NLP Automation: The Paperwork Tech Your Brokerage Needs

The FreightWaves 2024 Future of Supply Chain event, held June 3-4 in Atlanta, was buzzing with conversations about the latest trends and technologies shaping the industry. 

The event provided a comprehensive look at the industry's future, from innovative supply chain platforms to discussions on market dynamics. 

What Happened At FreightWaves Future of Supply Chain

The event showcased many advancements from various supply chain players, with a strong focus on automation and efficiency. Keynote speakers and panel discussions highlighted the importance of unified supply chain platforms that integrate various functionalities within a single system, enhancing visibility and decision-making capabilities. 

One of the main attractions was the Rapid-Fire Demos, where companies demonstrated their cutting-edge solutions. Epay Manager made a notable impact with its presentation, showing how its AI-driven Natural Language Processing (NLP) automation can streamline back-office workflows. 

For those not in the know, NLP is the natural language processing of extracted data from a scan or document, essentially allowing the system to read and understand human language. AI, or artificial intelligence, is the advancement of that data recognition, enabling it to better interpret handwritten items and identify those items on a document. Together, these technologies enhance the system's ability to offer "Audit Proof Invoicing," ensuring extremely high automation rates.

Epay Manager's NLP Automation

Epay Manager's new NLP feature comes at just the right time, as market pressures are suffocating margins. Plus, think about how much time is wasted manually reviewing carrier invoices and documents. Epay Manager’s NLP can do all of that automatically, at lightning speed, identifying any issues or red flags. 

The document insights engine identifies missing pages, blurry documents, multi-stop loads, damages, and other vital factors that affect invoice approval. OTR Solutions' factoring division developed this technology and it has been refined through millions of invoices and billions in freight spend.

“With Epay’s AI-driven NLP automation, the documents have been analyzed and the results are shown under document insights. When the documents are checked like this, back-office teams have no need to do a manual review. And again, there’s been zero emalining or back and forth between systems. And there won’t be, ever,” explained Grace Maher, COO of OTR Solutions, during the demo.

Poll Results: The Pain of Incomplete Paperwork

In a recent poll conducted by FreightCaviar, brokers highlighted how frequently they deal with rejected invoices due to incomplete or invalid paperwork. The results were telling:

• 0-10 invoices: 63%
• 10-25 invoices: 20%
• 25-50 invoices: 8%
• 50+ invoices: 9%

Given the poll results, nearly 4 out of 10 brokers report rejecting over ten invoices every week due to incomplete or invalid paperwork. Each rejected invoice leads to delays, additional manual work, and potential disputes, which in turn lead to lost time and increased operational costs. 

Epay Manager's automation capabilities can address these issues head-on, allowing brokers to handle more invoices with greater accuracy and less manual intervention.

Why Epay Manager's NLP Automation 

Automating back-office processes can save a ton of money. With Epay Manager, brokers can automate invoice processing, manage disputes, schedule carrier payments, and centralize AR and AP operations. This automation not only reduces manual errors but also speeds up processing times, ultimately saving on operational costs.

By using Epay Manager, brokers can handle three to five times more invoices per back-office team member. And since it’s automated, there are way fewer manual errors.

We all know the freight market is tough right now. Fuel costs, difficulties finding talent, economic uncertainty—it’s a lot. But automation tools like this NLP tech can seriously cut costs and protect broker margins. 

Instead of having Sally, Michael, and half the office staff buried under paperwork, you can streamline operations and reallocate those resources more strategically. And who knows? Maybe you can let Mike finally take that vacation. 

Future-proofing starts with automating your back-office work. With advances and updates happening every other week, things will only get more advanced from here. Don’t get left behind. 

Learn how Epay Manager Powered by OTR Solutions can help you automate your back-office to reduce your AP audit time by 75%.  Let the robots do the grunt work, and then you can focus on the bigger picture: providing top-tier service and driving business growth.