An often-silent culprit, fuel inventory variance is a major concern that can wreak havoc across the entire supply chain. Ultimately, the ripple effects can lead to operational downtime, misallocated resources, unnecessary write-offs, and significant revenue loss over time. Even a one percent variance can result in a financial deficit in the millions over the course of a year.  

Today’s fuel retailers operate in an extremely competitive industry where they can be fighting off stiff competition or positioning for merger activity on any given day. Dealing with the domino effects of inventory variance takes focus away from business enhancements and growth opportunities, as operators are forced to divert funds and labor toward addressing problems. 

With multiple sites, thousands of sensors to monitor, and a complex fuel supply chain to manage, retail fuel operators using outdated, legacy systems don’t stand a chance. To get ahead of fuel inventory variance factors, integrating industry-specific technology is the only way to monitor systems in real-time, gathering granular data to make better, faster business decisions. End-to-end platforms like Titan Cloud’s provide: 

• High-frequency data capture for near real-time inventory status 
• Granular measurement capabilities for precision and accuracy 
• Root cause analysis functions to streamline resolution planning 

Learn more about the hidden profit killer: Fuel inventory variance. Our 3-part webinar series, The Future of Filling Up, explores how automated technology empowers operators to identify, fix, and prevent these issues Register below for part 2: Fuel Inventory Variance Control, and learn how to take action that can significantly impact your bottom line.  

Session Two: Fuel Inventory Variance Control: Why Speed and Precision Matter  

April 24, 2024 @ 2:00pm EDT  

Titan Cloud’s Vice President of Solutions Consulting Brent Puzak and Solutions Consultant Michael Lewis will discuss: 

• The negative chain reaction of undetected fuel inventory variance, from throughput to write-offs 
• How real-time data analytics empower fuel retailers to quickly and accurately respond to issues triggering inventory variance 
• What fuel retailers need to know about the advantage of connective technology in optimizing fuel logistics and increasing revenue 

Save your spot here! 

Brent Puzak

VP of Solutions Consulting

Brent brings 25 years' industry experience to Titan Cloud as the Vice President of Solutions Consulting. He led environmental shared services for a global retail chain with over 9,000 locations, moving through numerous leadership positions. Brent's diverse background and knowledge allows him to take a strategic approach to addressing complex industry challenges.

Learn how integrated data unlocks the full potential of your fuel asset management strategy.

They say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. In the retail fuel industry, a comparatively small investment in the right fuel asset management technology can save tens of millions of dollars by avoiding preventable testing, repair, and remediation costs over the long run.  

Utilizing industry-specific fuel management software can enable a retailer to manage fuel logistics and mitigate risk in real time, using data insights to spot inconsistencies early on, prioritize critical alarms and plan with greater accuracy. Titan Cloud’s Fuel Asset Optimization technology enables this by integrating vital fuel supply chain data into one centralized dashboard, breaking down traditionally siloed functions to enable proactive decision-making across fuel inventory management, logistics, maintenance, and compliance.  

Our latest eBook, A Comprehensive Guide to Enterprise-Wide Fuel Asset Optimization, explores the multi-faceted world of c-store retailers, including what makes their challenges unique, how rapid consolidation reveals the vulnerabilities of disparate systems, and how any variance from tank to meter can impact customer experience—not to mention the bottom line. 

This comprehensive guide looks at the far-reaching benefits of our Fuel Asset Optimization platform, including the ability of real-time, data-driven technology to: 

Centralize a complex landscape

In an industry where siloed and often outdated systems have become the norm, ongoing consolidation has ramped up the need for fuel retailers to contemporize through innovation. Technology enables real-time data analyses to be fed into one single source of truth.

Bring people back to your pumps 

Satisfied customers return time and time again–and are more likely to move from pump to store. Quickly identifying and addressing poor fuel flow, long connection times, or POS terminal issues keeps pumps in optimal working order; the top priority for sustaining satisfied customers. 

Prioritize alarms and service calls

Fuel retailers deal with hundreds of ATG alerts per day, inevitably dedicating valuable time and money to those that could have been deprioritized. Retailers utilizing ATG integrated technology act on streamlined data that highlights urgent scenarios and flags those in need of urgent attention so that service calls are only triggered when necessary. 

