A changing business model – from delivering a product to serving a customer
Competition in the oil-delivering business has grown following the entrance of big retail corporations into the market. To survive, AVIA decided to implement a dramatic digital transformation to better serve and satisfy its customer base.
Like many companies, they relied either on customers calling them to order a product or on their customer service team calling customers and asking if they needed a refill. For some big customers, they could rely on telemetry (2G/3G) to know exactly the state of a tank.
Information was spread out and was not linked together. They needed a way to make better and faster decisions and a solution to reach their customers at the right time when they needed a refill.
Digital transformation put into practice
Brain-it helped AVIA consolidate its strategy and set up a digital transformation plan to improve the “order-to-bill” process. At the same time, the need of knowing when to call a customer was addressed using a powerful machine-learning algorithm to provide virtual sensors and a good estimate of tank level without the need for a physical sensor (see ‘Case study: AVIA using virtual Sensors’).
While some customers would be analyzed through our virtual sensor module “MyVSenso”, AVIA wanted to be able to deploy more telemetry. But instead of relying on one supplier, they wanted to be able to choose freely on the market and follow the trend of the latest technologies and not be dependent on one provider.
The final goal of the project was to be able to collect data (administrative and logistic) directly from AVIA information system (IS) like SAP. At the same time, AVIA is capable of mass deploying sensors directly on customer site directly through our app without being dependent on a brand or a technology. We then merge that information together (including the virtual sensors data), providing a full customer overview. The data is then partially pushed back to their ERP for delivery tour planning.
Going one step further
Although this was a great leap forward, we considered the order-to-bill process needed a profound change. Customers want to be able to access information quickly, review their history and, in some cases, order directly online without having to call or send an email.
We provided AVIA with a Customer Portal that integrated both the data from AVIA IS such as delivery notes and bills, but also data from sensors or virtual sensors giving a full history of volume consumption and the actual situation in the tank. This provided customers with better information on their situation and their history. But the order process still had to be improved.
By allowing customers to see oil prices real-time, we could drive them to make an order directly through the customer portal like any customer would for standard retail items. The process is therefore simplified, and the customer gets a strong benefit from the service. Not only does the consumer gets its oil delivered, but he can also access its historical data, its consumption and the possibility to order directly from the same environment.
The benefit for AVIA was strong: it simplified the order-to-bill process and strengthened relationships with its customers by having a service that goes beyond simple oil delivery. Also, with better information, they could call customers exactly when they needed a refill (and not too late or too early).
Brain-it helped AVIA improve their customer satisfaction, lower their costs and improve their services.
About AVIA – an energy provider
In 1927, independent Swiss importers of petroleum products joined forces and founded the AVIA Federation in Switzerland. 89 years later, its 11 member companies are at the head of a vast network of Swiss service stations, consisting of about 600 stations and more than 100 shops under the AVIA brand.
