We’re Helping Foster Fuels…

CHALLENGES

A Paper-Based System and Frankenstein Software

Prior to adopting Cargas Energy, Foster Fuels used a basic accounting system with a slew of customizations to fit their business needs. However, customization-heavy software can sometimes become unmanageable, as was the case with Foster Fuels’ solution.  

To complicate matters, Foster Fuels is split into three branches—propane, oil, and an emergency fueling service contracted by FEMA. Branches struggled to communicate across disparate systems, and high-level team members in executive and managerial positions couldn’t get a clear picture of the overall business. 

Because Foster Fuels lacked a centralized fuel delivery and accounting solution, everything was done on paper. According to Marvin Wharton, the Application Systems Analyst at Foster Fuels, manual entry became the team’s bane. Sometimes, the work fell on him.

“We would do all of our stuff on paper workorders, and then it would come in and I would kind of decipher the handwriting of the individual techs kind of sitting out there, scribbling in the field, and trying to decipher the name for different joints across the different parts of Virginia,” said Wharton.

At other times, Wharton’s teammates were given the daunting task of data entry, which often took time away from value-adding activities. “We had reached the capacity where one person would have that stack of paper and they would just hammer it out all day,” Wharton said. “It was complete manual entry, and there was no middle ground there to help them not do that.” 

Pain and stress created by the lack of workflow automation rippled across the entire business.  

“We had reached the place with growth and the natural flow of business where it wasn’t sustainable anymore, and we needed to make a shift to something that could scale with us and help us deal with the volume of tickets that were coming through.”

– Marvin Wharton, Application Systems Analyst, Foster Fuels

SOLUTIONS

The Three Hubs

When hunting for new fuel delivery software, Foster Fuels weighed three hubs that every software provider tries to fulfill—simplicity, scalability, and customizability. According to Wharton, many software developers fail to strike a balance between these three hubs, primarily because they work against each other. As you customize your solution, for instance, it becomes more complex and difficult to expand. However, Wharton says, Cargas Energy stands out: “You guys have managed to be able to deal with all three of those things at the same time and balance them.” 

Cargas Energy Software

The switch to Cargas Energy came at a tricky time for Foster Fuels. The implementation went live in May of 2017, just before Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria devastated many U.S. territories. Foster Fuels team members were called on by FEMA to offer emergency services to affected areas, which meant Wharton was one of the only people left in the office to get oriented with the team’s new software. 

Despite the circumstances, Wharton grew accustomed to Cargas Energy quickly. By the time teammates trickled back into the office, he had figured out the solution’s service and delivery pieces.  

Having used many solutions in his career, Wharton loved the change from paper-based management to digital. Drivers and other team members who were used to the old systems needed a bit more coaxing to dive into Cargas Energy: 

“It was a challenge, but as we’ve moved into Cargas, it kind of gave us the ability to put tablets in their hands, whether those hands wanted the tablets or not.”

– Marvin Wharton, Application Systems Analyst, Foster Fuels

BENEFITS

Centralized Data and No More Paper Stacks

Since implementing Cargas Energy, the Foster Fuels team has embraced the software. Wharton notes that one noticeable change is the reduction of a shared workload for data management. Stacks of paper are no longer passed from desk-to-desk on a regular basis—instead, one team member can handle data management with a few clicks of a button. “We went from having to potentially add a second person to help with that, to scoping it down to having just one person just carry the load there,” Wharton said. 

The switch to Cargas Energy also centralized this data. Cargas Energy gives Foster Fuels a real-time view of data and straightforward ways to share it across the business. With silos broken down, the team can now collaborate on decisions such as pricing.  

“With Cargas, since it’s got that single backend, a lot of this is made a lot faster, and it’s made it a lot easier to get the information out.”

– Marvin Wharton, Application Systems Analyst, Foster Fuels

Every day, reports are sent to senior-level management, detailing everything from high-level analyses to intricate details about specific areas of the business. Cargas Energy opened many doors for Foster Fuels to collaborate, analyze, and grow. According to Wharton, “It helped to bring light to what efficiency could be.” 

Now that data is centralized and easy to access, Foster Fuels hopes to add more tools to the software environment. One of the team’s big projects right now is an integration between Salesforce CRM and Cargas Energy. While this is still in progress, Wharton can already see how powerful its impact will be. 

“Having a tool like Salesforce there to compliment Cargas kind of lets them tell the story of the customer in the CRM in a lot more detail and be able to connect contacts to that and get a more granular sense of the data there.”

– Marvin Wharton, Application Systems Analyst, Foster Fuels