Hellmann Worldwide Logistics

Hellmann Worldwide Logistics, a $4.5 billion global freight forwarder, sought a faster quote process

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The Challenge

At Hellmann Worldwide Logistics, quoting was one of the busiest parts of the business. Nearly 20 million shipments are handled
every year, and no two looked the same.

Some arrived in spreadsheets, others as PDF attachments, and more than a few as photos of handwritten notes. Requests were often written in different languages and sometimes bundled together, like those asking for the same shipment from several cities or comparing air and sea options.

Turning those requests into quotes meant their pricing team had to pick through each document, chase down missing details from customers, and then contact carriers for rates. Once the responses came back, everything had to be verified and reviewed by a human expert before an actual quote could be delivered.

The process was heavily manual, stretched across multiple systems. Worse, the team spent so much time on data entry that it took away from the consultative conversations that actually won business.

On top of that, every incoming request had to be triaged and sometimes re-routed if it wasn’t meant for the pricing team. Only then could the team start picking through documents, chasing details, and contacting carriers.

As a result, quoting was often very work- intensive and time-consuming, leading to delays. This was valuable time during which customers did not receive the service that the company prides itself on providing.

Several factors made the problem worse:

Inconsistent formats

Due to the different formats in which the requests were submitted, each one required extra time just to be read and re-entered.

Incomplete details

Missing dimensions, weights, or insurance requirements meant long back-and-forth exchanges before a quote could even begin.

Fragmented systems

Pricing data was available internally, but the steps to assemble and share quotes were scattered across email and multiple platforms.

Human bottlenecks

When volume spiked, the team was unable to respond quickly, which sometimes led to delays.

In an industry where speed is everything, Hellmann has actively sought to improve performance in order to offer customers even better service.

The challenge for Hellmann's quoting process arose from the varying data quality and the different ways in which requests could be
received. This meant that the pricing team had to switch back and forth between different systems. This was both very time-consuming and prone to errors, so they sought a solution that would make the quotation process easier and more efficient.

The work had to stay in the same place where sales teams already spent their time. So, they worked with Reindeer to build an Outlook plugin that became the front door for quoting.

The Solution

Today, the pricing team works with the add- on, which opens in Outlook’s right pane. It analyzes things like message content and attachments to pull out key shipment details such as addresses, materials, and required dates, and structures them for quick review.

This shift freed the pricing team from time-consuming manual data extraction, giving them time to focus on providing expert guidance through complex shipping scenarios.

Reindeer does more than extract information from emails. It gives Hellmann’s pricing team a way to keep requests organized and visible as they move forward.

→ Each request is automatically classified and color-coded so status is clear at a glance: green for success, red for failure, orange for pending.

→ As requests move forward, the system tracks them from pending to in progress to completion.

→ Reps can edit, add missing details, or return a request to the original sender with comments.

→ A full audit trail shows who created, edited, approved, or rejected each request.

→ Filtering and search make it easy to find items by type, status, name, or date.

The pricing team at Hellmann can be confident in Reindeer’s accuracy because their agent is also designed to flag missing information. In other words, it knows what it doesn’t know.

For example, if a shipping address is missing, the system would ask the rep how to proceed. The rep might tell it to use the last shipment’s address, and the agent will find and apply it. This feedback loop keeps accuracy high while giving the sales team full visibility and an auditable trail into how decisions are made.

Reindeer and Hellmann built and trained the system quickly. With about 20 sample requests, the Reindeer team mapped the quoting process and began testing.

Hellmann created a dedicated email inbox for training so the pricing team could interact with the agent in real time, providing feedback, and capturing edge cases as they occurred.

A dashboard tracked accuracy and speed, first as a testing center to communicate progress, and later as a production tool to monitor ongoing
performance.

Once the results were clear, the add-on moved into production. Today, the agent handles many customer interactions automatically, flags cases it cannot resolve, and passes them to the pricing or sales team.

Hellmann’s quoting process now is much more efficient, with consistent execution and a transparent record of every action.

"This project made it clear that AI is already practical. It helped us move faster and avoid mistakes, and it showed the team what's possible when you rethink a process like quoting. Once you see that kind of impact, it's easy to imagine how Reindeer could improve other parts of our logistics processes too."

Dominik Schindler, Head of Innovation, Hellmann Worldwide Logistics