Data Capture: Kuehne + Nagel Streamlines Customs Invoice Capture

Datacap Inc., along with partner Applied Docs, announced recently that customer Kuehne + Nagel Canada has significantly multiplied its turnaround time on customs invoices with Taskmaster. With 46,000 employees and a global network of 830 offices in more than 100 countries, Kuehne + Nagel is one of the top three transportation companies in the world, providing sea freight, airfreight, rail and road, and contract logistics. Based in Mississauga, Ontario, Kuehne + Nagel Canada is the first division to adopt customs invoice automation, which is now being evaluated for expansion to other Kuehne + Nagel offices worldwide.

Sold and implemented by Datacap solutions provider Applied Docs of Almomte, Ontario, the Taskmaster solution was installed in January of 2007. Keith Trafford of Applied Docs described the requirements of the application. "To comply with Canadian Customs, all shipments into Canada - whether by ship, rail or truck - must declare ‘all' information related to every item shipped," he explained. "Besides the gathering of the "header data", the detail part lines (averaging 7 to 10 fields per line) are where the greatest effort resides. A detail line can contain references to Product Codes, one or more descriptions, quantity, unit prices, line totals, country of origin, weights, tariffs / HS codes, PO numbers and/or many other unique field elements that relates to a shipper's "declaration of goods."

In the world of Customs Brokers, EDI is the preferred method of receiving data, but the majority of data transactions that have to be ‘declared' arrive as paper originals, faxes, scanned images or PDF files. Like most brokers, Kuehne + Nagel entered all ‘non-EDI' data manually. With upwards of 60 part lines on a page and page counts ranging from one to 200 pages per document, data entry effort was a significant use of labor.

Automation Fuels Growth Applied Docs won the right to design and install a "Paper to EDI" system, built with Datacap Taskmaster, to reduce manual data entry and eliminate the bottleneck to additional business. Commercial invoices are brought into Datacap Taskmaster, either as scanned images or as PDF's . Taskmaster employs OCR and other technologies to locate and capture all the header/footer and line item detail field elements, then parses the data to comply with Canada's Prearrival Requirements. The challenge is handling the widely varied formats of commercial invoices and their many pages of line items.

Capturing line items is one of the strengths of Taskmaster and why its "Dynamic Details" feature is valued by Kuehne + Nagel's customs brokerage staff. When a new invoice layout is received, an operator simply highlights the first line item on an invoice and indicates the column headers. With a single click, Taskmaster accurately captures all subsequent lines. The bonus... T askmaster "remembers" where the information was found for the next time the vendor's documents arrive for processing. The solution's operational environment builds itself as data entry operators perform their regular work. The result: data entry effort is significantly reduced and the work is carried out in a fraction of the time previously required.

"The solution cut manual entry time on customs invoices significantly. With some internal system upgrades, we expect to reduce that time even further over manual methods," claims Charles Edwards, Kuehne + Nagel project manager. "The productivity gains add up to an absolutely incredible number. The business benefits are clearly that we are able to accept far more work without additional resources."

About Datacap
Since 1988, Datacap Inc. has provided leading document capture and forms processing software solutions to organizations worldwide. Datacap Taskmaster software efficiently transforms paper into information, increasing efficiency and data accuracy while reducing costs and document cycle time. A client/server, rules-based capture workflow platform, Taskmaster provides highly flexible solutions for both document indexing and data entry automation. Taskmaster enables scanning and indexing from a browser and integrates with all leading document management solutions, databases and ERP systems. The award-winning Taskmaster Web Service provides an SOA capture solution. www.datacap.com.

About Applied Docs
Applied Docs provides leading document and data management solutions at the front end of business processes. Applied Docs solutions, specialize in complex document structures that deliver... rapid, accurate and cost effective information capture and delivery, resulting in superior efficiency gains and exceptional cost benefits. For more information contact Claude Paquin at cpaquin@applieddocs.comor by phone at 613-520-8318

SOURCE: <%=company1%>