PumPing it

In a fiercely competitive petroleum industry, keeping partners happy is an imperative. But HPCL was slowly facing the heat from its dealers. Until an elegantly simple SMS solution helped the company improve efficiency and saved the day.
By Snigdha KarjatKar

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They wanted it and they wanted it bad.

What was annoying was that the order processing was standard business practice. For dealers, placing an indent an order which typically holds the amount of oil that a dealer requires was just another thing that needed to be done every so often. But the process was painful. To place an order for petrol, diesel or other HPCL products, dealers harangued HPCLs regional offices with repeated requests. Being in the middle of HPCL and the fuel pump owners, the dealers faced the heat from both sides. The problem with this manual process was that it bore the seed of all sorts of possible human errors. For instance, a lack of prompt or worse, no response to their phone calls when they placed their requests was beginning to trigger unrest among the dealers. Sometimes, dealers complained that when an HPCL official finally picked up the phone, he or she got their order wrong or recorded it on their systems incorrectly or misplaced their order. The worst was when their indents were not executed at all. Some transporters and dealers were beginning to feel that they were being subjected to unfair treatment something that HPCL would have found very hard to justify. There were serious discrepancies between the execution of loads and the amount dealers had ordered. This became a bone of contention between the dealers and the Rs 103,800-crore refinery major. At a time when oil companies were fighting for their share of the market, HPCL which holds 16 percent of retail and marketing share was slowly losing its grip. There was a broken link in the ordering Reader ROI: process and it needed to be fixed. also owns and operates the largest lube refinery in the country and produces lube base oils of international standard. The company accounts for over 40 percent of Indias total lube base oil production. For this Fortune 500 company, (it ranks 290 on the list) business comes not only from the metros but also from the remotest corners of the country, from states as far flung as Sikkim. The epicenter of dealer unrest, however, was a terminal in southern India. With the increasing number of complaints it was getting, HPCL knew that if it neglected the problem, it could prove costly. So, the company conducted an internal study and the result has saved it a world of trouble. HPCLs managers figured that if all indents were recorded correctly the first time a dealer interfaced with the company, then all their grievances would cease to exist. This would mean automating the entire recording of indents and minimizing manual interferences. HPCL needed something that could oil its creaking wheels and it turned to technology for help. Web and IVR (interactive voice response) systems were popular options and would enable smoother indent filing but considering the remote locations of HPCLs dealers and poor Internet penetration, the company decided to develop an SMS-based system. I knew that the idea of placing an indent using the Internet would face some aversion from the dealers because not all of them are tech-savvy. But with mobiles being not just tech tools today, we thought that the automation of indents using SMS was an ideal and wise option for all of us, said Nishi How automation can Vasudeva, executive director-IS, HPCL. increase efficiency Banking on the popularity and the userHow innovation can friendly nature of mobiles, Vasudeva and help you stay in the her team decided to develop an indent reckoning

But some dealers of Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL) just couldnt get their hands on it: as slick as oil, their requests for stock kept slipping away.

IllUSt ratIon by an Il t

Oiling the Wheels

Established in 1952, today, HPCL caters to over 460 dealers across India. The company

