Oil Logistics: the Highest Level of Data Exchange Fidelity - case study
VARO Energy uses iGOS Data Exchange to communicate with customers and suppliers
In 2014, Swiss-based petroleum company VARO Energy experienced a huge jump in profits after it had acquired 45 percent of the Bayernoil refining company along with the sales buiness of various tank storage facilities in southern Germany. To make sure that day-to-day operations would run smoothly from day one after the takeover, software company Implico set up a complex network of data connections in just a few weeks. Since then, VARO has benefited from the extremely high data quality and speed of the order and shipping data transferred between the company's headquarters in Cham and all of its customers and suppliers.
As is often the case with takeovers, there was a real sense of urgency to get everything completed as quickly as possible. Within just eight weeks, Implico had set up all the communication links in its data center that were needed to deal with the new business operations in southern Germany. Three companies were involved at that point: VARO itself, Bayernoil, and OMV, from whom the company had acquired the refinery shares and the sales operation.
Because VARO's business structure is continually changing as the company continues to experience strong growth, regular adjustments have become a fact of life. For example, in late 2015 the company acquired several additional oil companies. Implico expanded the existing communications network at very short notice to include a multiplicity of additional loading points, customers and suppliers.
Over 20 petroleum companies in Germany are now exchanging order and loading data with VARO every minute of the day via iGOS. In January 2016 alone, iGOS handled some 22,000 tank truck loads and 2,000 railcar loads at 31 locations - equivalent to a volume of around half a billion liters of petroleum product.
Standardized data sets from every site
This is how it works in practice: a tank truck loaded with 36,000 liters of freshly refined diesel sets off from the Bayernoil refinery in Vohburg. At the exit, the driver swipes his card through a reader, which initiates printing of the loading data. The data, which includes items such as quantity, time of day, driver and contract number, is sent to the Implico data center together with the data from other loads. Before iGOS submits the data to VARO, it passes through a number of automated processes, which are monitored by Implico to ensure the quality of the data. Monitoring covers, for example, reviewing the contract and checking that the data has been converted in accordance with VARO's specification. If necessary, a copy of the loading data is also sent to VARO's customer.
'Each of the networked depots that we deliver to or collect from sends its data to Implico using different encodings and different formats,' says Daniel Wicki, IT Manager at VARO. 'Implico processes this data and sends it to us in a standardized format.'
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