Confidential
The Problem
For an enterprise, receiving sales orders via email is highly problematic, primarily because it requires manual data entry into core business systems (like an ERP or accounting software).
This manual process introduces severe risks related to accuracy, efficiency, cost, and customer experience.
High Risk of Human Error
Data entry mistakes: The potential for typos when an employee manually transcribes order details (product codes, quantities, pricing, customer addresses, etc.) is the individual largest issue. Even the smallest error can lead to shipping the wrong item, billing incorrectly, or missing deadlines. Inconsistent data: Order arriving in varying formats, leads to miss crucial information or misinterpret terms, creating discrepancies between the original order and the data recorded in the system.
Operational Inefficiency and Delays
Time Consuming: Employees waste significant time on tedious, repetitive manual data entry tasks, distracting their attention from higher value activities like customer service. Slow Processing: Manual entry slows down the entire order-to-cash cycle. Orders can’t be processed until they are accurately recorded, which delays everything from inventory allocation to shipping. Scalability issues: The volume of email orders increases with the business growth, requiring the hiring of more staff just to operate data entry.
Poor Customer Experience
Delayed confirmations: Customers wait longer to receive order confirmations and shipping updates, because of slow manual processing. Incorrect Shipments: Order errors result in incorrect or delayed shipments, damaging customer trust and loyalty.
The solution
Automated Order Capture: Optical Character Recognition (OCR) & AI
To eliminate delays and errors caused by manual data entry, we implemented a cross-functional automated order-capture system powered by OCR, large language models (LLM), and intelligent email processing.
At its basis, the solution uses an AI agent that continuously monitors designated inboxes through an IMAP connection. When a new email containing a potential sales order arrives, the agent automatically retrieves and analyzes its attachments (PDF, Word, Excel, scanned images, etc.).
Once the document is captured, the system applies OCR to convert any non-digital text into editable content. This text is then processed by a LLM, which accurately extracts the required fields, such as order numbers, quantities, prices and customer information.
The extracted data is automatically validated and structured in JSON, ready for seamless integration into the company’s ERP system. This dramatically reduces human intervention while increasing processing speed and accuracy.
The platform is built with a resilient, high-concurrency backend developed in Clojure, using a hexagonal and modular architecture ideal for asynchronous data flows.
Key Capabilities:
- AWS-based deployment for scalability and reliability.
- Intelligent email classifier that identifies and filters emails containing valid sales orders.
- Multimodal and multi-LLM
The impact
The shift from manual email-based order entry to AI-powered automation delivers transformational operational and financial impact. By using Intelligent Document Processing (IDP), the system achieves near-perfect accuracy, eliminating human data-entry errors and dramatically reducing costly mistakes, chargebacks, and manual rework. Orders are extracted, validated, and structured within seconds, accelerating the entire Order-to-Cash (O2C) cycle from days to minutes. This speed directly improves cash flow and enables the enterprise to scale order volume significantly without increasing headcount, driving substantial cost efficiency.
Strategically, AI turns the sales-order function into a real-time, data-driven operation. Every order is immediately captured and synced with the ERP, providing full visibility into demand and preventing losses from overselling or stockouts. This continuous flow of structured data fuels predictive analytics that enhance inventory accuracy and optimize order routing, reducing logistics and operational costs.
The automation also elevates customer experience by enabling instant confirmations and accurate, proactive order-status updates. Faster, error-free fulfillment strengthens customer loyalty and provides a clear competitive advantage over organizations still reliant on slow, error-prone manual processes.
