When Inspired Pet Nutrition (IPN), a national pet nutrition brand in the UK, first reached out to us, they said they had the best kind of problem. By that, they meant that orders were pouring in, always good, but that every single one needed to be processed manually.
Their customer service team of seven was spending between 15 and 30 minutes per order just getting it into the system. That’s just not sustainable. We knew there had to be a better way. So we worked with IPN to build one.
What started as a single solution has become a product that could reshape how B2B businesses handle orders.
Sander van Duijn, Digital Transformation Expert, IPN
The background
IPN began as a family-run feed mill in Yorkshire in the UK, serving the farming community with traditional animal feed. Over time, the business made a big jump into pet nutrition, launching one of the UK’s first branded dry dog foods for retailers. This pivot marked the beginning of IPN’s transformation from agricultural supplier to consumer-facing pet food innovator.
IPN grew rapidly, introducing UK household names like Wagg and Harringtons, investing heavily in its own manufacturing and distribution, and consistently staying ahead of market trends. With that growth, though, comes processes developing organically, and over time, that can lead to an over-reliance on manual work. It was during a particularly busy period that IPN recognized how important it would be to work on their efficiency, especially considering their predicted growth, and so they reached out to us.
Louise Crossley, Group Finance Director, IPN
From a custom solution to a scalable product
Working side by side with IPN, we developed a solution to automate this repetitive work. That solution became OrderPilot, an AI-powered tool designed to take incoming orders from email and turn them into ERP-ready data, fast and accurately. What started as a tailor-made fix is now being shaped into a standalone product, because the problem IPN faced isn’t unique. Plenty of companies are still manually entering orders. We want to change that.
To make sure we delivered real value, we followed our tried-and-tested four-step approach: start by mapping the full business process and building a solid integration case, then automate the basics with RPA, add intelligence through AI, and finally loop back to optimize further. It’s a lean, iterative model that helps us go from problem to solution at speed, especially under pressure. The project kicked off in March 2025, with a go-live deadline in April. That’s tight, especially for something this ambitious. But we made it with a full working platform, custom UI, AI transformation engine, and integrations with IPN’s ERP systems, even one that didn’t have an API.
One of the reasons we hit the deadline was the close collaboration between our experts and theirs. While their IT manager provided crucial insight, the technical heavy lifting came from our side in the form of consultants, project leads, developers, tech directors, basically everyone on our team had a hand in bringing this to life.
Guus van Boom, Sales Manager
OrderPilot is worth it
The results? In terms of processing cost savings, it’s in the range of 60% to 80%, and the processing times themselves are 9x faster. The impact is very real and presents an obvious business case not only for IPN but for any other business that has manual processing, which is most of them.
Now we’re helping IPN take it to the next level through the development of key additions to the software, including validation and amendment automation. Those automations mean that checks within a business, like stock validation or order updates from customer emails, can all be automated. The ultimate goal? Keep removing friction. Keep freeing up time. Keep using AI in an impactful way.
We don’t just talk about AI, we build with it, experiment with it, and push it to solve real problems. We even have a dedicated AI task force dedicated to pushing our own work with the technology further. OrderPilot is a perfect example of that mindset in action. It’s smart tech, built by people, for businesses that want to work smarter and save money.
