The Scarbrough Group redefined logistics finance to achieve millions in cost savings
Learn how The Scarbrough Group conquered finance challenges with Raft, reducing manual overhead and empowering teams to focus on strategic, value-driven tasks.
With Adam Hill, CEO, The Scarbrough Group
The Scarbrough Group is a global logistics provider specializing in freight forwarding, customs brokerage, domestic trucking, and warehousing. With expertise in international trade and a customer-centric approach, it provides tailored solutions to simplify import/export processes, optimize supply chains, and ensure smooth operations for businesses across various industries.
Finance
Challenge
The Scarbrough Group was no stranger to the complexities associated with their daily accounts payable invoice processing. With a growing invoice workload, not only was this a cost drag on their operations, but the lengthy payment processes began to strain both creditor and customer relationships.
Specifically, the business was faced with:
- A 7-figure annual finance cost-base: Expensive human resource was required to process accounts payables, meaning costs loomed large.
- Significant hours wasted on manual data entry: Manual overhead was evident due to processes such as adding information into their Transport Management System, CargoWise.
- A 3 week+ invoice processing turnaround: Long approval processes impacted both creditor and customer relationships.
- Limited real-time insights: This hindered creditor monitoring, forecasting, cash flow management, and informed decision making across the global business.
Additionally, highly-valued staff, who were primarily engaged in routine data entry, had less time to use their skills for more strategic and value-driven tasks. The Scarbrough Group needed to find a way to transition the workforce from operational roles to areas where they could contribute to growth and client satisfaction.
"Trusting the tech was vital. It saved time, energy, and allowed us to focus on what we enjoy, not just typing into a system. The groundwork of data entry changed, and we've seen massive improvement in our team's livelihood."
"Trusting the tech was vital. It saved time, energy, and allowed us to focus on what we enjoy, not just typing into a system. The groundwork of data entry changed, and we've seen massive improvement in our team's livelihood."
Solution
The Scarbrough Group turned to Raft to deliver full accounts payable automation. For the finance team, using Raft means:
- Efficient scaling: Managing more shipments without scaling headcount thanks to Raft’s straight-through-processing of invoices and automated approval workflows.
- Clear visibility: Raft’s dashboards provide more visibility into finance processes as well as team and creditor performance.
- Operational excellence: Embedding Raft into operations boosts efficiency, translating into saved time and added value for clients.
"We gain so much value as a business when we give our staff more time to share their ideas, skills, and experience. Rather than assigning mundane administrative and data entry tasks, we can hand the workload over to capable AI. This means that our team members can channel their energy toward coming up with new ways to provide value for clients, all while meeting the commercial goals of the business."
Results
Raft automates and streamlines The Scarbrough Group's accounts payable process throughout the financial lifecycle. This ranges from direct invoice processing to automated approval workflows, and providing real-time visibility of invoices. Everything is effortlessly integrated with The Scarbrough Group's global CargoWise system as well as their accounting and internal payment systems.
The average processing time per agent per invoice was reduced from 4 minutes to 1 minute. This gave the finance team more time to focus on higher-value tasks, while also providing visibility into the underlying shipment data and payment cycles to manage cash flow and better customer service.
Specifically, the finance team achieved:
- 60% lower finance FTE spend: This saved millions in annual costs and 50,000 labor hours per year.
- Instant invoice processing turnaround: 75% of all invoices validated immediately, with exceptions automatically flagged and actioned against the shipment history in Raft, all aligned with the TMS.
- Full financial visibility: Comprehensive dashboards for shipment, customer, creditor, and team performance enabled leadership to make informed, data-driven decisions, highlighting numerous improvement areas.
"We gain so much value as a business when we give our staff more time to share their ideas, skills, and experience. Rather than assigning mundane administrative and data entry tasks, we can hand the workload over to capable AI. This means that our team members can channel their energy toward coming up with new ways to provide value for clients, all while meeting the commercial goals of the business."
"Trusting the tech was vital. It saved time, energy, and allowed us to focus on what we enjoy, not just typing into a system. The groundwork of data entry changed, and we've seen massive improvement in our team's livelihood."
This sentiment has been echoed by the entire finance team, who are now able to focus on more strategic tasks. For instance, Raft enables The Scarbrough Group to prioritize customer service resolutions instead of data entry, and ultimately allows their people to gain more satisfaction from their work while still providing customers and vendors with excellent service.
"We gain so much value as a business when we give our staff more time to share their ideas, skills, and experience. Rather than assigning mundane administrative and data entry tasks, we can hand the workload over to capable AI. This means that our team members can channel their energy toward coming up with new ways to provide value for clients, all while meeting the commercial goals of the business."
"Trusting the tech was vital. It saved time, energy, and allowed us to focus on what we enjoy, not just typing into a system. The groundwork of data entry changed, and we've seen massive improvement in our team's livelihood."
In embracing Raft's AI-powered solutions, the finance team now enjoys the freedom to contribute innovative ideas and superior customer service, marking a transformative leap toward a future where technology enhances human capabilities. As Adam aptly put it, “I'm excited about what the future holds and where we can continue to go from here.”
Become more than
a freight forwarding partner.
Discover just how indispensable you can be.