Green Worldwide eliminates AP invoice processing errors and streamlines processes with Shipamax

Introduction 

Green Worldwide Shipping was founded in 2008 with a vision of revitalizing the freight forwarding industry by replacing outdated systems and bureaucratic processes with a flexible supply chain and a relentless focus on customer service. Today, Green is one of the world’s most innovative and sustainable freight forwarding businesses, setting an example to the industry with its carbon neutrality initiatives - find out more here.

The Challenge 

At a strategic level, Green aims to deliver a global shipping experience with a human approach. In operational terms, this means putting a single operator in charge of each job from start to finish, which delivers a much more personal customer experience.

To make this process work efficiently, Green’s operators need to be highly skilled and productive in all aspects of operations. Every minute they spend on low-level tasks—such as fixing accounts payable (AP) invoice processing errors—is a distraction from their key role of adding value to customer relationships.

As Green grew, invoice processing errors were becoming more common. The company had outsourced its invoice reconciliation process to an external business process outsourcing (BPO) provider, and as monthly invoice volumes increased, the BPO team struggled to keep up. This resulted in Green’s operators and accounts team spending too much time handling exceptions and unpicking mistakes.

The Solution

As an innovator, Green is always eager to empower its employees to work more effectively by adopting new technologies. The company realized that by replacing its error-prone, BPO-led AP invoice reconciliation process with an automated approach, it could dramatically improve operator satisfaction, engagement, and productivity.

One of Green’s senior leaders had worked with Shipamax in a previous role and recommended evaluating Shipamax’s AP invoicing automation solution. Following a head-to-head comparison with several other vendors, Green decided to move forward with Shipamax.

Ramping up rapidly

In less than 12 weeks, Shipamax helped Green integrate its CargoWise platform with the new AP invoicing solution, test and validate the reconciliation process, and onboard and train its operations and finance teams. After a smooth go-live, Green ramped up its use of the platform quickly, and is now using Shipamax to process an average of 7,500 AP invoices per month.

Achieving key objectives

Prior to the start of the project, Green set two main criteria for evaluating its success. First, the solution should enable straight-through processing (STP) of at least 25% of its AP invoices, and second, it should win the approval of the operations team.

Shipamax achieved both of these objectives almost immediately. STP rates have been climbing steadily since the go-live, hitting 20% within one month and rising steadily from there. The team expects to lift these rates even further as Shipamax helps Green drive continuous process improvement.

Moreover, both operators and accountants have been enthusiastic adopters of the platform, and there’s plenty of solid evidence that it is improving their productivity. For example, before Shipamax, one operator often had a backlog of more than 100 exceptions in their queue; today, they have reduced that backlog to zero.

Surfacing opportunities for improvement

Beyond streamlining and automating AP invoicing, Green is now using the Shipamax platform to analyze and improve its processes. Shipamax provides real-time reports on exceptions, making it easy for Green to identify the root causes of problems. For example, if a creditor regularly fails to include the job reference number on their invoices, or an operator forgets to enter their accruals, the problem can be caught and fixed much faster than before.

If you're interested in learning more about automated document processing in logistics, read our latest guide on the topic, which includes the benefits of document automation software for shippers.