Industry giants including 7-Eleven, Circle K, Wills Group, and EG Group rely on Titan Cloud’s Fuel Asset Optimization solutions to streamline their business operations from fuel to maintenance to compliance requirements. Download A Comprehensive Guide to Enterprise-Wide Fuel Asset Optimization today to learn why industry-specific technology is the key to success for fuel retailers in 2024 and beyond. 

Paul Lauinger

VP of Solutions Consulting

Paul has over 25 years of global presales leadership experience and has a proven track record of building high-performing, scalable Solution Consulting teams that have advanced strategic, value-based selling skills.

Over the last few decades, fuel tank systems have become increasingly complicated to monitor and manage, adding to the already significant load felt by fueling station managers. While much of this complexity can be attributed to the proliferation of double-walled tanks to comply with environmental regulations, it is further augmented by new industry standards for compliance and advanced technologies and solutions for monitoring them. The ensuing intricacy has provided the liquid fuel downstream industry with an ever-growing mountain of information to process.

As your inbox quickly fills up with alerts triggered by the many sensors placed in your fuel tanks, you may soon find yourself overwhelmed by overdue tasks and lose perspective of the health of your systems. Information is a powerful asset until you have far too much of it. Then it quickly becomes noise, lacking insights or ability to act.

There is no doubt that automated fuel tank monitoring is the smart way to ensure safety, compliance, and efficiency. But your monitoring system is just your first defense from critical safety, efficiency, and compliance issues. The second defense comes from managing your response to those alarms.

The problem of too much information

At Titan Cloud, we analyzed 30,000 tank systems at over 10,000 fueling facilities in an effort to understand the scope of problems that they were having. The sheer number of automated alarms generated by ATG systems doubled over our three-year analysis period and is set to surpass the 4 million mark this year.

But it turns out that not all of these alarms are worthy of dispatching a service call. In fact, most are not. Far too many are the result of misconfigured alarm systems, resulting in false alarms, testing activity, unnecessary maintenance trips, wasted hours, and a distorted view of your system. Even when you think your system is properly configured, you may find that your threshold settings were changed after a system outage or repair and no longer reflect the correct setting you intended for them. Without conducting a site-by-site audit of your system and sensors, how do you know which alarms require action?

For example, our assessment of one fueling chain comprising 700 sites showed that nearly 30,000 alarms were detected over the course of just 60 days. Our analysis of those alarms showed that only 17,000 were compliance-related issues, and of those, only about 2,000 were actionable issues. Of those, only about 350 required a field service dispatch. That’s only about 1% of all the alarms detected.

You may be wondering about the other 99 percent. Well, often, alarms can be sounded by a faulty sensor, fuel system testing, a wiring issue, or system connectivity issues. While important to address, these are the types of alarms that, once triggered, are prone to be repeatedly sent to one’s inbox until they get fixed. And, while they may not indicate a problem with the tank, they do add to the overall noise that a facilities manager has to deal with.

Cutting through the noise

Poorly configured systems lead to costly alarm overkill and wasted resources. An alert management system can help you cut through the noise and zero in on the issues that require immediate attention. By providing remote access to all your data and compliance records, and the ability to remotely monitor and troubleshoot alarms, you will have the tools for cutting through the noise and distinguishing between real emergencies and false alarms.

Titan Cloud offers solutions to sift through all these noisy distractions. Our AI-assisted tools can quickly analyze all of your alarms to give you a quick snapshot of your system that focuses on your most critical needs first. We have solutions for alarm management, remote ATG management, compliance documentation management, remote leak detection and more. And best of all, our tools are hardware agnostic, so they will work with the systems you already own.

Titan Cloud can also provide your company a personalized ATG system and alarm configuration assessment that will compare your alarm data to the latest industry standards and provide recommendations on how you can optimize your system for efficiency, compliance, and performance.

