BPLP plant staff are getting a different point of sale and truck system to help them better perform their jobs. In July, the company made the decision to move forward with Energy-Force, a suite of software designed for propane and refined fuel businesses.
Kenny Steeves, senior vice president of MFA Oil Operations, says Energy-Force was selected because of its ease of use; its ability to provide daily reconciliation; its superior routing, forecasting and optimization capabilities; and its enhanced tank tracking features.
The company began a pilot program to test Energy-Force in a portion of the company’s southwest district in December 2019. Dustin Snodgrass, senior acquisitions manager, was part of the team involved with the pilot and says it will simplify many of the daily tasks performed at the company’s plants such as scheduling orders, billing customers and generating invoices.
“Energy-Force gives you easy access to tank data, delivery data, tax exemptions, contracts, monitors, and more from the customer menu,” Snodgrass says. “There’s also a document imaging capability that will make it easier for us to attach documents like leases, propane inspection reports and shipping papers to a customer account.”
Sharon Todd, CSR at the Jasper, Mo. plant, had the opportunity to test Energy-Force during the pilot and was impressed with the software.
“I really like Energy-Force,” Todd says. “It’s easy to navigate through customer accounts and find just about everything you need. Applying credits and rebilling is so easy. The change has made my job better.”
Snodgrass says Energy-Force will give drivers and service technicians more flexibility to better service customers while eliminating cellular connection issues.
“Energy-Force runs on our current tablets, but it does require a different printer,” Snodgrass says. “All of the hardware is either hardwired or plugged in, and the only time an internet connection is required is once in the morning and once in the afternoon to exchange information between the tablets and the office. This can be done anywhere Wi-Fi is available or at the office in the cradles.”
Service technicians will now be able to create invoices from their trucks while at a job site, and it will no longer be necessary to bring service orders back to the office for entry.
“It will take time to fully implement this new system, and some development enhancements will be necessary,” Steeves says” but I believe this software will enhance our ability to continue to provide excellent customer service to our member-owners.”
Teams have been created to evaluate how integration will be handled for accounts receivable cash reconciliation, inventory, sales orders, truck outfitting, employee set up, data cleanup, customer account set up, taxes and exemptions. Steeves says these teams will discuss how data will be fed from Energy-Force to E1 and set standard operating procedures.
Once final decisions have been made about data integration and internal procedures have been set, the company will share more information about the plan to deploy Energy-Force to the field.