CUSTOMER CASE
Neele-Vat makes efficiency gains in the order management process
Logistics service provider Neele-Vat has found an automated solution for its order entry process that enables it to offer customers a higher level of service. “We looked at several suppliers but the Simply Deliver order converter clearly came out on top,” says IT manager Edwin Valstar. The solution is now live and the first experiences are positive. “We have become faster and more flexible.
Neele-Vat is a full service logistics service provider with nine hundred employees and branches all over Europe. The company offers a broad spectrum of high-quality logistics services in the fields of road transport, sea freight, air freight, customs and warehousing. As a multimodal chain director, the Rotterdam family business needs advanced ICT systems in order to perfectly align all links in the chain. Simply Deliver specializes in cloud solutions for multimodal transport management, real-time data exchange and supply chain visibility.
Time-consuming and error-prone
“For our transport activities, we get daily I don’t even know how much orders”, says Edwin Valstar, IT manager at Neele-Vat. “Most orders come in by e-mail with an attachment with the details. Usually this is a PDF or Excel file, but unstructured Word documents also occur. Many of these orders have to be entered manually, which is time-consuming and also error-prone. We had been looking for a party that could offer a solution for this for quite some time, but we did not find a suitable party. Until we came into contact with Simply Deliver.
Proof of concept
One of the solutions Simply Deliver offers is the so-called Simply Converter, a user-friendly and pragmatic tool for automatically converting individual files into records in an order management system. With this tool the mentioned disadvantages of manual overwriting are overcome while customers can continue to send their orders in the same way.
“We also looked at solutions from other suppliers, but they were a lot more complex or less reliable,” says Valstar. “During the proof of concept Simply Deliver clearly emerged as the best. They had already built a perfectly working template within a week, which proves that they can switch quickly”.
Configure software yourself
A big advantage of the Simply Converter compared to other solutions is that Neele-Vat can set up the templates itself. “We have a lot of large customers who all submit their orders to us in different ways. In order to automate that you have to set up an order template once per customer and then it’s nice that you don’t have to rely on third parties.
Simply Deliver’s software is simple to use and our people have had good training in this area as well. This allows us to intervene if something goes wrong and we are not dependent on our ICT vendor for every little bit of money. By the way, the people at Simply Deliver are very accessible and there are short lines of communication to the development team. So if you ever need them, you can get things done quickly.
Higher quality of service
In the meantime, the Simply Converter has been taken into use and Neele-Vat is benefiting fully from the efficiency advantages. “This really saves us a lot of time, especially with the more complex orders that involve a lot of administrative handling. What’s more, it makes us more flexible: at peak times we can continue to process orders at full speed while we used to be tied to the maximum capacity of people”.
But the most important thing is that Neele-Vat’s customers also benefit, he emphasises. “Now that the order entry process is running so smoothly, lead times have been reduced and fewer mistakes are being made. This means to customers that you become more reliable in your process and offer more quality in your service”.
Solution with potential
Now that the first applications have led to such positive results, Valstar intends to deploy Simply Deliver software in other places within the company. “So far, we have only looked at the import of transport orders, but within Neele-Vat we also have other order flows, such as for our warehouse operations and customs clearance. Although the data is different, the essence is the same and you could automate these flows perfectly well with the converter.
The Simply Converter is a solution with a lot of potential that we can deploy broadly. At Neele-Vat we are going to have a lot of fun with it.
“The Simply Converter is a solution with potential that we can deploy widely”
Edwin ValstarIT-manager at Neele-VAT
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