Sign up for your Personalized Alarm and Configuration Assessment with a Titan Cloud
Expert. In this one-hour session, you can expect:

• Overview of best-practice alarm management
• Benefits from Alarm AI and Configuration Management
• Current state vs. future state recommendations

Brent Puzak

VP of Solutions Consulting

Brent brings 25 years' industry experience to Titan Cloud as the Vice President of Solutions Consulting. He led environmental shared services for a global retail chain with over 9,000 locations, moving through numerous leadership positions. Brent's diverse background and knowledge allows him to take a strategic approach to addressing complex industry challenges.

Increased frequency of natural disasters means higher risk of downtime, but many operators are unprepared. Read more to ensure you are doing everything to better plan for and recover from extreme weather events.

Halfway through 2023, there have already been nine weather- or climate-related disasters with losses exceeding $1 billion each to affect the United States. Flooding, winter storms, and severe storm events were among these events, which also had a substantial economic impact on the affected regions.

If that were not enough, a dangerous heat wave recently created powerful tornadoes in Texas and Florida, where at least four people were killed this month in twisters that touched down in the nations’ panhandles. Heatwaves and electrical storms can easily damage sensitive equipment, while other more serious events like hurricanes and tornadoes can knock fuel locations offline for days or even weeks.

As a result, these storm events have a direct impact on fuel operations and supplies. Tulsa municipal authorities, for example, were hard at work this month to avoid a possible gas shortage after stations were damaged or lost power during the recent round of severe storms. Some fuel stations are still operating but getting to the pump required waiting in standstill traffic.

Take Measures to Ride Out the Storm

The costs of downtime can be staggering. Beyond the loss of services and availability, natural disasters can also cause a lot of damage to the physical infrastructure and fuel systems that keep businesses running. Fortunately, owner operators can take measures to ensure their fuel facilities are ready for difficult weather events — and recover more quickly from them.

Integrate Maintenance with Fuel Assets to Optimize Uptime
The most effective facility managers excel at preventing severe weather from wreaking havoc on their operations and customer experiences by prioritizing regular maintenance and updates to critical systems in their facilities. This is more easily and optimally managed on a single platform that provides centralized visibility. That’s why leaders in c-store and fleet work with Titan to unify their entire organization onto one platform. Get the tools you need to remotely fix your most pressing fuel equipment problems as well, which is essential during severe weather situations.

Storm-Specific Actions & Preventative Checklists
Prior to severe weather occurrences, teams can assess and record important issues at the site level using Titan’s Advanced Facility Inspection (AFI) solution and storm-specific preventative checklists. Corrective actions can be carried out with the tool’s automated workflows before any customer or site impacts have an influence on profitability. The AFI app also goes beyond fuel assets to address other critical applications such as refrigerated coolers, HVAC systems, and electrical inspections before and after storms.

Examples of storm-specific actions may include:

• Tank Top Equipment – Inspect any potential source of intrusion into the tank such as caps, gaskets, damaged grommets, and spare risers. Be sure to look for settling concrete that may cause damage to below ground components.
• Vent Lines – Inspect vent lines for signs of corrosion and damage. Vents that lean may have been struck, leading to below grade fractures and a subsequent source of water entry.

Water Trends Visibility
With remote connectivity to your location, track the entry of water above a given threshold using Titan’s Water Trends Reporting. Additionally, reports may be automatically sent to your teams at predetermined intervals. For instance, you set your water threshold at .25 inches. You have .25 inches of sludge already in the bottom of your tank. The report will flag any ingress of water into the tank so that you can work to stay ahead of phase separation, and you can set up specific alerts once the water level in the tank hits .50 inches of water. This would represent a .25-inch increase over the sludge in the bottom of the tank.

Make the Most of Your Technology
Are you currently leveraging your technology to the fullest during these severe weather events? With remote connectivity a reliable and comprehensive fuel management platform is critical in times of disaster to ensure data is safe and accessible during and after severe weather occurrences. Storms can strike at any time and from anywhere, and having a reliable software provider with contingencies in place can help minimize losses and respond with the best plan of action.

Learn how the team at Titan Cloud can help you capture and monitor critical data points that will help you deliver a proactive approach to preparing for these events, reduce risk, and minimize equipment down time.

