Implico, an international software and consulting company for the oil and gas industry, recently celebrated a key digitalization milestone, with its Connected Truck and Connected Depot 1.0 apps now SAP certified.
The cloud-based micro services, which are built on the SAP Cloud Platform through its “Co-Innovated with SAP” program, offer benefits for tank terminal operators and their business partners, including more efficient, secure and transparent truck handling from entrance to exit, Implico said. The SAP certification underlines the added value that Connected Truck and Connected Depot grant their users.
“With the ‘Connected Truck’ and ‘Connected Depot’ apps newly achieving SAP Certification through the ‘Co-Innovated with SAP’ program, we are taking an important step toward our vision of a fully digitalized, intelligent downstream supply chain,” said Tim Hoffmeister, CEO of the Implico Group. “The increase in process optimization for tank farms and carriers is immense. We are looking forward to offering our new ‘Supply Chain United’ technologies to the industry soon. Here, the label ‘Co-Innovated with SAP’ will help us a lot.
“After all, a company that opts for an SAP-certified product can be certain to receive class-A technology and service to help boost its business.”
The Co-Innovated with SAP program is designed to help partners through the development lifecycle that culminates in a SAP-certified and -tested solution against SAP product standards. It is an end-to-end program of guided services offered by the SAP Partner Innovation Lifecycle Services organization that helps partners take their products to market in alignment with other SAP teams (product management, solution management, development and field), thereby providing the guidance and support to help ensure a competitive solution.
The Connected apps are part of Supply Chain United (SCU), an across-the-board architecture of easy-to-use web services for all supply chain processes with multiple participants, the company maintained. Implico realized them through the co-innovation program with SAP. This initiative enabled the downstream IT solution provider to tap into a global expert network and use state-of-the-art technologies and platforms. The results are two solutions providing oil and gas companies, such as tank farms, refineries, fuel retail networks and logistics firms, with operational process excellence and added value.
“To boost the supply chain efficiency across complex business networks by increased collaboration based on standardized processes becomes an objective that companies are pursuing in the fuels secondary distribution domain,” said Jean-Marc Delbos, director of SAP’s oil and gas industry business unit. “The ‘Connected Truck’ and ‘Connected Depot’ applications by Implico are prefiguring the evolution toward such business networks that will further develop in these times of fundamental transformation.”
Connected Truck directly links the truck driver with the dispatching and transport planning system. This enhances the trip planning and reconciliation for bulk deliveries and raises many new possibilities. The result is that the fetch and deliver process can become more efficient, transparent and safe for all parties involved, Implico said.
Connected Depot addresses two crucial issues at tank farms with truck connections, namely queuing at the gate and traffic on site. Via the cloud-based Online Check-in, it streamlines product loading in oil, gas and chemical terminals. The key to the app’s success is that it links all partakers in the operation in real time, keeping them in the loop regarding the latest developments, and lets them carry out key work steps before the truck has arrived at the gate.
This supports a seamless process from planning to execution, even in cases that involve several terminals and customers, Implico added.
Connected Truck and Connected Depot already are implemented at pilot locations in Europe, Implico said. Visit supply-chain-united.com and sign up for the Supply Chain United mailing list for more information.