Revolutionizing Logistics: The Power of AI-Driven Data Extraction & Automation

Introduction :

Logistics is one of the world’s largest industries, encompassing road, rail, air, maritime transport, warehousing, and storage. It is a vast enterprise involving the planning and transporting goods and packages through many countries and supply chains. And processing documents is a vital part of any supply chain.

Documents are everywhere, from procurement to production, inventory management, invoice processing, packing, distribution, customer service, recovery and beyond.

Processing documents manually is hugely error-prone and time-consuming for the logistics industry. With the global market predicted to encompass 550 billion invoices annually[1], of which 90% are paper-based, this opens a significant opportunity for human error.

Thanks to a new generation of cloud-based AI-infused data extraction platforms, logistics personnel no longer need to spend half their day copying data from documents into business applications[2].

Data extraction programs minimize human involvement in the document scanning process, only leveraging input from humans to resolve edge cases or to ensure data quality. This saves significant time and money[3] and frees staff to work on more valuable tasks.

What are cloud-based data extraction platforms?

Cloud-based data extraction platforms, such as Docparser, enable non-technical business users to automate extracting data from PDFs, Word, scanned, or image-based documents. They possess a user-friendly interface and advanced data parsing features, which makes it easy for finance functions to streamline their document processing workflows and eliminate time-consuming, manual data entry.

For example, a logistics company’s finance function can use Docparser to rapidly capture data from invoices, purchase orders, bank statements, tax forms, and other financial documents and then automatically transfer that data into applications such as a CRM system, accounting software, Google Sheets, or other ERP platforms.

What does this mean for logistics companies?

There is a never-ending flow of goods all around the world. This puts extreme pressure on producers and distributors. To stay competitive, logistics companies must streamline their processes as much as possible. This can be a challenge, particularly when it comes to manual data entry.

Cloud-based data extraction platforms offer logistics companies a cost-effective, digital solution to this challenge, which reduces their costs and improves their service. As a result, logistic companies can improve the overall efficiency of their supply chains, opening a path to scale their business operations more profitably.

For instance;

Manually entering data is time-consuming. This cost grows when logistic companies have hundreds, if not thousands, of documents to process each month. Automating time-consuming manual copy and paste tasks can save time, allowing the business to reinvest that time in higher-value, more complex, or strategic tasks. This, in turn, can lead to significant operational gains and improvements in customer service.
A lot of documents need to be processed daily, e.g., invoices, purchase orders, packing lists, shipping notices, bank statements, order confirmations, bills of lading, proof of delivery, notices of shipping, tax forms, contract agreements, and more. The cost of manually inputting data from these documents into other computer applications is significant. Using a data capture solution to automate document processing helps deliver faster service at lower cost and with greater accuracy. For example, if a midsized company processes 100,000 pages annually at three minutes per page, completing the task would take approximately 5,000 person-hours. At $50 per hour per person, that is a potential $250,000 saving, if you automate this task using Docparser. That time and money can now be saved or reinvested in the logistics company.
Every day, logistics staff examine 1000’s of paper based or digital documents, then type or copy-paste data into spreadsheets or business systems. This is slow, repetitive, and prone to error. According to a study by Stitch Labs, human error causes 62% of inventory fulfilment issues. Mistakes cause delays, stress, misinformation, and financial loss. Eradicating human error removes the cost of rework, time spent handling customer complaints, costly refunds, slow customer service, and damaged reputation, and it also saves managers time spent from having to address these issues. Logistics companies can drastically reduce human error and thus avoid the many associated costs by using an automated cloud-based data extraction platform, such as Docparser, to speed up the accurate processing and digitization of documents. Logistics companies can achieve direct cost savings by avoiding the time spent on fixing work, leading to increased competitiveness.
Access to accurate information means reports can be generated more efficiently with fewer errors. Document processing provides logistics companies instant access to actionable data, which assists managers in making more prompt and informed decisions – improved decision-making results in a more competitive company. Faster access to information, for example, when providing accurate customer order updates also attracts new customers to a more efficient and reliable service.

How can Docparser help to automate logistics data capture?

Processing data from documents is a vital part of any supply chain. However, cost of inputting data grows dramatically for logistics companies when tens of thousands of documents are processed annually. Thanks to inexpensive cloud-based data extraction platforms, such as Docparser, the era of copying data between documents and computer systems is long gone.

Simple point-and-click methods enable anyone within the logistics company to scan a vast range of documents and document types immediately. Docparser does not require staff to have any ‘coding skills’. It is an uncomplicated application that can be learned in no time. Time saved can then be reinvested in more valuable, complex, or strategic work.

The process of using Docparser goes something like this: –

Upload the document. Either upload it directly or send an email with attached files, whether it’s invoices, contracts & agreements, purchase orders, as well as shipping & delivery reports.
Define the parsing rules. Docparser follows parsing rules to identify and extract the data required. Either choose from a selection of rule templates or create bespoke rules. Once the rules are set, Docparser can parse data from a large range of documents – imagine how many hours can be saved by using it. Coding skills are not required to set these rules – Docparser is designed to be user-friendly and comes with learning material.

Download or export the data to where it needs to go. Docparser offers excellent direct integrations with Google Spreadsheets or Salesforce CRM, OneDrive, Excel, Box, and more. It also connects to thousands of other cloud-based services and ‘low-code / no-code platforms. This enables non-programmers to connect services and automate business processes, including Zapier, Workato, MS Power Automate, and more.

Cloud-based data extraction platforms are quick to learn and secure. For example, Docparser uses bank-level encryption, follows the latest web security, is within EU GDPR regulatory standards, and data is encrypted as it is transferred or stored. On top of that, Docparser limits the amount of time documents are retained on its secure servers to protect your data.

These benefits help logistic companies streamline and automate their workflows, improve data quality, reliability, security, and availability, and enhance their decision-making capabilities at reduced cost. This helps drive competitiveness and improves staff morale and customer service all at the same time.

A vision for an efficient end-to-end logistics company.

At some point, all documents may become digital. Until then, logistics companies need practical solutions to extract data from paper and digital invoices to save money and time. That means automation is now a necessity for logistics companies. The easiest and most affordable system to start with is the automation of the data entry process.

Thanks to cloud-based data extraction platforms like Docparser, any logistics company can automatically scan documents, capture data, validate it for accuracy, and then transfer it to other business applications. This saves a massive amount of time and money while preventing human errors. It also enables logistics company staff to make better, faster business decisions that can lead to significant efficiency and cost reductions[4], tangible ROI[5], and strategic gains[6]. And those are the things that should excite every logistics business on this planet.

Try Docparser for free today and see the results for yourself.

It’s time to get very excited about boring AI – Kieran Gilmurray

Statistics sources:

[1] https://www.billentis.com/The_einvoicing_journey_2019-2025.pdf

[2] https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/data-and-analytics/artificial-intelligence/publications/ai-automation-data-extraction.html

[3] https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/data-and-analytics/artificial-intelligence/publications/ai-automation-data-extraction.html

[4] https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/07/28/mastering-the-art-of-extracting-data-from-invoices-using-ai-and-ml

[5] https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/07/28/mastering-the-art-of-extracting-data-from-invoices-using-ai-and-ml

[6] https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/data-and-analytics/artificial-intelligence/publications/ai-automation-data-extraction.html