Intelligent Audit
Tech Driving The Next Wave Of Freight Management

In a world where shippers dispatch billions of packages every week, managing associated invoices can be daunting. The sheer number of disruptions—blockages, increasing costs, halted transport modes, etc.,—is no easy feat to manage. Recent global events, like the US-China trade war and the COVID-19 pandemic, have compounded these challenges, forcing diversification in supply chains and revealing vulnerabilities. As complexities soar, so does the volume of data and the propensity for mistakes. Depending on economic cycles, a shipper’s focus alternates between cost-saving and leveraging data for smarter decisions.

That’s where Intelligent Audit (IA), a leader in freight audit and analytics, proves its excellence. Their powerful platform transforms, cleanses, and converts this intricate data into actionable intelligence.

Technology is the backbone of IA. The strong emphasis on continuous innovation and their unique technological approach, particularly in machine learning and AI, sets them apart in the marketplace. This is not merely a claim—the significant investments in these areas go far beyond what competitors offer. While many may stop at a basic freight audit, IA’s vision is more expansive. They harness vast transportation data to provide actionable insights, helping customers evolve into smarter shippers in ways you wouldn’t typically expect from a mere freight audit company.

“Our platform simplifies highly complex data, filters valuable information, and makes it easily digestible for clients, providing them with actionable intelligence,” says Hannah Testani, CEO of Intelligent Audit.

As a truly technology-driven company, IA is able to cater to a vast spectrum shippers: from small parcel companies shipping 10 packages a week to colossal shippers handling over 150 million shipments annually. IA touches industries ranging from high tech, manufacturing, and retail to e-commerce, covering courier, parcel, truckload, air, intermodal, ocean, and rail.

Mutually Beneficial Solutions

Proudly built in-house, IA’s technology caters to shippers and carriers. From their vantage point, the company prioritizes shippers and 3PLs as their primary customers, while also valuing carriers as their secondary clientele. This approach ensures that every user enjoys a flawless experience on their platform. This commitment empowers IA’s clients with self-service capabilities, promoting efficiency and fostering an intuitive user experience.

When IA’s customers engage with their platforms, they represent diverse teams: logistics, procurement, or finance, each with unique informational needs. Their goal is to extract data-driven insights promptly, eliminating emotional biases. They seek to understand their expenses, track outstanding shipments and invoices, determine necessary accruals, and analyze cost structures. Procurement sector professionals delve deeper into IA’s system, examining current carriers against potential alternatives. They utilize the platform to evaluate their existing transportation decisions against new offers, basing choices on factual data such as costs and transit times.

To further cater to its clients, IA boasts a dynamic client success team that functions as an extension oftheir customers’ operations. Combining technological capabilities with industry expertise, this team offers invaluable advice, such as strategically introducing a new distribution center to achieve significant savings. Their guidance ensures that clients can make enhancements to their supply chains strategically.

IA’s Professional Services team is a pillar in transportation spends optimization and comprehensive cost-saving initiatives. Merging deep industry acumen with modern technology, they diagnose inefficiencies, and deploy cost-effective solutions. This combination bolsters business competitiveness and enriches customer relationships.

Comprised of expert logisticians, engineers, and data analysts, this service is tailored to bolster the shipper’s profitability. Their expertise and robust technology are geared towards scrutinizing and reducing transportation expenditures. With the following strategies, shippers can find the answers to reducing waste from their transportation spend and finding optimization opportunities.

Transportation Optimization tackles shipper challenges with precision. Through analytics, decisions are fine-tuned, focusing on carrier and service selections that streamline expenses. Techniques range from cost-modelling to market intelligence, guaranteeing multifaceted business enhancement.

Strategic Collaboration penetrates the core of shippers’ operations. Advisors, aligning closely with shippers, translate data insights into actionable future roadmaps.

From the carrier’s perspective, IA ensures they are continually informed about any invoicing discrepancies. The company champions carrier autonomy through self-service options and maintains transparency.

Instead of allowing invoicing issues to linger, IA emphasizes the rapid identification of root causes. By addressing these concerns promptly, the platform ensures the integrity of future data, allowing its customers to make decisions based on reliable and pristine data.

Client-Centricity, at its Finest

Intelligent Audit takes pride in its truly global presence and formidable team that spans five continents. This strategic positioning mirrors the global footprint of their clientele. Every member of their team isn’t just a representative of the company but embodies the essence of local expertise. No matter where a client is based or operates, Intelligent Audit ensures they have professionals who understand the nuances of that region, ensuring a tailored and culturally sensitive approach.

At Intelligent Audit, the essence of their corporate ethos is a dedication to innovation and problem-solving that permeates all levels of the organization. Far from adhering to the status quo, employees are encouraged and celebrated for challenging conventional methods and constantly seeking more efficient solutions. Recognizing that innovation involves trial and error, the company embraces mistakes as valuable learning experiences, fostering an environment where risk-taking and boundary-pushing are the norm, catalyzing creativity and forward-thinking. Teamwork and collaboration are fundamental, with a focus on leveraging collective intelligence rather than solely individual achievements. This collaborative spirit not only yields richer, more effective outcomes but also promotes holistic growth, balancing professional dedication with personal well-being. By nurturing well-rounded individuals, Intelligent Audit ensures a workforce brimming with perspective, creativity, and vitality.

