PORTALINK CAST STUDY
KINCROME
THE CHALLENGE
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Kincrome is a warehouse and distribution business that has been supplying to Automative, Industrial and Hardware markets for 30 years.
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Kincrome has four warehouse/distribution centres, which are strategically located throughout Australia, to deliver responsive and accurate order dispatches to all target markets.
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Fast and accurate order-to-shipment cycles are an imperative component of Kincrome’s customer value proposition.
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Kincrome invests in technology solutions that can enhance its order accuracy and improve the speed of its turnaround time.
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Finding a solution to meet Kincrome’s needs that was robust, accurate, quick and cost-effective proved challenging.
1
PORTALINK CAST STUDY
KINCROME
THE CHALLENGE
-
Kincrome is a warehouse and distribution business that has been supplying to Automative, Industrial and Hardware markets for 30 years.
-
Kincrome has four warehouse/distribution centres, which are strategically located throughout Australia, to deliver responsive and accurate order dispatches to all target markets.
-
Fast and accurate order-to-shipment cycles are an imperative component of Kincrome’s customer value proposition.
-
Kincrome invests in technology solutions that can enhance its order accuracy and improve the speed of its turnaround time.
-
Finding a solution to meet Kincrome’s needs that was robust, accurate, quick and cost-effective proved challenging.
1
automate
customer purchase
orders
Portalink specialises in Customer Purchase Order automation. We understand how complex the order entry process can be within dynamic business environments. Portalink is a flexible platform that can manage ALL complex business rules and seamlessly digitise ALL customer accounts with optimal Zero-Touch.
We believe that great businesses are defined by great customer experiences.
Customer Purchase Orders are the lifeline for most organisations and yet, all too often, orders are still entered manually which adversely impacts delivery performance, error rates and scalability. Despite Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) being introduced more than fifty years ago, a long tail of unstructured PDF, HTML and Excel order forms still need to be processed quickly and accurately. Complex workflows, business rules and pricing structures create significant challenges within Customer Service environments making them difficult to automate.
Independent Technologists have proven that Portalink is a superior system for Zero-Touch order processing with unequalled accuracy, data mapping context and flexibility. Portalink is the only system that can automate any document type from any customer, with a pricing model that makes it scalable across all customer accounts.
the customer service
paradigm
customer service team before portalink.
customer service team after portalink.
customer
support
order
processing
customer support
high
value
low
value
order processing
structured and unstructured
purchase order processing
customer purchase orders
portalink
data capture
data validation
data mapping
digital order
Clean orders are exported to ERP system.
Other systems such as CRM or WMS systems can also be included in the data and document exchange.
Smart integration with master databases enables all data to be validated with Zero or Low-Touch.
Portalink can achieve true Zero-Touch by fixing errors before they reach the ERP, eliminating double handling.All business rules, no matter how complex, can be incorporated within the Portalink platform to ensure that errors are fixed in Portalink, either automatically or by a Customer Service Agent, before the order is exported.
Portalink learns with each order processed.
Portalink creates customised Robotic Process Automation (RPA) document retrieval and mappings for any file format
Each Customer Order Template is mapped by Portalink. Low cost of mappings enables all orders to be automated (from the largest customer to the smallest).
PortalinkRPA
(customised
solutions)
PortalinkOPTIC
(OCR enginge)
PortalinkXTRACT
(captures meta data from native documents with 100% accuracy)
Excel (attachments)
HTML
(in email body)
image files
download
(secure login)
ebay, Amazon, Shopify etc.
PDF (attachments)
email orders
faxed orders
B2B web portals
B2C websites
EDI Orders
PortalinkEDI
(EDI-Vanguard)
EDIFACT, XML, cXML, AS2 etc.
Portalink creates customised mappings for any EDI file format
why portalink is the right choice
why choose
portalink?
Our system is customised to meet the bespoke business needs and goals of each of our customers.
This is achieved through our mapping process.
reduces manual data entry by more than 85%
accelerates
order-to-shipment cycles
eliminates errors
auto-communicates with customers
frees up time for sales generating activities
de-risks knowledge loss when key staff leave
enables growth without additional cost to serve
learn why other systems fail
hear it from
our customers
how to choose
the right software provider
This simple test will narrow the field of software providers that can deliver the outcomes you need. Studies have proven that the following factors are critical for successful Zero-Touch digitisation.
The system must capture granular data with 100% accuracy. Systems that depend on OCR make too many mistakes to be trusted for Zero-Touch.
Portalink
Avoid OCR dependent
systems
The system must be flexible and adaptable. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is very task specific and lacks the flexibly to adapt to complex variables.
Portalink
Avoid RPA dependent systems
The mapping system must digitise any document type with 100% correct data context. Systems that rely solely on Artificial Intelligence often learn badly in unstructured data environments, resulting in costly errors.
Portalink
Avoid AI dependent systems
The software provider maps your customer’s purchase order templates so that your team’s time is not wasted and quality is not compromised.
Portalink
Avoid systems that require mappings to done internally
The cost to map each customer’s order template must be so low that you can digitise ALL of your trading partners without a second thought.
Portalink
Avoid systems with high per customer fees that will not scale beyond your largest customers
The system must b be fully customised to compliment your business rules and workflows.
Portalink
Avoid systems that have limited flexibility and are not
purpose-built
The system must be able to be fully integrated with your ERP and other systems (such as CRM) for seamless bi-directional data exchange.
Portalink
Avoid systems that have limited integration capabilities because they will require more touch
The system must be capable of validating ALL business rules - regardless of how complex - to resolve data errors and eliminate double handling in the ERP
Portalink
Limited data validation creates double handling and more touch
The system must be intuitive and user friendly enabling new users to become proficient within
a day or two.
Portalink
Avoid clunky systems that are difficult to use
Single-Tenant systems are preferable because
they provide more flexibility, robustness, and
data security.
Portalink
Avoid Multi-Tenant systems unless you are a small to medium sized organisation
The service provider must provide support and monitoring beyond the implementation to achieve continual improvement for the life of the project.
Portalink
Avoid SaaS systems that are
not supported
The software provider should have no hesitation providing customer references for you to contact
Portalink
Avoid software providers who are reluctant to help you contact their customers
independent technologists prove
portalink is number one
In early 2020, a global Fortune 500 company committed to finding the best PDF-to-EDI system. Extensive research had established a shortlist of nine software providers that were considered best-of-breed for document digitisation. A team of Technologists in Boston MA were tasked with setting up and testing each platform to determine which system delivered the best Zero-Touch outcomes.
Converting PDF Purchase Orders into digital EDI files is complex, requiring accuracy and precision. Hundreds of actual PDF orders were processed through each system to test critical benchmarks. Despite being the smallest company selected for the test, Portalink outperformed all other systems and has since been successfully implemented globally by the Fortune 500 Company.
The extensive testing proved that built-for-purpose systems which are fully supported by the provider performed better. The testing also proved that systems that were dependent on Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for data capture and Artificial Intelligence (AI) for mapping could not be trusted for Zero-Touch.
The benchmarks below summarise where Portalink outperformed the other systems:
best data accuracy
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best data
context
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easiest to
set-up
best user
interface
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best technical support
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most scalable system