Calor Gas, the UK’s leading supplier of liquefied petroleum gas, is reaping many business benefits after completing more than 70 integration projects using Tibco software. But capturing data accurately and being able to combine it with different systems is also helping fulfil two of the company’s chief objectives.

“By using integration software we have automated the previously manual process of scheduling tank maintenance activities and recording tank test results which has enhanced safety and customer service,” says head of development Simon Went.

Integration projects are ongoing, but the need to integrate systems was first identified several years ago when the company began investigating technologies for the front end of the business.

Such systems included telemetry, handheld PCs for drivers and functionality to automate the most costly part of the organisation ­ logistics, which constitutes 60 to 70 per cent of overall costs.

“Our JD Edwards enterprise resource planning (ERP) system from Oracle is the company’s repository of information including sales and customer data. To deliver functionality to the front end, we needed to invest in technology that would integrate new applications into the back-office system,” says Went.

“About 60 integrations were identified and we decided on a strategic investment in integration technology which had to deliver cross-platform solutions and enable real-time integration to increase the immediacy of information between applications.”

Traditional overnight batch processing to update information was too slow and no longer acceptable. The previous manual process of drivers self-scheduling meant that up to two weeks could elapse between delivery and invoicing.

“Our drivers had a lot of key knowledge about our customers, so to be able to automate a lot of the processes we had to have information recorded and used within our systems rather than locked inside individual workers’ heads,” says Went.

“The business was coming to us and saying it wanted everything glued together.”

After evaluating several suppliers, Calor Gas chose Tibco because the supplier provided a good fit with its ERP system, an efficient toolset and a strong development path towards a service-oriented architecture (SOA).

“When we talked to the people at Tibco, they mentioned functions such as Soap [simple object access protocol] at a time when web services were not a driver for us. However, it was important to select a supplier that was continually investing in technology, so that when we were ready to move into web services or take steps towards SOA we had a way forward,” says Went.

He says a driver for integration was Calor’s need to integrate its ERP and Onyx customer relationship management (CRM) systems. Went says information regularly passes between both systems and increased business benefits rely on closer integration of the two.

“When we sign up customers, we use the CRM system to undertake the sales process and to record that a client has been won. That information is flashed to the ERP system which is our main operational system,” he says.

“By automatically populating the ERP system, the information kickstarts fulfilment processes, such as scheduling the required engineering activities and the first delivery to the customer.”

Integration has improved data quality and reduced error rates, says Went.

“We are ensuring integrity by avoiding double entry of data into systems, which means mistakes are not made and the right information is passed through to users,” he says.

The first major integration project undertaken at the firm was to integrate telemetry unit data with the ERP system, allowing the organisation to generate service orders and predict delivery requirements to improve business intelligence.

Half of Calor’s business concentrates on supplying liquefied petroleum gas in bulk to customers. Previously, the company did not have a means of accurately assessing how much gas was in a customer’s tank. Now more than 22,000 telemetry units have been installed on tanks to measure gas levels and transmit data to Calor’s database.

Tibco software monitors changes and updates the sales order file on the ERP system to accurately schedule a delivery.

“We are still in rollout mode of telemetry units as we have up to 60,000 domestic tanks, but the integration is improving customer service and efficiency by giving us a clearer handle on what customers are using in terms of gas and when they will need their next delivery,” says Went.

Before the integration project, the company tended to deliver to customers more often than necessary to avoid gas running out.

“The maximum amount we fill a tank is 80 per cent. We refill gas when there is 20 per cent left in the tank, not when it is about to run out. Previously, we would drop gas when there was about 30 per cent left in the tank, which was an inefficient way of working,” says Went.

“Now our drop size has increased between 40 and 50 per cent to 60 per cent, which means we have fewer vehicles driving fewer miles and that saves on fuel bills and is better for the environment,” he says.

All drivers have handheld computers to assist deliveries, and using Tibco software as the integration backbone for disparate platforms and applications means Calor Gas can develop its mobile strategy.

“We are becoming more mobile by equipping engineers, sales staff and technicians with handhelds,” says Went.

“We want to be able to push data out to devices, so employees can use that information and update the back-office systems as soon as possible.”

Technicians are frequently sent out to service tanks as part of a maintenan ce and safety regime. To ensure information is accurate, Calor asks its bulk drivers to record information about tanks on their handheld computers when they deliver gas, which is then integrated with the tank database.

“This means that when we send out an engineer, they are armed with the right information,” says Went.

Data is recorded in all necessary systems. If, for example, an emergency call is received, it is recorded in the CRM and ERP systems and a service order is created for an engineer to attend and fix the problem.

When engineers service a tank, they fill in online forms on their handheld devices. The forms are passed back to a hosting system using Tibco and then applied to the tank database on the ERP application.

“This used to be a paper-based exercise, but it is now automated and a separate document management system stores the image of the tank test certificate which we can access quickly if it needs to be inspected,” says Went.