Case Study: Racetrac
Accelerate Facilities Operations and Maintenance with Enterprise Service Automation
ServiceChannel
Highlights
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NEWFOUND VISIBILITY AND TRACKING on all work orders from creation to completion
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ENHANCED REPORTING on spending trends, service vendor performance and other relevant data
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IMPROVED COLLABORATION & PLANNING PROCESS between Field Services and Store Support Center
Quantifiable Results
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REDUCTION IN HELP TICKETS REQUIRING DIRECT, MANUAL INTERVENTION
“Previously there was definitely a ‘cost of business’ mentality when it came to facilities repair and maintenance costs. Beyond the cost issue, we were constantly challenged to meet SLAs which made it difficult for our store teams to deliver an exceptional guest experience.“
Jelani Headley
Senior Manager, Field Services Support
Customer
Drivers in the Southern United States can fill up on fuel and snacks at RaceTrac Petroleum outlets. The Atlanta-based company operates nearly 700 convenience stores and gasoline stations under the RaceTrac and RaceWay brands.
Challenges
Managing a highly distributed enterprise of nearly 700 convenience stores presents a number of operational challenges for any company. This was especially the case for RaceTrac’s Field Services team whose
responsibilities include fielding and routing hundreds of maintenance and repair requests originating from any of its stores at any given time. Key challenges this team sought to overcome included:
- Lack of transparency and visibility in the work order process after the stores initiated help tickets, which led to redundant work orders
- Legacy FM system’s inability to process contractor invoicing and payment, creating a lack of clarity in terms of repair and maintenance (R&M) spend and budget
- Overall poor perception of the facilities management team both internally and externally
“It’s been like night and day compared to our old process. Vendors love doing business with us now because ServiceChannel makes it very easy to work with us.“Sometimes the tool is not good enough to ‘catch on fire’ within a company. But ServiceChannel was able to engender support at all levels of RaceTrac because of its ability to be our system of record.”
Jelani Headley
Senior Manager, Field Services Support
Goal
RaceTrac’s Store Support Center, including Facilities Management and Field Services, identified several decision criteria in its search for a new service automation platform:
- Superior functionality, automation and flexibility than its legacy product
- Advanced analytics and reporting capabilities to deliver more transparency to the spending/budgeting process
- Visibility into spend and budget data
- Trend forecasting including resource allocation for specific R&M categories
- Improved overall perception of Facilities Management and Field Services teams within the company as well as with contractors and strategic suppliers
- Enterprise-class platform to serve as the “system of record” with the ability to track the complete lifecycle of work orders based on costs, performance and results
Solution
After a thorough search process, RaceTrac selected ServiceChannel due to its advanced data analytics, reporting and mobile computing capabilities.
Specifically, RaceTrac deployed:
- ServiceChannel Service Automation to automate key business and service processes such as sourcing and activating contractors in every region of operations, consolidating invoice and payment management, and providing visibility and data for improved performance, compliance and risk management
- ServiceChannel Custom Analytics to provide detailed visibility and transparency of all R&M costs based on any number of criteria such as by contractor, by trade and even by specific equipment
- ServiceChannel Site Audit Manager mobile application to allow anyone at RaceTrac to conduct fully guided yet comprehensive on-site audits of facilities (even creating needed work orders on the fly) using
smartphones or tablets. This replaced a “pen-and-paper” site audit model requiring surveys to be faxed and rekeyed into the appropriate databases
Benefits
RaceTrac’s ServiceChannel implementation improved its facilities maintenance and repair process dramatically in terms of efficiency and cost savings. Moreover, the company has been able to provide a new level
of customization and self-sufficiency so the hundreds of active users can create and track work orders to successful resolution. Specific benefits included:
- Enhanced visibility and reporting of facilities data for improved trend analysis, budget planning and inter-departmental collaboration such as better preparations for seasonal promotions using asset maintenance insights from previous campaigns
- Improved contractor management and relationships through advanced features such as on-site mobile/GPS check-in, streamlined invoicing and payment processing, and more transparent service work order management from start to finish
Results
The successful ServiceChannel deployment convinced RaceTrac’s management to make the platform the enterprise system of record for a number of departments and key business processes. This promises to further enhance the level of collaboration and effective planning while raising the overall perception of the Store Support Center. Key performance indicators RaceTrac has measured include:
- 50% decrease in the volume of unresolved daily case tickets requiring direct, manual involvement of the Field Services team, from about 300 to 150 tickets
- Field Services team’s meeting or exceeding its SLAs even in a period of more than 40% staff attrition