Schedule a complimentary assessment with a solution expert today

Brent Puzak

VP of Solutions Consulting

Brent brings 25 years' industry experience to Titan Cloud as the Vice President of Solutions Consulting. He led environmental shared services for a global retail chain with over 9,000 locations, moving through numerous leadership positions. Brent's diverse background and knowledge allows him to take a strategic approach to addressing complex industry challenges.

As the leaders in fuel and fluid handling equipment, PEI is uniquely qualified to provide direction on the best way to manage and maintain your underground storage tanks. Since rules and regulations are constantly evolving, it’s a good business practice to stay on top of inspection tasks.

They have scoured published and unpublished information from manufacturers, contractors, petroleum marketers, and regulatory agencies to provide the most up-to-date recommendations to promote the safety, health, and compliance of your business. Instead of forcing you to scour the internet and archives to find the information you need, PEI keeps it all together in one place. Having one centralized source-of-truth is not just good for your data, but it’s also good for you. 

PEI’s goal (and ours) is to be proactive by identifying potential equipment problems and reducing liability associated with operating underground storage systems.

A quick summary

The biggest changes in the RP900 are all about inspections, who and how they are to be performed in 2022 and beyond. 

As we mentioned before, inspection requirements have changed this year, and these changes have had a trickle down effect to also cause shifts in other areas of the RP900. In addition to noting the changes required by monthly and daily inspections, the RP900 has also changed to reflect the new inspection processes affected by the monthly and daily inspection requirements (or lack thereof). There’s also been a change to the specific language around who can perform inspections to clarify who exactly is qualified and what qualification entails.

This is not to say that all changes are a result of the inspection requirements. However, many of the changes (outlined in more detail below) are a direct result of new processes and requirements from the inspections. 

Recommended Inspection Practices for USTs

Many of the 2021 revisions include updates, modified language, and clarifications. The biggest change is the removal of daily inspections, making them optional and updating monthly and annual inspections requirements to mirror EPA requirements.

The 2021 version includes the following revisions:

• Updated monthly and annual inspections requirements to mirror EPA requirements
• Removed requirement for daily inspection (Chapter 6) and made optional
• Modified monthly inspection process to reflect removal of daily inspection
• Modified daily inspection to an optional periodic operational inspection and moved to Appendix
• Added language that the optional periodic operational inspection is a possible method that can be used to comply with monthly inspection
• Modified language on who should complete monthly and annual inspections by revising the definition for qualified person and removed requirements for Level I and II designation
• Updated periodic, monthly and annual checklists
• Reordered Appendix to reflect changes for monthly, annual and optional periodic operational inspections
• Clarified use of electronics sensors for leak detection
• Clarified use of statistical inventory reconciliation for tank and line leak detection

What hasn’t changed is the amount of data you need for accurate recordkeeping. 

Checklists are designed to help you get things done. When you’re managing monthly and yearly maintenance tasks, keeping track of all that data manually can bog you down. On the PEI website, there are 10 Appendixes alone available to download! When you multiply the number of checklists by 10s or 100s of tanks, your recordkeeping can spiral out of control.

Wrap Up

With Titan, you can store all your documents and comprehensive data in one place. You’ll get more done in less time with automated reports at your fingertips. Best of all, you can stop worrying about delayed reporting, missing paperwork, or losing critical compliance documents.

Those in the business of storing and dispensing fuel can use advanced technology to streamline their UST inspection tasks. 

Learn how Titan can keep your fuel operation efficient and profitable. Schedule a demo today.

Brian Allender

SVP of Product & Technology

Brian has over 15 years’ experience providing a range of solutions to businesses of all kinds, focusing on development, project management, quality assurance, and operations. As the SVP of Product & Technology at Titan, Brian leads the company’s overall product strategy, including process improvement and development operations.

A shift towards SaaS 

There are vendors that will help companies do just about everything these days. From compliance management and fuel reconciliation to ATG alarm management and tank monitoring, retailers around the world are outsourcing services to third-party vendors to streamline their processes. But what if there’s a more efficient way to manage these services without having to relinquish control over your data? 

