How is Shipamax different to Traditional OCR Document Processing?
Learn how Shipamax is different from traditional OCR and could help your operations team reduce the amount of time they spend on data capture and document processing by up to 85%.
What is Traditional OCR Software?
OCR or optical character recognition, is a data capture technology that allows text to be extracted from image-based documents, such as PDFs or scanned invoices. OCR templates do improve data capture accuracy, but they are extremely expensive to set up and maintain.
What makes Shipamax the best document processing software for freight forwarders?
| Shipamax | Traditional OCR | |
|---|---|---|
| Can extract images from documents | ✅ | ✅ |
| No maintenance costs | ✅ | ❌ |
| No document rules or templates | ✅ | ❌ |
| Active learning based models | ✅ | ❌ |
| Shared machine learning models trained on an ever-expanding logistics dataset | ✅ | ❌ |
| Exception manager web app purpose built to handle logistics workflows | ✅ | ❌ |
| Out of the box integrations with CargoWise and popular TMS systems | ✅ | ❌ |
| Multi-lingual understanding | ✅ | Sometimes |
| Out-of-the-box, logistics-specific data structures | ✅ | ❌ |
| Innate domain understanding | ✅ | ❌ |
| Can be synced with internal reference data | ✅ | Sometimes |
| Broad coverage of supply chain document structures | ✅ | ❌ |
| Multi-file document split | ✅ | ❌ |
| Responsive in app customer support | ✅ | Sometimes |
Want to see detailed comparison with traditional OCR document processing? You can see step-by-step comparison here.
With Shipamax, we’re seeing a higher level of accuracy for documents processed than we ever did with an OCR solution
Adrian Green, Head of Business Improvement, Seaway
Before Shipamax, invoice processing was carried out manually by one and a half members of staff, we’re now using less than one full time finance person and no operations agents.
Nicole Stenmetz, COO, Cargo Brokers
We wanted a technology partner that we could work with to help us develop a platform that would transform how we do business. With Shipamax, we have that partner.
Martin Hjelle, CTO, Western Bulk
In order to grow Singapore Marine rapidly, we require strong, reliable and top class IT applications. Selecting Shipamax was therefore straightforward.
Ardalan Sappino, Singapore Marine
Does Shipamax use OCR?
Shipamax has an OCR component built into its platform to assist with data extraction from logistics documents. However, unlike traditional OCR software, Shipamax uses a contextual understanding layer, or what we like to call, Anti-Template Technology, which means, no more creating templates or rules on top of an OCR.
Unlike traditional OCR, the Shipamax AI understands the context of logistics documents. When extracting text from a document, our AI or machine learning model understands what that text means, and maps it to a clean data schema, which can be fed into your ERP or TMS system like CargoWise. Pre-trained on more than 20 million logistics documents, we ensure that our solution is ready to capture data from a wide variety of logistics documents from day one.
When paired with logistics focused machine learning model like those within Shipamax, traditional OCR becomes a much more powerful technology. Meaning there is no need to build expensive templates, then create and maintain additional rules to understand new documents.
The Benefits of Shipamax vs Traditional OCR
With a range of document processing solutions available on the market for freight forwarders, we have listed some of the main reasons that we believe Shipamax is the best document processing software for freight forwarders.
1. A complete end to end rollout in as little as six weeks
With Shipamax, you can have an automation solution rolled out across your business in as little as six weeks. OCR can take months to set up and often includes costly and time-consuming integrations with unpredictable timelines.
2. Spend up to 85% less time managing data capture
An end to end AI-powered automation solution like Shipamax can reduce the time spent on data entry by up to 85%. We estimate that the average turnaround time for documents using OCR software can be anywhere between 10mins - 24 hours. With Shipamax it's less than 5 seconds, with exceptions, on average 14 seconds.
3. A specialist solution built for logistics
Unlike many OCR solutions on the market, Shipamax is purpose-built for the shipping and logistics industry. From broad coverage of shipping documents and industry-trained Anti-Template technology to out of the box integrations with Cargowise and purpose-built interfaces that sit seamlessly into your logistics workflows, there are a number of obvious advantages to choosing a specialist industry solution over a generalist OCR solution.
4. No more expensive OCR rules and templates
The cost of OCR templates can really stack up. If the average time it takes to set up a new template is 50 hours, you’re paying your employees $29 per hour with 100 different carriers to cater for. That’s $145,000 on templates alone – and that’s just setting them up. No rules or template setup is required with Shipamax.