Intelligent Audit
Reducing Transportation Costs Intelligently

Exorbitant pricing and unexpected transportation costs incurred in the shipping process are a fact of life for today’s shippers. With an estimated 4.6 trillion dollars of revenue at stake, there is a growing need for more proactive solutions to offset the impact of rising transportation costs, as companies strive to satisfy customer demands for free shipping and quicker deliveries thanks to Amazon. Addressing these concerns, a leading supply-chain technology company, Intelligent Audit (IA) has brought into play the automation of the audit and recovery process and a focus on data analytics to reduce transportation costs.

The New Jersey-based company provides Freight Audit and Recovery, Business Intelligence Reporting, Network Optimization, Carrier Contract Negotiation, and several other value-added services focused on optimizing and managing transportation spend. These solutions help shippers achieve a higher level of control with better analytical capabilities. “We feel like it’s our job here at Intelligent Audit to drive down the cost above everything else,” states Hannah Testani, COO of IA.

With 22 years of experience and collective expertise of a well-trained team, IA is hands down a highly favored industry expert trusted by the likes of Microsoft, 1-800-Flowers, and GNC. “At our core, we are a technology company,” deems Testani. IA’s solution provides an extensive cloud-based reporting portal that can be tailored to customer requirements, department necessities or functions, rendering a more transparent model of a company’s transportation activity and spends. The system helps shippers streamline the analysis of mass amounts of data to provide actionable business intelligence reports which can then be used to identify cost savings and improve internal processes. With IA, clients get a global, all-mode transportation audit, visibility, and freight payment partner.

It provides its clients with a global, all-mode transportation audit, recovery, freight payment, and business intelligence reporting partner

Another distinctive feature that separates IA from competitors is its ability to track every shipment and provide clients with real-time visibility to exceptions and discrepancies via its cloud-based reporting portal. Transportation data can be leveraged to drive process improvements and can even be used to understand how delivery exceptions can affect customer retention. Most shippers are unaware that transportation data can be useful in driving increases in both the top and bottom line.

A recent case study shows how IA’s proprietary technology and network optimization capabilities served a primarily ground-mode shipper, based in Pennsylvania, by recommending a new distribution centre in the US. By examining the shipper’s data, IA identified Nevada as the optimal location for a new distribution centre which would result in five million dollars spends reduction. Additionally, IA analyzed all the shipper’s transportation spend and created a zone skipping strategy where the customer would send truckloads of product (4,000 boxes in one vehicle) to a carrier hub IA identified, three times a week. This provided them with “one-day footprint” for delivery, corresponding to the “Amazon effect” of delivering the products within the shortest scheduled time and significantly reduced their transportation spend. This resulted in the customer retaining consumers, along with gaining new ones for the faster delivery service.

“Our customers are very diverse in their technological capabilities,” continues Testani as IA proceeds to dispatch its solutions to shippers who are still struggling to understand their data and are unable to drive down costs. The company is also expanding its products across numerous verticals. The most exciting new project in the works is a plan to develop and leverage blockchain technology. IA believes this new technology will help standardize carrier invoicing and introduce a thorough, consistent way for all parties to better manage communication, visibility, invoicing, dispute resolution, and payments.