Customer Service Process Improvement

SANDHYA MARUVANDA

*** ******* *****, **** ****, SC 29715 Email : ********@*****.*** Phone : 704-***-****

TRANSPORTATION AND LOGISTICS PROFESSIONAL

A quality focused and hard working professional with 10+ years of experience in supporting inland transportation

activities and analyzing processes to optimize costs and ensure quality service. Combine comprehensive knowledge of

standard transportation and operational practices with the ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts and draw

conclusions. Ability to interpret raw data into actionable opportunities for improvement. Productive, can work independently or

as part of a team.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

SAP Process Improvement Attention to Detail

Accurate Reporting Customer Resolution Quality Focus

Analysis & Data Mining Account Reconciliation Business Acumen

WORK EXPERIENCE

Maersk Inc., Charlotte, NC [2003 – current]

One of the world’s largest container shipping companies.

Accounts Receivable: 10/2010-Current

Customer Resolutions Specialist: 10/2010 – present

• Root cause analysis by overall inspection of key clients and at risk customer accounts by analyzing ocean

freight and inland disputes, short pays and reconciliation of their accounts by interaction and effective relationship with

internal departments of sales, dispatch, customer service collections, and other cross functional teams.

• Providing functional expertise in support of the Account Receivable disputes process. Investigation and

resolution of post and pre invoice disputes by rate audit, contract interpretation, and system correction for container

detention and demurrage as well as ocean freight that greatly improved invoice accuracy and receivables.

• Analysis and research of available information of service contracts, payments, invoice verification and reasons

for invoice charges in different company systems and SAP.

• Exceptional handling of escalated disputes and guiding outsourced team for complicated disputes by

interaction with dispatch, customer service, equipment and collections teams. Number of such exceptional handling

disputes reduced from 70-80 to 2-3 per day.

• My suggestions for process improvement/changes to improve Detention payment recovery, invoice accuracy,

reduction of waivers and dispute turn time were implemented successfully resulting in $1.6 million saving.

• In-depth knowledge of A/R processes including invoicing, disputes, refunds, repostings, credit validation, write-offs

and account reconciliation.

Accounts Payable: 06/2009-09/2010

Specialist - Liner Operations Cluster Finance & Cost Control: 01/2010-9/2010

• Analysis and data mining of unpaid invoices and purchase orders of terminal vendors like APMT, SSA, TSI,

Horizon, PNCT, Maher, GPA, SCPA making required corrections.

• Creation/Amendment of missing/incorrect purchase orders per requests from different desks such as Finance

Efficiency, Payables, Marine operations, etc. because they are flagged as critical and must be accomplished on short

notice.

• Purchase orders for wharf age, lashings, storage, demurrage, royalty etc. for important vendors.

• Reconciliation of vendor accounts by pulling data from various systems in SAP and by referring to system

tools, analyzing contract terms.

• Clear up complex Goods Receipt/Invoice Receipt mismatches and workflows which are not done by

outsourced team.

• Webex and weekly conference calls with outsourced team. Trained outsourced team to do multiple purchase

order upload and vendor specific purchase order creation.

PO Creation Specialist: 06/2009 – 01/2010

• Creation of purchase orders and Goods Receipts for Equipment/Reefer and Container Yard related expense

types in SAP.

• Same day processing of up to 100 invoices and clearance of Goods Receipt/Invoice Receipt discrepancies.

• Active participation in improvement and alignment of invoice validation process .

• Completion of various projects including quarterly updating and distributing business continuity plan, routing

updates and invoice validation and processing.

• Training outsourced team on creation of purchase order process.

Inland Operations: 08/2003-06/2009

Rail Operations Specialist: 07/2006 – 06/2009

• Tracking containers of strategic accounts like Toyota, Microsoft and others and improved delivery performance by

being in timely contact with rail-roads and dispatch groups for in time interchange and delivery of sensitive cargo.

• Train planning for trains departing Los Angeles with optimum usage based on vessel arrivals. Updating rail car

balance weekly.

• Reporting extra cost of misrouted railcars out of Los Angeles to management.

• Investigation of aging of containers resulted in saving of about 5-8 dwell days of containers on an average.

• Active User of company system to identify rail cargo at risk of missing vessel cutoff, aged cargo, volume

prediction etc.

• Identified saving of $ 1,963,304 through analysis of rail related activities,.

• Created reports such as Lane analysis by volume, transit time and cost, train performance, hub counts,

train schedules, cost differential for different rail hubs as required by management.

• Have prepared power point presentations and data sheets for semi-annual performance meetings with Toyota

since 2006 to be presented by senior management.

• Carrying out Los Angeles, Houston and Tacoma related activities as required by management.

Routing Analyst: 06/2005 – 06/2006

• Updating routings in company systems.

• Attending to up to 70-80 North America inland routing requests received by telex or phone and providing optimum

routing solutions with minimum cost and transit time.

• System maintenance with correct rates and routings with reference to the rail road schedules and contracts.

• Correcting routing system errors and monthly query statistics. Brought the error level down to a single digit from

4 digits, a record low of previous 2 years.

Rail Payables Analyst : 10/2004 – 05/2005

• To segregate EDI rejected invoices of different rail roads.

• To change rates in company system per contract.

• To check and change rates of the invoices.

• To pay corrected invoices with accuracy and in timely manner in the system. Have a record of paying 750-800

invoices per day with no sacrifice in accuracy.

• Reconciliation of monthly spread sheets by referring to various system tools, analysis and contract rates.

Data Analyst – Equipment Reconciliation Centre : 08/2003 – 09/2004

• To clear errors in movements of containers in company systems - in North America and Canada – by road or rail

for all types of moves namely import, export, domestic or positioning, by referring to various system tools and analysis.

• To release Maersk, Safamarine and third party vessels after ascertaining the below.

a. Update Maersk systems as per APMT report/ Baplie/ IOS report/ faxed paper work.

b. Check and rectify container load/discharge details.

c. Check and correct bay plans.

d. Talk to ports for required reports, vessel completion status, faulty slot positions and rectification etc.

e. Correct Out Of Gauge, hazardous material and slot positions in company’s systems as per reports.

f. Communication to respective ports to correct faults detected.

g. Update system on generator sets and empty containers movements as per reports.

During the tenure at Maersk, became proficient in more than 30 company systems and worked in SAP system for

Reporting to Purchase (RTP) since 2009.

Before 2003, worked in India from 1975 in different capacities in chemical and construction industries.

EDUCATION

• Bachelor's Degree in Architecture [B.Arch.] from M.S. University, India

• Microsoft office [Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Outlook]

• Auto-CAD Proficiency certification in Auto-CAD release 9.

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