Making New Export Operations Commercially Viable
A major Brisbane logistics operator was standing up a new export line that couldn't have run on a paper-based process and still turned a profit. An AI-powered Power Platform solution made the operation commercially viable from day one.
The Situation
A major Brisbane logistics operator was launching a new export operation - a greenfield line of business rather than an existing process in need of optimisation. The question wasn’t “how do we make what we already do faster?” It was “how do we stand this up in a way that actually makes money?”
Export operations of this kind traditionally run on paper-based or manual data entry processes. Warehouse staff transcribe information from labels on export goods - product descriptions, weights, batch numbers, customer details - into documentation for VGM certificates and export manifests. It works, but it’s slow, error-prone, and labour-intensive.
On the slim margins this new operation was designed to run on, a paper-based process wasn’t commercially viable. The admin overhead alone would eat the profit. They needed a digital operation from day one, purpose-built for the volumes and accuracy the business case required.
What We Built
We built a comprehensive yard management solution on Microsoft Power Platform, using AI Builder for OCR text recognition. The solution had three components:
A mobile capture app - warehouse staff photograph labels directly from their phones, and AI Builder extracts the text automatically: product descriptions, weights, batch numbers, customer details. What would have taken minutes of typing happens in seconds of pointing a camera.
A central management console - supervisors see everything happening across the yard in real time. Status of every shipment, every container, every document.
Automated workflows - VGM certificate and export manifest generation happens automatically from the captured data. SharePoint and Office 365 integration means every document lands where it needs to be, with a complete audit trail attached.
The system was designed to match the commercial model of the new operation - not to fit the old way of working.
The Result
The new export operation launched commercially viable from day one. Against a benchmark of what a manual or paper-based alternative would have cost, the digital approach delivered:
75% less admin time, 30% higher data accuracy, and 50% faster container packing than a manual equivalent would have required.
The mobile interface was adopted within days - not weeks, not months. When technology fits how people actually work, they don’t need a lot of convincing. Automated VGM certificate generation streamlined compliance work from the outset. Complete audit trails strengthened regulatory adherence.
The solution is now being positioned for expansion to other facilities across the operator’s global network - a system built for one Brisbane operation that’s proven scalable.
“Secure Minded took the time to truly understand our complex export operations and responded with brilliant, innovative solutions. Their team was incredibly responsive throughout the project, available when we needed them and were the perfect guide to the technology we needed. I would highly recommend Secure Minded to any organisation looking for a partner who combines deep business understanding, creative problem-solving and are a pleasure to deal with.”
- Project Manager, Logistics
