Kuehne + Nagel Accelerates Implementation of INTTRA eInvoice Solution

JOC Staff |

PARSIPPANY, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--INTTRA, the world’s largest multi-carrier e-commerce network for ocean shipping, today announced that Kuehne + Nagel, one of the world's leading logistics companies, has accelerated its global implementation of INTTRA eInvoice—an electronic invoice presentment and dispute management solution for ocean shipping. Kuehne + Nagel was the first company to adopt INTTRA’s electronic invoicing and Automatch technologies, and their global implementation successes have helped drive the adoption of e-Invoicing across the shipping industry.

INTTRA eInvoice is distinguished from other multi-industry electronic invoicing solutions due to a unique set of capabilities that specifically address the complexities of ocean freight invoices. A key capability is INTTRA Automatch, which electronically matches invoices to freight statements (accruals) and, if necessary, automatically initiates invoice disputes using a set of pre-established business rules for each organization.

After beginning the implementation of INTTRA eInvoice in December 2011, Kuehne + Nagel is now in production with six INTTRA network carriers in the United States and is working on implementations with two more carriers in six additional countries. Adopting INTTRA’s eInvoice solution has reduced Kuehne + Nagel’s internal processing costs and provided earlier visibility into ocean freight liabilities. Additionally, INTTRA Automatch has enabled Kuehne + Nagel to systematically identify and resolve disputes faster, resulting in immediate savings and improved invoice accuracy from their ocean carrier partners.

“Kuehne + Nagel recognized the benefits of moving the industry toward modernization and automation, and as such, we are heavily committed to pursuing a global e-Invoicing rollout with our carriers,” said Otto Schacht, Executive Vice President, Global Seafreight at Kuehne + Nagel. “Our corporate strategy is to move to electronic invoicing with the top twenty carriers in our top forty countries. By using INTTRA eInvoice, including Automatch, we have been able to increase efficiency and collaborate in a significantly more informed way with our carriers.”

As part of its global e-Invoicing rollout, Kuehne + Nagel required a solution to compare and match freight statements and invoice data from its carriers. Previously, this required significant manual effort since freight statements include different identifiers that are not easily matched to final invoices. Kuehne + Nagel can now speed and simplify this process by using INTTRA Automatch to electronically compare freight statements with corresponding invoices, and automatically initiate disputes based on pre-established rules.

“By using INTTRA eInvoice’s Automatch intelligence, we’ve proven that an accruals-based freight forwarder can use technology instead of manual effort, no matter what the volume, to match and track invoices,” said Wai Wong, Vice President of Seafreight Processes, Systems and Training for North America at Kuehne + Nagel. “Now with INTTRA Automatch, we’ve uncovered the opportunity to clean up our data at the source as well. All of this contributes to improving the rate of invoices that can be automatically matched and processed with confidence.”

“Our long-standing relationship with Kuehne + Nagel illustrates what’s possible with INTTRA eInvoice and Automatch. The world’s top freight forwarders, carriers and shippers are demonstrating how the benefits of e-Invoicing can extend beyond cost reduction, and also drive greater speed, accuracy and customer satisfaction,” said Ken Bloom, CEO of INTTRA. “INTTRA looks forward to playing a key role in Kuehne + Nagel’s progressive e-Invoicing initiative and working together to accelerate global adoption of this much-needed technology.”

Additional Resources

- Learn more about the INTTRA’s eInvoice solution here.

- Connect with INTTRA via Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

About INTTRA

INTTRA is the world’s largest, multi-carrier e-commerce network for the ocean shipping industry. INTTRA professionals work with 49 leading carriers and NVOCCs, 109 software alliance partners, as well as their customers, to streamline and standardize their shipping processes worldwide through a network of more than 220,000 shipping professionals. Over 525,000 container orders are initiated on the INTTRA platform each week, representing more than 18 percent of global ocean container trade.

About Kuehne + Nagel

With approximately 62,500 employees at more than 1000 locations in over 100 countries, the Kuehne + Nagel Group is one of the world's leading logistics companies. Its strong market position lies in the seafreight, airfreight, contract logistics and overland businesses, with a clear focus on providing IT-based integrated logistics solutions. Further information can be found at www.kuehne-nagel.com.