The logistics industry is known for its highly complex processes and modi operandi. It is also known for being a digitalization laggard, even more so for the business-to-business (B2B) sector. Although some cautious initiatives had already been taken, it was not until COVID-19 emerged that things really began to get moving.
The pandemic made many “physical” processes unworkable, so most companies had to put their creative caps on and think of other ways to keep the wheels turning. For business-to-consumer (B2C) logistics, the pandemic provided a great opportunity to further exploit the e-commerce flows that were already in place. For B2B logistics, this meant reaching down to the bottom drawer to retrieve that “need-to-digitalize” business case and laying it back on the table.
Generally speaking, sales and post-sales processes in logistics are slow and cumbersome, regularly involving manual interventions that are prone to potentially painful errors, from purchase orders to dispatch, invoicing, and reconciliation. For example, over 20 percent of invoices in logistics carry incorrect data.
With the rise of online platforms, this pain has been eased to an extent. Automation is one of the best things to happen to sales processes, but then there is the post-sales process; invoicing and getting paid are still among the main trigger points of the industry.
Imagine the impact further digitalization and automation of the logistics sales process from order to settlement — no more manual invoices, no more chasing payments, no more waiving, no more reconciliation — could have on the entire supply chain worldwide.