The Hidden Cost of Unstructured Data in Supply Chain
Supply chain professionals know this truth all too well: chaos isn’t an edge case—it’s the norm. Invoices arrive as PDFs. Purchase orders come via email. And somewhere in the back office, someone is cutting and pasting data into a system that wasn’t designed to handle this mess.
If you’re nodding along, you’re not alone. This is the reality for most industries operating at scale. The systems we rely on—ERPs, CRMs, marketplaces—were built to handle structured data. But today, over 80% of data exchanged in supply chains is unstructured.
That gap between what your system can handle and what your partners actually send? That’s where value is lost.
The Real Problem: Misaligned Tools and Behavior
We often think of software as the solution to inefficiency, but much of it does the opposite. When tools fail to meet users where they are—emailing, forwarding files, or working off spreadsheets—the tools create more friction than they solve.
In the supply chain, this mismatch manifests in three key ways:
The Paper Trail Problem
Most critical communication happens outside structured systems. Whether it’s a broker forwarding a shipment confirmation or a vendor emailing a rate update, the data sits in a document that isn’t immediately actionable.The Long Tail of Integration
Your largest partners might have robust APIs, but the small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that make up the majority of supply chain networks? They’re still on Excel and PDFs. For them, “integration” looks like sending an email attachment.The Manual Effort Tax
Without tools that can handle unstructured data at scale, the burden falls to people. Back offices become data translators, spending their days copying, pasting, and cleaning information just to keep things moving.
This isn’t just inefficient—it’s unsustainable.
What if Software Stopped Fighting the User?
The solution isn’t to ask users to change their behavior. It’s to build tools that work the way people work today.
This was the insight behind bem: a platform that doesn’t care if your data arrives as a PDF, an Excel file, or an API payload. Bem transforms whatever you throw at it into a format your system can actually use.
Here’s what we learned along the way:
Unstructured Data Isn’t the Enemy
PDFs, emails, and spreadsheets aren’t going anywhere. Instead of fighting these formats, we built bem to embrace them. With AI-powered transformation pipelines, we turn messy, real-world data into clean, structured outputs at scale.Seamless Beats Smart
Most “intelligent” software solutions focus on replacing the user. We designed bem to support them. Whether it’s automating data extraction from a 10-page invoice or classifying thousands of incoming emails, our goal is to make the user’s job easier—not more complicated.Collaboration Starts With Connection
Supply chains thrive on collaboration, but collaboration only works when systems can talk to each other. Bem bridges the gap between the unstructured world of your partners and the structured world of your software.
Reimagining Supply Chain Workflows
Imagine this future:
A logistics coordinator forwards a shipment confirmation email to your bem-powered pipeline. Seconds later, your system has parsed the details, matched them to a purchase order, and triggered the next step in the workflow.
An SMB supplier drags and drops a PDF invoice into your portal. Behind the scenes, bem transforms it into your ERP’s preferred format—no additional steps required.
Your back office staff spends zero time on data entry and 100% of their time solving real problems.
This isn’t just possible—it’s happening today. From procurement to logistics, bem is helping companies reclaim the time and resources lost to unstructured data.
Toward a New Standard in Supply Chain Software
The tools we build shape the industries we serve. Supply chain software must evolve beyond rigid systems and manual workarounds. It’s time for tools that meet users where they are—messy formats and all—and eliminate friction at every turn.
At bem, we’re not just building software; we’re building a new standard for how supply chains operate. If your workflows feel like they’re stuck in the past, let us show you what’s possible.
Schedule a demo today and see how bem can help you turn chaos into clarity.