That’s where Software as a Service, or SaaS, platforms come in. These solutions allow retailers to manage their work in the cloud, access it anywhere, and receive regular software updates. We’re seeing a huge industry shift to these solutions from third-party managed services as companies automate processes that used to require large teams of experts. Moving onto one SaaS platform isn’t just more efficient, but it also gives greater data visibility, reduces costs, and provides more security. 

One single source of truth 

As convenience retailers have invested more heavily in technology, many have found themselves with multiple vendors per project or business function. Not only is it tedious to have multiple platforms, but many managed services platforms don’t speak to each other, keeping your data siloed. With comprehensive SaaS solutions, retailers can integrate their internal systems for company-wide visibility into data and processes. With all your data in one place, it’s easy to identify inefficiencies or warning signs that were once concealed between gaps in service platforms and providers. With all the consolidation happening, it’s more important now than ever to maximize technology efficiencies by streamlining your services on one single source of truth.  

Stretch your budget 

Large retailers cite many reasons for moving from managed services to SaaS solutions, but cost efficiency is always one of them. Managed services can cost more than $100 per site per month, and if you have multiple vendors and hundreds of sites…well you get the picture. While the original intent might have been to outsource services to save on staffing costs, the truth is that consolidation of services to one platform is often the most cost-effective option.  

If you’re a smaller retailer with fewer sites, then managed services may be the cheaper option, but you should run the numbers for yourself. Hiring someone to head up the services in-house may still be cheaper than outsourcing your services, especially if you move to a SaaS platform with support teams available that can alleviate work for internal teams. Regardless, smaller retailers will have to decide which choice is most cost effective for their company, and if a lower price for managed services is worth the risks.  

Be Prepared 

Everyone’s heard about the recent cyber-attacks on businesses large and small, including breaches at Colonial Pipeline and JBS. No one is immune from these hacking attempts (not even the ferry to Martha’s Vineyard) so once-cautious retailers are being urged by internal IT departments to adopt more secure platforms for their data. As cyberattacks become more prevalent, retailers are eager to eliminate any vulnerabilities in their processes starting with availability of their data. 

By moving to SaaS solutions, retailers can eliminate multiple logins by third parties, which introduces a higher risk for human error. Removing any unnecessary vulnerabilities such as this can increase security over customer and payment systems data. When it comes to cybersecurity, the best way to mitigate risk is by consolidating the number of platforms and companies that have access to your data. 

Going the distance 

When faced with a lack of forecourt visibility, cost inefficiencies, and the threat of a cybersecurity attack, retailers need to make changes to how they manage their sites and forecourt data. By switching to a SaaS platform, you can take control of your data, allowing you to streamline your processes and save money too. And if you work with a company like Titan Cloud, you won’t have to make these changes alone and can get the support you need to make a seamless transition.  

Interested in learning more about SaaS solutions? 

Contact us.

Eric Nordstrom

Senior Director of Customer Success

Eric has 20+ years of experience in customer success roles and has been in the fuel industry since 2009. Eric’s main focus is to lead a positive customer journey, drive growth, and keep customer retention levels high.

Searching for Complete Visibility 

It’s safe to say technology adoption is having a major moment in the retail and commercial petroleum industry as retailers and logistics experts search for ways to streamline their current processes. Large retailers in particular are leading the shift from managed services to SaaS platforms in an effort to automate their processes while still maintaining control over their data.  

Companies that outsource their services or have multiple platforms for each workflow are finding that these platforms don’t speak to each other, leaving their data siloed. Unintegrated data and platforms can create gaps in information and even hide inefficiencies and warning signs. While consolidating multiple solutions onto one platform can give greater data visibility, many managers find themselves wondering what gaps they should be looking for. So what do you do when you don’t know what you don’t know? You conduct a gap analysis.  

Finding Your Blind Spots 

A gap analysis helps companies and department managers identify holes in their processes and establish a plan to solve for those blind spots. By engaging with a partner such as Titan Cloud to conduct a gap analysis, companies get an outside perspective, which helps spot inefficiencies or concerning trends more easily than managers who are closest to the projects. Titan’s Professional Services team has conducted numerous gap analyses for our customers, ranging from release detection to fuel management projects. Partnering with Titan gives our customers confidence in their processes and results, so they know for sure that nothing is slipping through the cracks.  

