Kofax®, a leading supplier of software to automate and digitally transform information intensive processes, announced that Kofax Kapow™ Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software is the de facto standard for more than 50 third-party logistics (3PL) providers globally.
Kapow, the #originalbot, automates and digitally transforms a wide range of human and information intensive processes across front and back office operations. It allows users to deploy smart robots that mimic human actions while driving continuous improvement using artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies. These smart robots interact seamlessly with applications, aggregating data, transforming it into actionable information, triggering responses, and communicating across enterprise systems, web sites and desktop applications.
Embracing digital transformation technologies is a competitive imperative, as performance expectations among 3PL buyers and end-users continue to increase. A study by the World Economic Forum and Accenture states that there is $1.5 trillion of value at stake for logistics players, and an additional $2.4 trillion worth of social benefits, as a result of widespread digital transformation in the transportation industry.
Kapow robots help streamline operations and expedite key business activities, creating differentiation and advantage in an industry facing fierce competition and already experiencing razor-thin margins. By automatically collecting and transforming data from internet portals, browser based applications and enterprise systems, productivity gains become significant across thousands of transactions.
PITT OHIO, a leading U.S.-based transportation provider is using Kapow to improve customer service and premium services. By deploying Kapow in the customer service function, no significant re-keying of data is required and their premium offering can now scale across the organization’s entire customer base.
Crete Carrier Corporation, a privately-owned trucking company servicing major retailers across the U.S., relies on Kapow to provide efficient appointment scheduling, including the determination of pickup and drop-off points, shipment distance and desired delivery timeframes. The firm estimates that Kapow robots schedule 40-50 percent of appointments without human intervention in a completely automated process that increases convenience for 3PL end-users. Kapow also improves the organization’s visibility into the progress of shipments, with automated confirmation of location and load status in individual vehicles. Inspired by these Kapow enabled efficiencies, Crete Carrier has introduced the solution to its road services, billing and recruiting operations.
Kapow transformed the carrier tracking capabilities of Davies Turner, one of the U.K.’s leading multimodal freight forwarding and logistics companies. Orders are now tracked through the supply chain in real time as opposed to the 10-15 minutes previously required by manual processing. Clients are notified of a shipment’s status automatically, but if a customer chooses to call or email with a question, the operations team can simply access the order record in its warehouse management system rather than logging into a website or contacting a carrier. A Kapow based inventory tracking process adds value as well. Stock is checked routinely, empowering customers to replenish inventory quickly to avoid costly out-of-stock conditions.
“With Kapow, there are no longer any constraints around scheduling. Unlike human operators, the robots can run 24/7 without breaks. This means that as soon as a new tender comes in we can get right down to fixing a delivery slot,” said Matt Schnake, Website Integration Administrator at Crete Carrier. “And what’s more, Kapow is able to schedule appointments weeks and even months in advance if we have orders booked that far ahead of time.”
“Kapow helps us deliver much faster and responsive service to customers. While in the past it could take our teams around 15 minutes to respond to a request for information on a shipment, today they can answer in real time,” said Darren Gurney, Logistics Systems Manager, Davies Turner. “Not only are we meeting customers’ expectations, we are exceeding them in certain areas. Normally a customer wouldn’t expect us to track all their orders in real time, but thanks to Kapow we now have this capability, increasing the number of shipments we track by 1000% without adding staff.”
“Kapow allows 3PL organizations to run more efficiently while enabling agility, greater capacity and an improved customer experience,” said Reynolds C. Bish, Chief Executive Officer of Kofax. “By creating a digital workforce side-by-side with skilled employees, the transportation and logistics industry is modernizing its approach for greater competitive advantage.”