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As a fuel marketer and distributor, you must act quickly to keep up with the volatile marketplace. Margins are narrow, and fuel prices fluctuate constantly. At the same time, you must coordinate a fast-paced replenishment cycle and optimize deliveries. At the end of the day, actual deliveries rarely correspond to planned orders. To meet these challenges, you need business management software that can optimize the efficiency of your operations and processes and improve the accuracy of your forecasts. That’s where the SAP for Oil & Gas (SAP for O&G) solution portfolio can help. SAP for O&G helps fuel marketers and distributors like you automate key business processes and integrate information so you can sense and respond to marketplace changes and drive distribution excellence. Built on proven industry best practices, the SAP® solutions that comprise SAP for O&G integrate sales, finance, and distribution to streamline key business processes. They’re designed for midsize companies, which means they’re affordable, easy to implement, and intuitive for users, which helps you gain a quick return on your investment.
Optimize Fuel Sourcing and Replenishment
With SAP for O&G, you can coordinate the logistics of fuel transportation and replenishment, along with sourcing, invoicing, and billing, in a streamlined orderto- cash process. When a customer order or replenishment signal arrives, SAP software automatically checks your best sourcing and delivery options, taking into account inventory, pricing, and transportation availability, along with your customer’s credit and delivery constraints. This process results in a prescheduled delivery route and a best-buy situation, enabling exceptionbased processing and more – all in one software solution.
When it is time to deliver, the integrated fuel distribution functionality can help you optimize scheduling and increase fleet utilization by finding the most efficient routes and the best available vehicle or carrier for each load. After dispatch, you can use systems at terminals and on trucks to capture and integrate data automatically – rather than requiring drivers to fill out paperwork manually. As a result, you get near-real-time visibility into replenishment, which enables you to forecast demand more accurately, react quickly to any schedule changes, and keep customers’ tanks full while maintaining your best margins. What’s more, this information is integrated into the invoicing and billing functionality, helping you close the loop between logistics and finance.
These functionalities are delivered through the SAP for O&G solution portfolio, which leverages the SAP solutions, solution extensions, and partner solutions detailed in the following table. The partner-provided components are powered by the SAP NetWeaver® technology platform and tested to ensure that they function properly in integrated fuel replenishment and pricing scenarios. SAP NetWeaver unifies technology components into a single platform, providing the best way to integrate all systems running SAP or non-SAP software.
Optimize Processes to Improve Efficiencies
SAP for Oil & Gas includes integrated functionality that helps you realize the following business benefits:
- Control costs and maximize narrow profit margins
- Achieve distribution excellence
- Build customer loyalty and increase customer satisfaction
- Support strategic growth
Control Costs and Maximize Narrow Profit Margins
To maximize your profit margins, you need visibility into every area of your business so you can manage costs and brace your company for the effects of market volatility. SAP solutions integrate company-wide data, allowing you to sense and respond quickly to price fluctuations and other market changes. Achieve Distribution Excellence With SAP for O&G, you can count on automated, customizable processes and comprehensive visibility across your fuel distribution network, so you can manage your fleet, your inventory, and your replenishment processes more efficiently. You can also close the loop between delivery and finance with software that integrates sales, inventory, scheduling, and accounting information. The result is a seamless order-to-cash process that is tailor-made for fuel marketing and distribution companies.
Build Customer Loyalty and Increase Customer Satisfaction
By centralizing management of your customers’ fuel replenishment needs – from managing their fuel inventories and service-level agreements to responding to billing inquiries and other customer support needs – the software’s integrated functionality for fuel marketing and distribution can help you create a customer experience that sets you apart from the competition.
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