A Clear Grasp On Meaningful Insights Derived From Rich Transportation Data Is Crucial For Shippers To Make Informed Business-Critical Decisions That Yield Tangible Outcomes

Diving into their client onboarding process, it’s evident that IA has worked hard to make this a priority. Each engagement commences with a comprehensive discovery phase, meticulously charting eachclient’s needs, challenges, and aspirations. This segues into a seamless implementation phase, driven by best practices and decades of experience. However, their boldness in challenging pre-existing client processes is what truly sets them apart from many in the industry.

IA goes beyond being a cost-saving tool by focusing on long-term strategies and scalable growth. They guide clients towards sustainable best practices, rather than just immediate efficiencies. As strategic partners, they challenge and enable clients to rethink their potential, combining expertise and a forward-thinking approach. This positions the company not only as a current industry leader but also as a shaper of the industry’s future.

Continuing the Innovation Legacy

Such continued focus drives the company to step beyond the confines of a freight auditing data provider and give clients a nuanced lens to understand their complex business operations and shipping transactions. This methodology is crucial to simplify intertwined multi-stakeholder data, reduce costs, and optimize the logistics network simultaneously.

IA’s anomaly detection system presents an excellent alternative to manual, error-prone processes. The AI and ML-powered platform uses dozens of variables and millions of invoice-level data points in real time to find and correct anomalous events on the fly. Envision this as a tech-driven detective, perpetually sifting through data, pinpointing real-time insights and anomalies.

It would take thousands of man-hours a week to look through all these shipments to find the anomalies. This is both expensive and untenable. Instead, IA’s anomaly detection tool can digest an entire customer’s transaction history in minutes, learn their patterns, and then evaluate all new transactions based on this history through machine learning. Instead of digging through thousands of packages each week, IA can narrow it down to only a handful of true anomalies which are then evaluated by a team of experts.

“A clear grasp on meaningful insights derived from rich transportation data is crucial for shippers to make informed business-critical decisions that yield tangible outcomes,” Testani says.

The anomaly detection tool is constantly learning from its discoveries, too. When there is a confirmed anomalous invoice, that information is immediately propagated back into the machine learning algorithm, improving its performance for the following week. Insights gained from one customer are used to enhance the performance for all customers, leading to greater savings and more efficient shipping.

Recently, IA on-boarded a large enterprise client who had previously partnered with one of its competitors. The client’s central challenge was accessing their massive shipment data, which exceeded 100 million shipments annually. They sought real-time data access to independently analyze scenarios without enduring long waits for basic analysis. Intelligent Audit’s solution addressed these concerns and offered additional value through its anomaly detection software, leveraging deep learning. This tool identified costly errors, such as mislabeled shipments causing 500 percent cost spikes. The system ensures ongoing data accuracy, providing the client with a safety net for decision-making by flagging anomalies, thereby bolstering their confidence in IA’s robust machine learning infrastructure.

What’s to Come

Intelligent Audit is committed to pushing boundaries with its substantialinvestment in machine learning and AI technologies. The company launched its anomaly detection software two years ago, showcasing its early adoption of cutting-edge AI solutions. The focus now is expanding AI applications to enhance efficiency for both customers and carriers. The future vision is geared toward equipping clients with powerful tools, enabling them to make prompt decisions, minimizing manual interventions like Excel-based calculations.

Key emphasis is also being placed on the finance and procurement sectors. By streamlining forecasting tools, IA aids clients in comprehending potential disruptions, ensuring transparency in financial projections, and proactively managing unforeseen challenges.

A testament to the company’s commitment to user experience is the recent overhaul of their platform’s UI, reflecting 27 years of industry experience. The redesign prioritizes self-service, ensuring ease of navigation for all user profiles, from executives to analysts. Their adaptability is evident; they value feedback and continually refine their offerings.

Moreover, IA has unveiled two game-changing products. The Parcel Optimization Tool empowers shippers to meticulously analyze their domestic small parcel proposals, facilitating comprehensive calculations and optimizing their parcel network for faster deliveries at reduced costs. The Network Optimization Tool, on the other hand, is a strategic asset for shippers, aiding in geographically optimizing transportation volumes. This ensures efficient distribution corresponding with customer locations, potential shipping patterns, and vendor sites. Through these innovations, Intelligent Audit is steadfast in its mission to ensure clients achieve the best services in the most time-efficient and cost-effective manner.

In a world rife with challenges and complexities in shipping, Intelligent Audit has established itself as the forerunner in freight auditing and analytics. As shippers ponder the possibility of outsourcing their freight audit processes, it is paramount to open dialogue with the internal team asking questions like: “How efficient are our current audit processes?”, “Can we keep up with the ever-evolving regulations and intricacies?” and “Do our teams have the bandwidth and expertise to continuously innovate and refine our systems?” This can guide the decision-making process.

The company’s recent advances in parcel and network optimization tools further underscore the value they offer. The roadmap for Intelligent Audit, deeply rooted in their pioneering spirit and commitment to client-centricity, promises a future where shippers can effortlessly navigate the maze of logistical data. Thus, when considering an ally for the intricate task of freight auditing, Intelligent Audit emerges as a partner that continually redefines excellence in the industry.