Context and objectives

A leading logistics company faced a critical operational challenge: processing and verifying transport invoices.

The labor-intensive task required several full-time employees (FTEs) to handle thousands of emails annually. Transport companies worldwide sent invoices with critical attachments that needed careful verification to prevent overpayments for undelivered or incorrectly priced services.

Inaction carried substantial risks—financial losses from missed deadline penalties, payment errors, and administrative inefficiencies.

Through an Agilytic project, the company could implement a streamlined process to reduce staffing needs, strengthen quality control, and achieve significant cost savings.

The objective was straightforward: automate invoice processing to reduce administrative burden while ensuring accuracy and compliance.

Approach

We implemented a multi-phased strategy to address this challenge, starting with a Proof-of-Concept (POC) before moving toward full industrialization. Our approach included these key steps:

1. Understanding the Business Process: A thorough analysis of the existing workflow revealed gaps in documentation and inefficiencies.

2. AI and LLM Integration: We developed an invoice content extraction system using a multimodal Large Language Model (LLM). This system converted invoices into HTML files while ensuring accurate data capture.

3. Compliance Verification: The system verified company numbers on invoices against internal records to ensure compliance.

4. Transport Details Structuring: We structured transport details and validated them against internal transport database using Python logic rules and Pandas to identify discrepancies.

5. Administrative Automation: Through our partnership with B_Robots, we implemented UiPath to automate administrative tasks—including email attachment uploads, AI module triggers, and report updates.

6. Coaching and Documentation: We provided comprehensive process documentation and coached the IT department to ensure a smooth transition to the industrialization phase.

Results

The project delivered exceptional results. The proof of concept demonstrated potential annual labor cost savings exceeding €100,000 with the implementation of the industrialized version.

Beyond these cost savings, the automation freed up valuable personnel to focus on strategic tasks.

This project also served as the client's first successful AI implementation, creating momentum for innovation and sparking interest in exploring AI applications across the organization.

The successful optimization of transport invoice processing has positioned the organization to extend similar automation strategies to other subsidiaries, driving broader operational efficiency and effectiveness.