The Company
Campbell’s Express was founded at the turn of the 20th century, and by 1918 was using the automobile to deliver parcels while almost everyone else was still using horse and buggy. Today, Campbell’s Express operates over 75 trucks to make deliveries throughout a 150-mile radius of Pitman, New Jersey. In order to maintain their legacy of personalized and quality service, efficiency is crucial to operations.
The Challenge
With any growing customer base in the shipping industry, challenges are sure to arise as different organizations require unique forms for their particular commodity. These forms range from delivery information to billing information to handling requirements – and a lack of standardization across companies can create a mess of paperwork.
Campbell’s was struggling with the difficult task of training entry-level data clerks to manually input key data from these various forms into their Transportation Management System. This system is used to create delivery receipts, invoice charges, track shipments, and more. The reality of the process was that it was cumbersome and prone to human error – and these entry-level positions were experiencing a higher turnover rate due to tedious processes and minimally-engaging workload.
The Solution
Campbell’s began to look to forms automation as a possible solution to their bottlenecks. They decided on Kofax Capture and KTM solutions and found KeyMark to be the right partner for the job, approaching the solution with a multi-phase mindset.
In the first phase, Cambell’s implemented a variety of templates that were based upon OCR scans of documents used by their top customers. These templates allowed Kofax Capture to categorize newly scanned forms and KTM to extract key data into a comma-separated-value file. This file was then imported into their Transportation Management System, and new data was created.
“KeyMark was instrumental in refining the Kofax Capture/KTM tools, as well as using scripting to better achieve our desired results and, thus, our initial vision.” – Sam Klein, Chief Information Officer
In the second phase, KeyMark assisted in fine-tuning processes and further tweaking the scripting to enhance the capabilities of the project build. These adjustments were based upon months of production data and thousands of real-world results.
“KeyMark not only helped to continuously improve our standing,” said Klein, “but, thanks to key members such as Ron Smith, KeyMark acted as a mentor and valued partner.”
Finally, in the third phase, features were added to the project that originally seemed out-of-reach. The forms that Campbell’s Express process often have variable scenarios. Sometimes, for instance, the agreed-upon rate for the delivery of freight is dependent on the commodity. Because one size doesn’t always fit all, KeyMark was able to create and implement an even more versatile solution that adapts to every situation.
The Results
On average, prior to Kofax, Campbell’s data entry clerks took about six months to achieve what’s considered ‘customer harmony synchronization’ — the visual recognition of specific forms, key data from those forms, and the unique needs of the customers to whom those forms belong. After Kofax, new hires acclimate in as little as two weeks. In addition, some of the more complex forms that required manual entry of data could take a skilled clerk approximately five minutes to complete per form. These forms would often arrive in batches of 30, 40, or even 50 different shipments — meaning it could take several hours for one person to process them all. Now, with Kofax doing the heavy lifting, a batch of these same forms can be processed within minutes!
Campbell’s has also been able to increase the accuracy of input data with an automated solution. With rigorous training and feedback, data entry clerks would often reach 95% success rates on the validity of their data. After the implementation, that number is closer to 98-99%. With Kofax performing the first pass of data extraction, the data entry clerks can focus on double-checking those entries and correcting where appropriate. For employees, satisfaction is higher within their day-to-day tasks. Working within Kofax is more engaging and user-friendly. The time savings allow our employees to be more productive, and to stress less during crunch time – and as a result, our retention rate on new hires is longer.
“The one resource that we cannot regain is time,” said Klein. “Thanks to KeyMark and Kofax, we have found ourselves spending less of that precious resource. The old adage absolutely rings true–work smarter, not harder.”
