Logistics Companies Reduce Data Entry Expenses for Freight Bill Processing using OCR Service

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Author Kevin V. McQueen Document Management and Internet fax Professional

In a recent issue of InformationWeek 500 about the state of the Logistics & Transportation industry the Headline was, "Hard-Hit Industry Makes Deep Cuts in IT." So how can an OCR Document Management Service Solution help the Logistics industry reduce their cost of processing freight bills and meet their Strategic IT priorities? Read on…

Three of the Tech priorities for the Logistics

Tech innovation priorities industry wide

1. Make business process more efficient 61%

2. Lower IT or Business costs 42%

3. Improve customer service 35%

Document Management can be all encompassing in its definition, so for definition purposes for this article, an OCR Service is a front end component to a Document Management solution as described herein. An OCR Service automates the front end paper processing by converting the paper to a digital file as a means of inputting into Document Management workflow and eliminating manual data entry.

Over the course of 2009, we have seen the same cost saving opportunity several times with major Logistics and Transportation companies. The cost saving opportunity was in automating the manual data entry portion of processing of a freight bill. The unstructured formats of freight bills make in-house OCR software totally ineffective. Logistics companies have had to manually input all the information related to processing a freight bill into their shipping system software. The opportunity for automation lies within eliminating the manual data entry of paper like BOLS´ POD´s and invoices.

Outsourcing OCR functionality requirements to an OCR Service Bureau that specializes in processing unstructured documents provides a means of benefitting from technology that would be cost prohibitive for an in-house solution. Freight Bills that are faxed can be redirected to the OCR Service Bureau using an internet fax service or can be sent to the OCR Service Bureau via a method like FTP. The required fields for inputting into the shipping software are defined by the Logistics Company and extracted by the OCR Service Bureau; they are then converted to a digital file that can be uploaded into the shipping system along with an image and index file to be loaded into the imaging system. Business logic is defined so that internal processes are mimicked in a programmatic fashion thereby catching potential mistakes. This also provides defined procedures for disaster recovery purposes and to enhance business continuity. The solution also provides for syncing to the customers internal databases to create crosswalk tables that validate shipper information or pricing tables. These database lookups further improve accuracy and thus reduce potential mistakes.

If you correlate the OCR solution to the IT priorities for the Logistics industry, how will this solution meet their priorities?

Make business process more efficient 61%

• Manual data entry eliminated, cost reduced

• Mistakes reduced

• Paper digitized, the digital gap is bridged

• Faster throughput

• Elimination of peak processing and staffing challenges

Lower IT or Business costs 42%

• Manual data entry eliminated, cost reduced

• Mistakes reduced

• Less IT support for software and hardware of existing systems

• No software or hardware required for manual data entry

• Billing errors reduced as weight and shipping rates are verified

Improve customer service 35%

• Mistakes are virtually eliminated thereby improving customer service

• CSR´s focus on customer service as opposed to data entry

Using an OCR Service Bureau offers a no risk solution to lowering the cost of processing a freight bill. In comparison to an in-house solution with questionable ROI, an outsourced solution offers accuracy guarantees, turnaround guarantees, rapid implementation, and no capital expenditures. Implementation responsibilities fall upon the Service Bureau with the customer IT department acting as a facilitator to establish the project plan kick-off, and to facilitate the transfer of data, so the cost of implementation is also low to a customer. For more information on a specific OCR solution, click the link below.

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