later stages.
Scale of the implementation
The implementation covered a selected process as an MVP, with a planned extension to data exchange with public authorities. We designed the architecture so that further systems can be connected without rebuilding the whole.
If the same data circles between systems at your company, re-keyed by hand along the way, describe your flow to us. We will see where systems can be connected so the data moves itself.
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Service area: Systems integration and document-flow automation.