Process automation case study using the ROI-FIRST approach
Pre-Settlement Analysis for Transport Providers
Industry
Transportation & Logistics - Direct-Sales Distribution
Date
Apr 16, 2026
Recommendation
✅ Automate
Time saved
From 11.6 h to 1.2 h per pre-settlement
ROI Automation, recommendation and costs
COP
currency $:
Level of Automation | % Automation | Cases x Month | Time x Case (hours) |
|---|---|---|---|
High - Excel import into a data object, conditional rules for intermediation values by region and delivery type, and automatic dispatch of each region's data to its transport provider. Only the initial validation and the comparison value entry remain manual | 90 | 8 | 11.55 |
Personas Involucradas | Nivel de Cargo Promedio | Average Monthly Salary | Real Company Cost with Benefits |
|---|---|---|---|
2 | Mixed: Senior Analyst (Level 4, x1), Junior Analyst/Assistant (Level 5, x1) | 2.454.545 | 3.763.555 |
Monthly Operational Cost | Annual Operational Cost | Estimated Monthly Savings |
|---|---|---|
2.069.955 | 24.839.460 | 1.862.960 |
Estimated Annual Savings | Year 1 Investment | Net Benefit Year 1 |
|---|---|---|
22.355.514 | 10.170.000 | 12.185.514 |
Cumulative Net Benefit 3 Years | FTE Equivalente Liberado |
|---|---|
38.536.542 | 0.55 |
Power in Numbers
120
ROI Year 1 (%)
5.5
Payback (months)
2.2
Cost/Benefit ratio
✅ Automate
90% of this process is automatable. The work is repetitive, rule-based and already validated: the organization had built part of the automation with a previous vendor before it stalled. Today it consumes 0.55 FTE and COP $24,839,460 per year, for COP $22,355,514 in annual savings against a COP $10,170,000 Year 1 investment, a 120% ROI with a 5.5-month payback. The financial case is solid but not the main argument. The real cost is upstream of cash flow: until 20 providers receive their adjusted values, nobody invoices, and the client cannot be billed. And the process depends on one person; if she is absent, collections stop. The pre-invoice time is still unmeasured and was left out of the calculation, so the figures are conservative.
Signs of inefficiency detected
High manual follow-up: each pre-settlement is reviewed value by value for up to 20 transport providers, and every adjusted file is sent by hand. Cash-flow bottleneck: any delay in sending the adjusted values to providers delays their invoices and, in turn, the invoice to the client. Critical dependency on one person: if the person responsible for pre-settlements is absent, the billing cycle stops and cash flow is immediately at risk. Error risk: intermediation values change by region and delivery type, applied manually from memory. Unknown real time: the pre-invoice step that follows the pre-settlement is not measured. No traceability: there is no record of what values were sent to which provider and when. A parallel inefficiency was identified in daily service indicators, where 3 coordinators spend about one hour each per day consolidating reports for 24 regions.