A Timeline for Success 

When customers come to us with specific projects or problems they need help solving, our Professional Services team immediately begins working with them to gather information and coordinate an action plan. Every customer receives an Account Manager (or two depending on the scope of the project) who will act as your point person throughout the process. We give our customers the flexibility to choose their level of involvement, so they can be as hands-on as they want. Typically, customers begin with weekly calls with their Account Manager, which can taper off to semimonthly or monthly as time progresses.  

The gap analysis itself takes around one month to complete, giving the Professional Services team time to identify issues, determine scope, and create a plan to solve the problem. By the second or third month our customers start seeing their gaps close and improvements in their processes and department.  

For example, one of the U.S.’s leading fleet and logistics companies was experiencing problems with facility inspections but couldn’t identify the root cause of the issues. They came to us looking for answers, so our Professional Services team worked with their third-party vendors to pinpoint the issue, gather missing information, and bring resolution within a few months. Overall, the gap analysis approach is a much faster and easier path to positive results than if customers tried to solve the problems on their own. 

Move Forward with Confidence 

As retailers consolidate their tech platforms and shift towards SaaS solutions, they may miss critical gaps in their processes.

“Many managers do a fantastic job of keeping up with changes, but some things do fall through the cracks. A gap analysis can uncover some things you just didn’t think of,” stated Jon Marinas, Titan’s SVP of Compliance Services. 

That’s why Titan Cloud is proud to offer Professional Services that help our customers find solutions to problems, so they can run more efficient, profitable businesses.

Interested in Getting a Gap Analysis for Your Company? 

Get in touch with your account manager and one of our specialists will reach out to discuss how we can help.

Eric Nordstrom

Senior Director of Customer Success

Eric has 20+ years of experience in customer success roles and has been in the fuel industry since 2009. Eric’s main focus is to lead a positive customer journey, drive growth, and keep customer retention levels high.

When we announced our acquisition of Melbourne-based Environmental Monitoring Solutions (EMS) in February, many Titan Cloud customers were curious about the reasons for the acquisition and wondered how it would benefit them. Not only do we share similar goals and a vision for the industry, but by combining the companies’ extensive product lines, we can expand our offerings and capabilities to EMS and Titan customers around the world. For current Titan customers, there should be two new products first and foremost on your mind: Greenscan and Fuelscan.  

You can now ditch third-party SIR vendors and use Greenscan for monthly, weekly, or even daily SIR reports. By  giving you control of your own data, Greenscan lets you fully integrate compliance information on one platform while leveraging a team of dedicated analysts to process daily reconciliation data. For those Titan users who are currently self-managing their SIR, Greenscan can help you save time and money by consolidating internal systems and processes. 

For on-site fuel reconciliation, look no further than Fuelscan. This product yields richer data sets than third-party sources, allowing you to view all your fuel data instead of the trimmed-down version you would otherwise receive. By integrating Fuelscan with other Titan products, you have the freedom to use the equipment you already own instead of being locked into a particular hardware provider. Additionally, you can create a more autonomous fuel management system by removing your dependency on third-party vendors for your own data.  

Finally, EMS is the only ISO9001-2015 certified company for leak detection, so you can rest easy knowing we meet the highest industry standards. 

We’re excited to offer both Fuelscan and Greenscan solutions to all our customers, so you can fully integrate your forecourt from required SIR testing to fuel inventory management. 

Interested in Greenscan or Fuelscan software? 

Get in touch with your account manager and one of our specialists will reach out to discuss how we can help.

Brian Allender

SVP of Product & Technology

Brian has over 15 years’ experience providing a range of solutions to businesses of all kinds, focusing on development, project management, quality assurance, and operations. As the SVP of Product & Technology at Titan, Brian leads the company’s overall product strategy, including process improvement and development operations.

*Adapted from How to Confidently Manage Environmental Compliance webinar 

Managing environmental compliance means not only meeting environmental regulations and reducing the risk of catastrophic leaks, but also identifying operational gaps and implementing solutions to resolve or mitigate those gaps. At a time when companies are asking staff to constantly do more with less, how can you be confident in your compliance management? 

