Global Oil, a fuel group operating in the South African petrochemical industry, is expanding its business at a phenomenal rate. With filling stations and convenience outlets country wide, Global Oil opened its 100th store on Friday 1 March 2019 in Rustenburg. APPSolve is proud to have walked the road with them and to have been part of their rapid expansion.
Global Oil is a fuel retail group that operates across South Africa. In a market previously dominated by major refining oil brands, Global Oil has now progressed into the largest 100% black owned and proudly South African retail brand across South Africa. Since inception in 2008 Global Oil has rapidly grown to a 100 retail sites across 9 provinces and has raised the bar in fuel retailing and convenience stores in South Africa.
Global Oil realised in 2017 that with their previous systems, they would plateau at 35 filling stations. They did not have the infrastructure and control to grow profitably without the support of a world-class application system. APPSolve implemented a Commodity Management system, GlobalTradeApp, which went live in October 2017. GlobalTradeApp is developed in Oracle Application Express and runs on an Oracle Standard Edition Database R12.
Lazarus Mphosi, CEO of Rheinland Investments, Global Oil’s holding company, explains how their need arose for an integrated system, “All transactions and day-end shift data for each outlet was being captured in Excel spreadsheets. This process made it difficult to control. There was also a lack of transparency of information at Head Office. In addition, consolidating information was time consuming and a reactive approach to correcting errors had to be taken. This also led to the operational transactions not being in sync with our Financial System at Head Office”.
Mphosi elaborates further on how the collaboration with APPSolve has assisted their expansion, “We investigated a few partners ranging from large corporates to small organisations. Ultimately, we selected APPSolve on word of mouth. They have architected an immensely agile, flexible solution suited to our specific needs. They considered the rural landscape, bandwidth challenges, ease of use and alignment with best practise. Their professionalism, project approach, after sales service and help desk are exemplary.”
Maureen Grosvenor, Director at APPSolve and Strategic account lead for Global Oil, outlines the key benefits of this implementation at Global, “The two key goals achieved is the ability to accommodate the growth of the organisation whilst retaining control of the business processes (both operationally and financially). In addition timeous information on stock levels, cash and credit card transactions, sales, customer accounts and supplier payments as well as pricing variations have made all the difference. For example, previously, it would take 8 hours to compile the Month End Litres Report. This is now available immediately. The GlobalTradeApp solution has allowed them the ability to triple their business within 18 months.”
“This is an amazing journey we are taking with the Global team, “Grosvenor explains, “Lazarus Mphosi has his finger on the pulse of his business and he misses nothing. He has been critical to the success of this project. We feel honoured to have worked on a solution that supports sustainability. GlobalTradeApp, the operational system implemented at Global, won the 2015 and 2016 Oracle Innovation award for sustainability projects in Mozambique and Zambia. At Global, the greatest contribution is the generation of jobs in the rural areas of South Africa. The additional filling stations that have been opened since the deployment of the solution, has enabled Global to employ additional people. As at October 2018, South Africa had an unemployment rate of 27.2% which translates to 5.781 million unemployed people. A huge amount of those people are in the rural areas of South Africa. Any contribution an organisation can make to reducing this figure will lead to sustainability and growth in the South African economy. Global intends to hire additional resources as they expand. In addition to this, Global Oil has also set up feeding schemes for the local communities at their filling stations which contributes in a small way to combating starvation and alleviating poverty in these rural communities. These ground breaking and exciting initiatives are what drives APPSolve’s vision”.
@GlobalOilSA @appsolve_sa https://globaloil.co.za/ www.appsolve.co.za
