A fuel retailer preparing a network-wide modernisation of 60+ stations faced the classic dilemma: every vendor promises the same thing on a slide. Rather than sign a multi-year program on faith, it ran a proof of concept with DAE (Digital Assistant for Energy) at two deliberately different stations — one high-volume, multi-product urban site, and one single-product regional site with variable network quality — so the platform would have to prove itself at both extremes.
The scope was not softened for the pilot: multi-brand dispenser control (Wayne and Tokheim), ATG integration (ProGauge and TLS-450 on the Veeder-Root protocol), offline-capable back office, handheld POS with RFID staff authorisation, a full promotions engine with stacked and conditional discounts, automatic price-change scheduling with approval workflow, ERP integration for sales and wet stock, and customised HQ reporting.
Delivery
41 of 41 base functions, 34 of 34 customised functions, and 24 of 27 additional requests raised mid-POC — 97% of the total scope — in about eight weeks. Both stations stabilised within 3–5 days of go-live. Staff were fully operational by day two or three. There were no critical outages.
Frontline staff, historically the hardest audience for new station systems, asked to keep it:
“We no longer fear the long queue — it cuts seconds off every transaction.”
“Shift closing is easier now: no loading, no delays, no variance, no stuck transactions.”
The operator’s internal evaluation — spanning operations, IT, finance, pricing, marketing, engineering, and procurement — concluded the platform cleared every technical and operational bar the pilot was designed to test.
A modernisation decision doesn't need a leap of faith. Two stations and eight weeks produced more evidence than any tender document.