The Challenge
Apex Manufacturing, a mid-sized industrial parts supplier, was struggling with a fragmented order processing workflow. Customer orders came in through multiple channels—email, phone, web portal, and EDI systems—but were being manually entered into their legacy ERP system by a team of data entry specialists. This process was not only time-consuming but prone to costly errors.
Each order required 15-20 manual data entry steps, and approximately 8-12% of orders contained errors that had to be caught by quality control and corrected before production could begin. These errors cascaded through their supply chain, causing production delays that averaged 2-3 weeks per order. Customers were frustrated, and the company was losing competitive bids to faster competitors.
The root cause was clear: Apex needed to automate their order intake and processing pipeline. However, their fragmented systems and the complexity of integrating legacy and modern platforms made this a daunting task for their internal IT team.
The Solution
Agentive Integrations built an intelligent order processing platform that centralized all order channels and automated the extraction and validation of order data. The solution consisted of three core components:
Intelligent Data Extraction: We deployed AI-powered document processing that could accurately extract order information from emails, PDFs, and scanned documents. The system learned to recognize different order formats and automatically normalized the data into a standard format, eliminating the need for manual transcription.
Order Validation and Enrichment: Once extracted, the data was automatically validated against Apex's business rules (minimum quantities, authorized customers, product availability) and enriched with additional information like pricing, lead times, and production schedules. This pre-validation eliminated 95% of errors before they reached the ERP system.
Seamless ERP Integration: The validated orders were automatically routed into Apex's ERP system via secure API connections, eliminating the final manual handoff. The system also provided real-time feedback to customers about order confirmation status, giving them visibility into their orders in hours instead of days.
The Results
The impact was transformational:
Average order processing time dropped from 3 weeks to just 3 business days. This acceleration eliminated the primary source of customer complaints and allowed Apex to promise faster lead times than their competitors—a key competitive advantage in their market.
Error rates plummeted to below 1%, virtually eliminating rework costs and quality control delays. The data entry team was retrained for higher-value work, including customer relationship management and order analysis, improving both employee satisfaction and customer service quality.
Most importantly, Apex's market position improved dramatically. They won three major contracts in the first quarter after implementation, directly attributed to their newfound ability to handle rapid order turnarounds. The return on investment was achieved within the first 3 months of operation.