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management system (IMS) with a mobile to track indents, create sales orders and interface to place indents. The IMS, which is invoices automatically in the ERP system on integrated with an auto indenting software execution of indents. to receive indents, is based on data from But getting to this point was not an retail automation systems (contains data SNAPSHOT easy task. The system was not devoid of on the location of dealers, retail outlets, HPCL technical glitches. etcetera). Once a dealer sends a message An all-new customized application EmPLOyEES: 11,300 requesting for his stock to be replenished, using Visual Basic had to be developed to it is checked for authenticity. read and transfer messages from a modem REvENuE: rs 103,800 crore If the SMS is valid, an indent is created to a PC format. The GSM modem also had a and the acknowledgment with an indent ceiling on the amount of outgoing messages IT TEAm: 150 number similar to the railways PNR it could send per minute. The scary part? is sent back to the customer. The system had no alert in place to warn LOCATIONS: 460 Today, when the dealer wants to place officials of messages that didnt get sent. an indent for x amount of fuel (petrol, We had to advise all our dealers to RETAIL OuTLETS: 8,329 diesel or both), all he needs to do is send an use an alternate number. It took a lot of SMS to an HPCL installation. He has been effort to stabilize the software and make provided with multiple templates of various it adequately fault-tolerant. We made a combinations of different products offered provision in the software to simultaneously by the company, explains S.T. Sathiavageeshwaran, handle inputs from several GSM modems and also send GM-IS, HPCL. outgoing messages with load balancing. The integration In the meanwhile, the planning officer views all the with the ERP system was also a challenge as this was indents that need to be executed. He decides on the the first ERP application to use EDI (electronic data allocation of various products according to the availability interchange), says Vasudeva. of trucks at that point in time. A record of available trucks at an HPCL installation is maintained by cards swipes by truck drivers at the gate. This data is also available with Apart from the tech bit, getting user buy-in was the planning officer. another roadblock, though not a monumental one. Thereafter, the indents are moved forward Many dealers were not comfortable with mobiles automatically to the ERP for order processing. As and found it difficult to communicate via SMS. invoicing is completed by ERP, it is again fed to the They followed up constantly with phone calls. But, IMS for reporting purposes. The IMS is integrated with Vasudeva found a way around it. HPCLs ERP system to minimize the scope of errors We conducted one-day training workshops when the data is transferred to the ERP. with the dealers to familiarize them with the new system. We did not encounter much opposition Earlier, dealers used to constantly [after that] from the dealers call and follow-up asking when as mobiles are no more their truck would reach them a technology but an and inevitably lots of things everyday utility, were put on hold as the arrival of the truck was awaited. For instance, dealers had to simply keep Timely availability their porters on stand by of reports to plan further until the truck arrived. But product allocation in with IMS in place, a dealer todays competitive times now gets an intimation via definitely gives an edge. SMS about when their truck will leave the terminal and nishi Vasudeva he can calculate the time of Executive Director-IS, arrival, says Vasudeva. HpCL The IMS has not only automated the process but has also enabled HPCL

tank Full

running Out of Fuel

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says Vasudeva. After tackling those speed-breakers, HPCL and its dealers found themselves on the right end of the ordering process. The IMS has not only HpCLs ImS has improved efficiency for the company and satisfied dealer queries but has made it empowered its customers. easier for internal planning officers and other officials to review reports from The auTo indenTing SySTeM time-to-time. The system has done what validates the dealers number and an it set out to do: pumped up efficiency. acknowledgement along with an indent number is sent back to the dealer. This is extremely important in addressing issues related to delayed indent execution which was earlier straining the companys relationship with its consumers. With IMS, the planning a dealer sends an officer is fully equipped to handle dealer SMS to the iMS which queries and explain delays in execution to sends it to the auto The planning the concerned party. indenting system for officer allocates The system also has an additional authentication. indents according to the feature in which dealers can inquire about availability of trucks he the status of their last indent which is again prints the filing slips and an SMS and no manual interface is required. transfers the data to the erp. Also, a dealer is intimated (via SMS) as a truck leaves the installation for the execution of his indent, says Vasudeva. The system has reduced the huge amount of paperwork HPCL churns out and merged indents electronically with the ERP, which helps in tracking invoices and respective payments. dealerS can place load balancing and indents through the Web invoicing is completed For internal users like Y.K. Gawali, GMand iVr. They can also in the erp and this O&D, IMS is like a magic wand. track their indents using information is stored in The issues in the old system were the indent number. the iMS for reporting. dealer dissatisfaction regarding handling and execution of their indents. Complaints regarding phones being not reachable or not getting picked up, handling of large amounts of calls they had to answer from the dealers. This gives physical paper, indents not getting executed or getting them ample time to do their job effectively. IMS has also wrongly recorded, executed or lost were hampering our eliminated the time required for entering sales orders into growth. Claims by dealers regarding discrimination were the ERP system and this translates into a huge saving. severely affecting our business. All these issues were Sathiavageeshwaran says, It has now become much addressed once the system was put in place, he says. easier for a planning officer to screen a request for the indents and execute them accordingly. It has definitely smoothened the operational process. More importantly, There were obvious benefits that helped Vasudeva. our service to the dealer has improved a lot. The biggest benefit is customer delight, since the whole With 8,329 retail outlets and 2,232 LPG distributors indenting process has become very easy and transparent across the country, HPCL today boasts of a healthy for dealers. They get automated confirmation via SMS network of happy and satisfied dealers. acknowledging the receipt of their indent and another Timely availability of reports to plan further product SMS when a truck leaves the installation after getting allocation in todays competitive time definitely gives loaded. Further, dealers can also indent their requirement an edge. Besides saving productive man hours can be up to one week in advance. translated into quantitative benefits. And above all a Adds Gawali, Another big gain is the elimination of sound customer relationship, says Vasudeva. CIO non-productive activities among our planning officers and Snigdha Karjatkar is correspondent. Send feedback on this feature to sales officers in terms of reducing the number of phone snigdha_k@idgindia.com

Stoking Efficiency

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