Case Studies & Testimonials

Petroleum/C-Stores Use Maintenance Software Automation to Improve Bottom Line

Web-based software can offer real-time visibility into the repair and maintenance processes for your store locations. Your managers are able to analyze the LIVE data and make informed business decisions that can have a positive impact on your company’s bottom line. We spoke with Jim Howard, Manager Retail Maintenance for Hess Corporation of Woodbridge NJ who operates 1350 Petroleum/C-Store Locations and Scott Holland, Director of Facilities for the Wallis Companies Cuba MO who operates 160 Petroleum/C-Store locations for their perspectives..

1. Tell us a little about your company.
HESS - is the leading independent marketer of petroleum products on the East Coast of the United States. The HESS brand has a long heritage of commitment to providing the highest quality products, customer service and value to our customers.
WALLIS - is an independent gasoline distributor and C-store operator based in Cuba, MO.

2. What is your area of responsibility?
HESS - We have different levels of responsibility for Maintenance and Underground Storage Tank Compliance for the HESS-branded retail outlets. We have total responsibility for our Company Operated locations and very little responsibility for our Joint Venture locations.
WALLIS – My Primary responsibility is to oversee the day to day Maintenance of the C-Stores.

3. What type of maintenance management program do you run? Centralized or decentralized? How many people? Briefly what are their functional responsibilities?
HESS - We have a centralized program in our Marketing & Refining Headquarters in Woodbridge, NJ. I have a 5 person team that consists of three Maintenance Coordinators - who troubleshoot, dispatch and manage the vendors and all service requests; a Maintenance Analyst who analyzes the costs and other Officetrax data; and an Administrative Assistant who keeps the process flowing efficiently, as well as working on UST compliance issues.
WALLIS – Our Maintenance Department is centralized; all maintenance requests are called in and dispatched through the maintenance team based in our home office. Our team is made up of 7 people, the Director of Facilities (responsible for creating team strategy and managing the Maintenance P&L, 2 Maintenance Coordinators, - the locations are divided into two regions, each coordinator oversees all R&M in those facilities, including logging requests, dispatching the requests, approving vendor invoices, and coordinating bids and work for bigger projects. 4 Maintenance Technicians, - the techs make repairs in the facilities, everything from working on dispensers to soda fountains, to HVAC repairs, to light construction.

4. How many service requests do you handle per month on average?
HESS - Approximately 7500
WALLIS – 600

5. Do you operate a preventative maintenance program? (If yes, describe briefly)
HESS - Yes, we have several PM programs, from changing dispenser filters to servicing air conditioning / refrigeration, and anything in between.
WALLIS – Yes, we have several PM Programs, a monthly pump inspection – the hanging hardware and under the pump skirts are inspected, quarterly HVAC PM’s – filter changes and critical components are inspected for wear, semi annual ice machine PM’s – check critical components and clean

6. What Software System do you currently use to manage your maintenance? How long have you been using and are there advantages to utilizing this system?
HESS - We have been using Officetrax for 2 ½ years now. The main advantage of using Officetrax is the ability to see everything in one place – call history, total costs – down to the equipment level, invoices, and all correspondence.
WALLIS – We have been using Officetrax since March 2006 – this web-based system has completely automated our maintenance tracking with no additional IT infrastructure. Officetrax handles all functions of asset management including Request Tracking, Call Dispatching and Invoice Processing. Officetrax allowed us to add an additional 60 locations without adding any additional maintenance personnel.

7. How do your store managers currently report their service requests? Are there advantages to the way your process works?
HESS - All Emergency service requests are called into our Call Center which is staffed 7 x 24 x 365; all non-emergency requests are logged into Officetrax via the web. The main advantage to this process is it allows us to handle a large number of calls in a cost-effective and timely fashion.
WALLIS - Store Managers currently make requests via phone and EM, in the coming months we are going to rollout store level access, which will allow managers to log calls directly into Officetrax.

8. What methods do you use to analyze your departments performance? Are they effective?
HESS - We currently analyze our performance based our cost-effectiveness via the P&L as well Customer Satisfaction Surveys. We’re looking to include other key metrics to measure efficiency and effectiveness.
WALLIS – we utilize the Balanced Scorecard to track and manage the performance of each department. Some of the metrics we measure through our system are Response Time, Billable time for internal Technicians, R&M as Percent of Budget and we send out a Quality Survey to store managers -in the future this will be done by the managers online.

9. What improvements to the process are you looking to make in the future?
HESS - We are implementing Vendor Scorecards through Officetrax to effectively rank, manage and improve our contractor’s performance.
WALLIS - Stores are going to be given access to Officetrax – they will be able to make requests on-line, review open work requests, and review invoices and repair history for completed work. Truck mounted laptops for our maintenance technicians – This will allow them to receive their work orders electronically via Officetrax throughout the work day and immediately create invoices on-line, completely eliminating the need for paper invoices.