Build up foundational knowledge

Compliance managers operate in a world where state and federal regulations are constantly changing. It’s crucial that compliance managers know their governing environmental regulations. It could take several years for a compliance professional to truly know the regulations by heart (and by then they’ll probably have changed anyway), so having a reference on hand will serve them well should a crisis arise.  

Compliance managers should also lean on vendors, peers, consultants, and the regulatory community for guidance on reducing risk exposure. Compliance affects almost every function in an organization, so it’s important to build internal relationships as well as external ones to identify how everyone can impact an organization’s compliance. 

Staying organized – the key to success

Forecourt data is becoming easier to access, but without an organized system to compile and analyze it, the data might as well be buried with your UST. Spreadsheets may work for only one site, but once a company has several locations, especially across multiple jurisdictions, the data becomes increasingly chaotic and time-consuming to analyze.  

A powerful, simple platform that captures all necessary data is critical for compliance managers in today’s fast-paced environment. Operating at the highest level means compliance managers need to embrace more robust systems to store and organize compliance data. With a single source of truth at their fingertips, compliance managers can retrieve the exact information they need for an upcoming inspection, permit renewal, or test for an easier, more efficient approach.  

Out into the field

At the end of the day, understanding regulations and a good database will only get you so far. Compliance managers need to get out into the field to understand what systems the company has, how they function, and what problems frequently occur. Tracking assets and recurring issues can help compliance managers understand where their budget is being spent and how to decrease costs. Critical insights such as these are often difficult to keep track of in a spreadsheet, but forecourt management software that tracks this data and related correspondence can help compliance professionals make better business decisions. 

As these insights are recorded and patterns emerge, compliance managers should reference their support network and the knowledge they’ve built up to ensure there are systems in place to solve these challenges.  

Plan for the worst-case scenario

Despite every compliance manager’s best effort, releases will undoubtedly occur. The first step in mitigating your exposure is to identify potential points of failure and how they could impact sites. Include other departments in the plan, as regulations often require specific notifications to ensure an effective response.  

The best way to guide plans for a worst-case scenario is to conduct a gap analysis, where compliance managers review current processes and document organizational requirements. Once this information has been collected, managers should compare these to what is required by regulations to identify any areas where they may be lacking. This is where field experience is vital, as compliance professionals can accurately assess their risk indicators and implications from the insights they gathered in their database. But completing this process doesn’t mean a company will always be in compliance, this is something that must be reviewed and updated on an ongoing basis.  

The future of compliance

Technology adoption has swept through the convenience store industry, and compliance departments can reap the benefit. Not only have advances in AI and Big Data helped c-store professionals get large amounts of data quickly, they’ve also provided access to analytics and insights that help drive profitability. But perhaps the most exciting development for compliance professionals has been the Internet of Things. IoT improvements allow users to access data from multiple equipment sources on one central platform, which is critical for environmental departments that touch most aspects of a company. To ensure nothing slips through the cracks, compliance managers need to take a holistic approach and single platform usage is integral to that strategy.  

Today’s compliance managers have a lot on their plate, but with an organized platform for data and a strategic plan to address operational gaps, mitigating risk and maintaining compliance becomes a whole lot easier.  

SEE ALSO: Global Convenience Store Focus’ summary of the webinar

Brent Puzak

VP of Solutions Consulting

Brent brings 25 years' industry experience to Titan Cloud as the Vice President of Solutions Consulting. He led environmental shared services for a global retail chain with over 9,000 locations, moving through numerous leadership positions. Brent's diverse background and knowledge allows him to take a strategic approach to addressing complex industry challenges.

The most unlikely catalyst 

Digital transformation has changed almost every aspect of our lives, from smart homes and appliances to virtual conferences and mobile apps. But the convenience store industry has historically been much slower to adopt these new technologies, until now. The onset of the pandemic made retailers reevaluate how to best serve customers who needed their services but were cautious about interacting with other people. This left many owners and operators grasping for ways to create efficiencies in their forecourts and operational systems, with many turning to digital solutions for help. In fact, Nielsen calls COVID-19 “the unexpected catalyst for technology adoption”, evidence of which can be seen in c-stores across the country in the form of new self-checkout stations and online ordering.  

