ARDEM was contacted by an enterprise document management company providing automation and imaging services based in Canada for assistance with processing waybills and bills of lading (BOLs).
The client provides data and document management solutions to a variety of clients across sectors and was looking for a trustworthy partner with whom they could build a long-lasting partnership for long-term success.
Determining the Scope of Work During Initial Discovery
At ARDEM, we believe in engineering customized solutions for every process that we undertake after thoroughly exploring our client’s present and future needs.
Our primary purpose during the stage of initial discovery is to initiate and establish strong communication channels that allow us to gather information and piece together an accurate picture of what the prospect needs.
In case of our current client, they were looking for a reliable partner who could assist them with processing waybills and bills of lading (BOLs) while providing streamlined document management for quite a few of their current clients. This task entailed a considerable dexterity as the forms had to be processed not just for one client but for multiple ones. We further had to map out and process multiple invoice formats for automated data capture as every business comes with its own format and processing needs.
Deciphering the Current Challenges of Document Management
The client was already working a vendor when they contacted us; however, they were facing issues due to:
- Low turnaround rates with BOLs not being processed on time.
- A high employee turnover rate that led to loss of valuable time and talent.
- Issues with scalability, the current vendor was unable to match their services to the client’s expanding document management needs.
The challenge was to scale our services to manage the fluctuations in the volume of incoming waybills and bills of lading (BOLs) while maintaining quality, turnaround time and accuracy.
Tired of facing constant setbacks, the client started their search for a partner who could help them achieve their goals while implementing new and improved processes for their existing workstream.
Let’s discover how ARDEM made the cut.
Implementing the ARDEM Advantage for a Smoother Transition
As mentioned above, our first order of business was to accurately ascertain the client’s ultimate goals and immediate requirements via a strategy of constant communication and extensive industry research into the nuances of the different waybill and BOL formats.
This helped us determine the following:
- All waybills/BOLs need to be processed, indexed, and delivered within a 24-hour cycle.
- Our solution for the client had to be scalable as at various points during the year, the volume of incoming documents can fluctuate drastically.
- Ensuring accuracy is of the utmost importance as both documents contain crucial information related to the quantity of goods to be shipped, the final destination for delivery and the charges applicable for the same. Similar to a BOL, a waybill has written a list of all goods/shipment being transported via a plane/boat.
- Additional challenges are presented by the waybills/BOLs are handwritten/printed lightly/etc. Effort-based processing is required to accurately decipher and translate the data from these challenging formats into actionable insights.
After thoroughly investigating their currents needs and mode of operation, our process engineers got down to work and proposed an updated solution for offering them the support required.
Here’s how ARDEM was able to provide value-based document management:
ARDEM designed a solution to transition and onboard the processing and indexing of waybills/BOLs:
- Each client will have a separate set of instructions to ensure accuracy for each type of format. Some of these waybills/BOLs can also be multiple pages. Creating a separate set of instructions for multiple pagers ensures that there is a standard set of protocols for our analysts to refer to when assailed by doubts while processing these complicated multi-page documents. As these set of instructions are further used to train and retrain new analysts, they become the standard instructions for QC management.
- Some of the waybills/BOLs that are multiple pages will contain additional supporting documents such as tickets for faster resolution and easy referencing.
- These tickets are a swift and efficient way of resolving issues. Once a doubt or a problem arises, the corresponding waybill or BOL is allocated a ticket and sent for swift resolution. This ticket then needs to be processed and once the issue has been resolved, the ticket is closed.
- Creating tickets and separate sets of instructions are crucial to the quality management process as we are dealing with multiple clients on behalf of our primary client.
- Every client will have their own waybill and BOL formats and their own mode of operations, which means that our team has to be agile enough to manage diverse formats with different instructions to accurately process each one while maintaining the specified turnaround of 24 hours or less.
- All waybill images will be recorded along with processing dates, names of the batches, and total number of images per batch on a daily report. Monthly reports will also be created for the client as they provide greater visibility into our team’s current performance analytics, enabling the client to measure their success.
How ARDEM Proposed to Solve their Current Challenges
- Eliminating the Threat of Continuous Employee Turnover: Once the processes have been fully outlined, ARDEM utilizes the Train-the-Trainer method to combat the problem of continuous employee turnover that can cause gaps in processing and loss of valuable time. Our management team will work with the client’s SME to fully understand the entire process. This will eliminate the need to train or re-train temporary employees that can be a real drain on a company’s resources. We will further provide back-office support for our client to decrease cycle time.
- Ensuring Effective Management: All analysts will be trained until a certain level of confidence is reached on our training platform and then moved to the live process. As the turnaround time of 24 hours must be maintained at all costs, ARDEM will provide both management of the team and redundancy management with our Project Manager and Project Owner being responsible for daily success. This becomes even more crucial when our team has to handle fluctuations in volumes while meeting the specified turnaround times. As the team processes more and becomes the SME, the turnaround cycle continues to improve.
- Building Scalability: Our remote teams can be flexible and scalable to increase team sizes and grow alongside our client while being reliable. To this end, we adopt the Train-the-Trainer training method that allows for increased scalability when adjusting the team based on demand.
- Implementing and Ensuring Accuracy: ARDEM implements a QC process to ensure data is accurate. Data will be duly vetted for quality prior to delivery, thereby ensuring the highest possible quality standards in line with our promise of 99.97 % accuracy.
- Re-training for Quality: In order to set quality control benchmarks, all analysts are trained until the desired level of proficiency is reached and refresh training is provided anew for any analysts whose performance does not make our cut.
- Adopting a Strategy of Constant Communication: Daily briefings are implemented for the entire team. Any changes or exceptions will be discussed every day to notify the entire team. These are also documented in the work instructions and shared with the entire team to ensure swift and effective communication.
In Conclusion
At ARDEM, we don’t believe in offering run-of-the-mill solutions that simply mirror industry standards. We innovate to engineer advanced solutions that are tailored to the client’s specific needs for every project, every time.
In the case of our current client, we were able to exceed their expectations, providing value via effective document management while boosting their numbers significantly.
To give you an idea, here’s how we brought about a significant shift in our client’s document management:
-We processed over 102,539 images in one month.
-We were able to eliminate the management of teams at the client’s end, managing daily task allocation and delivery of expected data.
-Additional value and efficiencies can be futher achieved though the outsourcing of additional tasks such as F&A, large volume data processing, logistics, RPA, etc.
If you are wondering about how we can help you with your data processing and document management needs, then get in touch with our team to schedule a 15-min free consultation today!
