Indian Oil to automate 1,745 retail outlets by year-end

Indian Oil Corp. Ltd. (IOCL) has entered into a strategic partnership with IT services company Atos, based in Bezons, France, to automate IOCL’s 1,745 oil retail outlets. Atos will complete the implementation by December 2015.

IOCL has 24,405 retail outlets, out of which 8,800 have already been automated. IOCL said it plans to automate 10,000 petrol stations by the end of this fiscal year.

Under the agreement, Atos will provide the complete solution design, equipment supply and installation, as well as extended service and support for five years.

“The automation of operations will leverage digital technology to help us monitor every fuel tank, every fuel dispenser machine and various quality parameters centrally controlled through our divisional offices. Data from all retail outlets will be sent to the IOCL central server for further analytics and intelligent decision making,” said G. Ramkumar, who is IOCL’s executive director for automation.

IOCL will automate its entire distribution chain, terminal and oil depots to increase efficiency throughout the retail supply chain. The retail automation initiative is aimed at enhancing customer satisfaction and achieving transparency in its operations.

“It helps IOCL monitor the quality of fuel dispensed to client and the quality of fuel delivered to its retail outlet. With the automation of retail outlets it can monitor/match volume of fuel delivered to the dealer and the volume of fuel dispensed at retail outlet. It’s a big move towards Industrial Internet of Things,” said Milind Kamat, CEO of Atos India.