It’s no surprise that supply chain teams are inundated with documents and files of all kinds. From purchase orders and commercial invoices to warehouse receipts and security declarations, there is a lot that the supply chain department deals with on a regular basis. Add to this the delays caused by logistical issues and conflicts, and changing prices due to tariffs, and the complexity of the supply chain and procurement seems endless.
In environments and situations as complicated as those that modern supply chain teams are presented with, automated document processing serves as a breath of fresh air, allowing teams to focus on more pressing tasks. Automating supply chain management and intelligent document processing does a lot more than just speed up tasks. In fact, there are plenty of other benefits that range from increased collaboration and productivity to fewer errors and lower costs.
To put things in perspective, data from McKinsey shows that switching to electronic bills of lading could result in up to 6.5 billion USD in direct savings. This shows that automating document management and business process automation should especially be considered by supply chain teams that want to scale without breaking the bank.
What Kinds of Documents Do Supply Chain Teams Use?
Supply chain teams deal with a lot more than just figuring out where to source a product from. In many cases, organizations work with other companies that may be in a different country or even a different continent. In situations like these, when the work of the supply chain, procurement, and logistics teams isn’t just limited to one geographic region, there’s naturally a lot more paperwork involved.
Here’s a list of some of the documents that supply chain teams need to create, source, review, and approve regularly:
- Import and export licenses
As mentioned above, companies often work with suppliers in different regions to meet their production needs or demand. These suppliers can either provide raw material or complete products, which are then sold locally. In most cases, when importing or exporting goods like chemicals, electronics, or pharmaceutical drugs, companies need to have the right licenses that guarantee that they have legal permission to import or export the products or goods in question.
These licenses need to be obtained and updated constantly so that they can be used to enter new markets and continue to trade without any issues. What’s more, these licenses also come in handy for auditing and regulatory purposes.
In order to ensure that all of these documents and licenses are accessible to all teams from one centralized location, a document management system should be used. These intelligent document processing systems help keep all documents updated and ensure that access is only given to the right people. This way, teams won’t be left scrambling for the right documents in case of changes in the operating environment and will easily be able to prove that they are legally allowed to import or export goods from other countries.
- Invoices
As one would imagine, invoices are a very important part of the supply chain. Companies not only need to ensure that the invoices they create for their customers are very detailed, but also need to keep track of invoices that they themselves have paid to other companies/suppliers.
In most cases, invoices need to pass through a few different people in the organization, from team leads and managers to even the head of the department. In situations like this, a document automation system can come in handy by automating the approval process and allowing all stakeholders to review and approve the invoice from the same central location.
This way, teams won’t have to worry about dealing with multiple different versions of the same bill or invoice. Since everything will be stored and accessible from one location, no copies of the same document will need to be created. What’s more, since the approval process won’t be reliant on email threads, approvals can also be much faster.
How Can Intelligent Document Processing Help Supply Chain Teams?
Intelligent document processing does a lot more than just store documents in one place. Since there are a number of stakeholders involved in all processes in the supply chain and many moving parts that can affect deals significantly, it’s important to have greater control over all of the documents that are needed by the supply chain department. Here are some ways in which automated document processing can help with supply chain management:
Document capture
Supply chain documents can take many different forms. Most commonly, though, invoices and purchase orders can exist in a lot of different formats and need to be structured to be processed properly. Intelligent document processing tools like Intalio can help with embedded OCR technology that makes it easy to scan documents so that they can be digitized and stored securely. Intalio also comes with bulk import options, allowing supply chain teams to safely capture and store many documents easily.
Filing and categorization
When you’re dealing with a lot of documents, it’s easy to overlook or forget where they are stored. Intelligent document processing solutions like Intalio Document solve this problem with robust storage and categorization capabilities that make storing, searching, and retrieving documents a breeze. All files are indexed with metadata that offers additional context, allowing documents to be searched for in just a few seconds.
Faster processing
One of the key benefits of automating and digitizing document processing is the increase in speed and productivity that it offers. Once all your documents are stored in the same centralized location, they can easily be accessed and processed without any delays. By cutting the amount of time taken in searching for and sending emails and reminders to approve documents, supply chain teams can start focusing on other more important tasks that cannot be automated.
Ready to revolutionize your organization’s supply chain with faster document processing? Request a personalized demo today to see Intalio Document in action.
