In the days leading up to its legendary Thanksgiving parade Macy’s made the headlines not because of the holiday season, but instead for the more than $150 million in parcel shipping expenses an employee hid over an extended period – an amount comparable to the company’s net income in 2023 according to The New York Times. As a result, a stalwart of the retail industry had to postpone its quarterly earnings and revise financial statements going back nearly three years, a nightmare for the leadership of any business, let alone that of a publicly-traded company.
At Reveel, we’re more than familiar with the lack of transparency that has clouded the parcel shipping function for decades. With every shipment being in essence an ad hoc event and costs being determined by a wide range of constantly changing variables – from surcharges to new rules on zones and fees – we set out to give shippers real time visibility over their data and the ability to proactively save money when we created Reveel’s Shipping Intelligence Platform.
Shippers have used it to radically decrease their parcel shipping costs, but we wanted to provide shippers with even more capabilities – specifically around the ability not only to more effectively analyze their data with powerful analytics and act on the business intelligence within it, but also to utilize those findings across the business and in conjunction with their ERP and financial systems of record.
The result of that effort was our Analytics Hub, a fully embedded BI environment within our platform that we introduced in October. Notably, some of the features within it were created to prevent the very situation that occurred at Macy’s, and include tools for:
- Financial Governance and Control: The accruals management tools enable businesses to proactively manage their financials by setting thresholds and alerts for unusual expense activities. This proactive approach allows for timely interventions before minor discrepancies escalate into significant financial issues.
- Real-Time Expense Tracking and Accruals: Continuous monitoring ensures that costs are captured as they are incurred, that anomalies are detected promptly, and that organizations are able to prevent unauthorized or erroneous entries from going unnoticed.
- Automated Data Integration: Analytics Hub integrates seamlessly with various financial, ERP and business intelligence systems used by businesses and carriers – ensuring that all expense data is automatically captured and recorded. Automation reduces the risk of manual errors and omissions, which can lead to significant financial discrepancies.
- Advanced Analytics and Reporting: The ability to see expenses across different periods, regions, and carriers enables companies to identify unusual patterns or spikes in costs, facilitating early detection of potential issues.
- Enhanced Accountability and Transparency: Access controls and audit trails ensure that any modifications to expense records are logged and can be promptly reviewed.
Importantly, mistakes happen in business and life – a legendary brand like Macy’s will undoubtedly put this in its rear-view mirror – but with the right technology in place shippers and operational leaders can rest assured that they are backed up and protected with alerts that identify issues before they evolve into problems. And that’s something all of us can always use.
More information on the Analytics Hub can be here.
