By Roy Strasburger
SIGMA Tech Trends Workshop 2019
Best Practice Trends—How to Manage and Leverage Your Data to Make Better Business Decisions
November 12, 2019 Austin, TX— Staying on top of market evolution trends and disruptors is critical to keeping your business successful. During SIGMA’s 2019 Annual Conference November 4-6, 2019 in Austin, TX, petroleum marketers, distributors and suppliers addressed technology solutions at an education session entitled “Best Practice Trends—How to Manage and Leverage Your Data to Make Better Business Decisions.”
Moderated by Roy Strasburger, President of StrasGlobal, the leading provider of contract retail management services, the workshop panelists included Allison Wroe with PriceAdvantage; Drew Mize with PDI Software; and David Freese with Titan Cloud Software. The panel provided several technology/automation solutions across the supply chain to compete and stay relevant:
- Optimizing labor management
- Data integration across entire eco-system
- Modeling for customer buying patterns
- Data diagnostics and analytics
Check Engine Light
PriceAdvantage’s Director of Marketing Alison Wroe used the “Check Engine Light” metaphor to explain how data provides the health & status of your business—essentially integrating, monitoring and correlating data analytics across your eco-system provides guidance on actions to take. For example, knowing that there could be a correlation between Snickers and unleaded fuel pricing.
Let the data do its job
Addressing the question about how to successfully migrate systems and integrate across evolving M&A ecosystems, Drew Mize, EVP & GM for ERP Solutions at PDI reinforced how important it is to protect the integrity of your data, citing examples of significant shrink reduction, foodservice sales increases and labor savings when integrated systems are “allowed to do their job.”
Data/Triage/Fix
IoT Data from forecourt OEM devices coupled with anomaly detection / diagnostics can minimize and/or prevent unnecessary fueling position shut-downs, according to Titan Cloud Software CEO and Chief Product Officer Dave Freese. Best practice starts with data quality and classifying whether alarms/alerts are true or false positive to determine what action steps to take. Anomaly detection and root cause analytics determine immediate action and help reduced frequency and duration of issue. For example, is a dispenser or tank gauge providing false or misleading data? Why?
Bottom line, all agreed that insuring data integrity across the entire eco-system is critical to dealing with the full range of mega-trends impacting the petroleum and retail convenience supply chain.
For more information contact:
www.sigma.org
www.strasglobal.com
www.pdisoftware.com
www.priceadvantage.com
titancloud.com
Roy Strasburger is the President of StrasGlobal. For 35 years StrasGlobal has been the choice of global oil brands, distressed assets managers, real estate lenders and private investors seeking a complete, turn-key retail management solution from the most experienced team in the industry.
Contact him at roy@strasglobal.com.
Pictured left to right in above image: Drew Mize, PDI; Alison Wroe, PriceAdvantage; Roy Strasburger, StrasGlobal; David Freese, Titan Cloud Software