The pandemic may have kickstarted technology integration, but replacing manual processes with new technologies doesn’t mean you have to use a different platform for each solution. That’s why Titan Cloud Software offers just one powerful platform, so you can manage all your site operations in one place. 

Titan Cloud’s platform offers three distinct solutions: environmental compliance, facility maintenance, and wetstock management; all of which integrate easily with your existing equipment and vendors. Data from ATGs, testing vendors, service providers, and back-office systems are all aggregated into the Titan platform, so you can see all your insights in one streamlined dashboard, saving users time and money.   

Environmental compliance for the modern era 

Managing compliance with spreadsheets and filing cabinets is like trying to run a store without a cash register: disorganized and vulnerable to mistakes. Titan’s environmental compliance software has round-the-clock tank monitoring and remote ATG management, so you can respond to leaks more quickly and minimize the damage to your site. The platform also houses all your compliance documentation and tracks important dates, so you never miss a deadline and have access to required documents in a moment’s notice. 

Fuel data at your fingertips 

Owners and operators have been discussing how to optimize their forecourts for years but organizing and analyzing large amounts of data was a time-consuming task, until Titan Cloud introduced their advanced fuel management software. With 24/7 remote access to your fuel system, organized forecourt data is just one click away, so you can monitor flow rates, nozzle availability, and inventory levels without interruption. Real-time inventory information and updated forecasts can then be sent to carriers and internal systems resulting in fewer runouts and more fuel sales.  

In addition to providing the tools you need to analyze your data, Titan’s platform also includes Perfect Gallon, the next generation solution for wetstock management. Perfect Gallon focuses on three critical areas for a greater ROI: inventory variance, frictionless fueling experiences, and fuel deliveries. Perfect Gallon uses a more accurate tank chart and corrects for meter drift, temperature, vapor loss, and fuel density to give you the lowest inventory variance possible. At the same time, it monitors and prevents slow flow, nozzle unavailability, and tank shutdowns, so you can improve your customer experience and increase fuel sales overall. Perfect Gallon also calculates fuel deliveries in real time, so you can reconcile them against Bills of Lading to eliminate short deliveries for good. Managing your wetstock has never been easier or more impactful to your bottom line than it is with Perfect Gallon. 

Site maintenance, streamlined 

You don’t make money when your assets aren’t working, which is why an efficient maintenance program is key to a successful c-store. Titan’s facility maintenance software was created with retailers in mind, so it has customizable features for purchase orders, work orders, and vendor management. It also allows you to manage your assets from inside the platform, so you can attach work orders to specific pieces of equipment and track comments, dispatch history, and even warranty information.  All of this can easily be compiled into a variety of reports for better decision making and a more streamlined, profitable business. 

A single source of truth 

Maintaining several software platforms with individual workflows can leave gaps in your processes and cause mistakes that are costly to correct. Unifying your solutions on one platform gives you the flexibility to manage all your site operations from anywhere. Titan Cloud customers have seen incredible returns on their software investment, from reducing environmental fines by 80% and increasing fuel sales by 6% to 40% fewer fuel runouts and annual savings of $3M from reducing variance. Results like these just go to show that using Titan’s compliance, maintenance, and fuel solutions together give retailers the largest boost in profits.   

Looking ahead 

Ongoing challenges related to the pandemic coupled with changing customer expectations mean digital solutions are here to stay. As these new technologies are implemented, retailers should ensure that they keep their technology stack as streamlined as possible by looking for software that integrates easily with their existing platforms or offers multiple solutions on one platform. Investing in these solutions upfront will help retailers avoid operational gaps and stay ahead in this highly competitive industry.  

Interested in saving time and money with Titan solutions? 

Paul Lauinger

VP of Solutions Consulting

Paul has over 25 years of global presales leadership experience and has a proven track record of building high-performing, scalable Solution Consulting teams that have advanced strategic, value-based selling skills.