API solution improves ‘pick up’ efficiency for Delhivery
Published: Feb 2025
Best in Class Treasury Solution in India
Highly Commended Winner
Delhivery Limited
Vivek Pabari
Senior Vice President Corporate Finance
Delhivery Limited is a logistics company that provides services to e-commerce businesses in India.
The challenge
Delhivery services over 18,600 pin-codes across India through its 4,000 centres but the manual nature of the cash pickup poses many operational challenges:
Inadequate visibility – Delhivery’s central teams had limited real-time visibility on the status of visits and amount picked up by the cash pickup vendors across all its centres in India. The lack of a centralised platform created challenges in real-time monitoring and managing of cash pickup activities across the country.
Communication gaps – instances of miscommunication between cash pickup personnel and Delhivery teams were prevalent.
Manual and time-consuming reconciliation process – handwritten cash-deposit slips were used for manual reconciliation between cash picked up from the centre and the amount credited in Delhivery’s account which posed challenges in terms of accuracy.
The solution
Delhivery partnered with Deutsche Bank to develop an API-based, first-in-industry workflow solution to completely automate cash pickup and reconciliation process at Delhivery from its various centres across the country which would reduce the reliance on physical documents and digitise the cash pickup process. The solution includes an API-enabled Cash App – a mobile application that could be used by cash pickup vendors, Radiant and CMS, and a web portal – which provided a dashboard to Delhivery’s central teams to track and monitor cash pickups on a real-time basis. The Cash App also has geo-tagging functionality so that the Cash App pickup vendor’s visit could be detected using GPS. Currently this solution has been implemented in over 1,500 locations. The reduced paper-based workflow provides the following benefits:
Enhanced security and visibility – QR code scanning in the Cash App aligns pickup details, eliminating misalignment in total cash to be collected. The Web Portal offers centralised visibility with real-time tracking and slicing of data.
Cash executive (CE) tracking – the Cash App has geo-tagging functionality which ensures that the app gets activated only within 100 metres of the location. This helps in verification of CE visits and prevents miscommunication.
Instant reconciliation – the Cash App allows cash executives to update pickup status instantly, reducing time taken for reconciliation from T+1/2 to mere seconds.
Identity validation and fraud prevention – QR code scanning and OTP-based confirmation results in electronic handshake which prevents misalignments and fraud risks.
Best practice and innovation
Using API technology and the Cash App, the breakpoints in the process impacting efficiency, visibility and control have been removed making it a breakthrough innovative solution in a product offering that has been heavily logistics driven. Cash handover guided by data available in Delhivery systems along with an electronic handshake and collection reports eliminates the possibility of coordinated fraud.
Delhivery can confidently track and verify each transaction, fostering a higher level of trust in their cash management system. This is an industry-first deployment which has been designed to integrate on a real-time basis with Delhivery systems using APIs. The solution is vendor-agnostic and has been integrated with multiple vendors who are appointed to provide cash pickup services.
The solution is future-ready and scalable as the number of such delivery centres may continue to grow in the country, which serve as last mile points to reach the critical mass of new to e-commerce buyers.
Key benefits
Process efficiencies.
Increased automation.
Risk mitigated.
Improved visibility.
Errors reduced.
Manual intervention reduced.
Increased system connectivity.
Future-proof solution.
Exceptional implementation (budget/time).
“Our solution integrates cutting-edge technology into our traditionally manual and cumbersome process of cash management for logistics. By providing a centralised platform through Deutsche Bank’s Web Portal and an app for cash executives, we have transformed the operational workflow into a streamlined, secure and efficient system. The solution not only improves operational efficiency but also enhances security, leading to significant cost savings and improved client satisfaction,” says Vivek Pabari, Senior Vice President Corporate Finance.
The Adam Smith Awards Asia are the industry benchmark for best practice and innovation in corporate treasury. The 2024 awards attracted 406 nominations. To find out more please visit treasurytoday.com/adam-smith-awards-asia
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