Customer story · 4 min read

From email and Excel to one back office.

For Milder Supply Chain, we built a back office that supports the entire administrative process — including straightforward access from an iPad.

By Nohou

Lots of email, manual work and Excel files

Milder Supply Chain organises the transport of empty containers back to China. Every shipment involves a precise process of requests, bookings, documents, deadlines, purchase invoices and sales invoices.

Until recently, much of that work happened by email. Staff also maintained several Excel files and copied information manually. It worked, but it demanded a lot of attention and made it difficult to see at a glance what needed to happen that day.

The team celebrates the launch of the new Milder Supply Chain back office with cake — The launch on 15 September 2026, together with Robert Milder and the Milder Supply Chain team.

First understand how the work really happens

We did not start with screens or technology. We first walked through the day-to-day process with the people doing the work.

Which messages come in? How do you know which file an email belongs to? Which details need to be copied? When can a file move to the next stage? And which deadlines must never be missed?

That operational reality became the basis for the new back office.

The working day on one screen

The dashboard shows what needs attention straight away: new messages to review, drafts ready to send, files approaching their cut-off and invoices that need to be processed or paid.

Where the day used to start in the inbox, separate Excel files and the employee’s memory, the work is now brought together in one clear view.

Milder Supply Chain dashboard showing the work for today — Today’s work on one screen: review items, deadlines, invoices and payments.

Less searching and retyping

Incoming emails are recognised as a new booking, file update or invoice. The application finds the relevant file and extracts the important details.

The employee remains in control. A suggested file match is only processed after confirmation. A supplier invoice received by email can also be linked directly to the correct file and recorded as a purchase invoice.

An email being matched to the correct shipment file — The application recognises a file update, extracts the details and suggests the correct match.

From request to sales invoice

Every file follows the same route: from request and booking through documentation and finance to closure. Each stage has a clear checklist, so everyone can see what has been done, what is still missing and who can take the next step.

The booking proposal is built from the information in the file. References, parties, route, cargo and containers are ready to copy or export. At the end of the process, the administrative steps for invoicing are handled in the same place.

Shipment file with five fixed process stages — Every file follows the same visible route, with a checklist for each stage.

The work can continue on the move

The new way of working is not tied to a desk with several monitors. From an iPad, an employee can easily review, confirm or move something forward.

That makes the operation less dependent on one place. Work can continue when someone is travelling or away from their usual computer.

Automatically prepared booking proposal with container list — The booking proposal is built from the file and is ready to copy or export.

Live — and time for cake

Together, we built and configured the complete back office. Not as a system that staff have to adapt to, but as support for how the work is actually done.

The application officially went live on 15 September 2026. We celebrated the moment at Nohou with Robert Milder and the team. Most importantly, the daily operation now has more calm, clarity and continuity. And because our colleague William Kraaijeveld happened to be celebrating his birthday as well, there was one more good reason for cake.

Let’s look at your process together