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Krishna Peri
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Gilbarco Veeder-Root

· Oil & Gas

EU Connected Dispenser

Remote monitoring that gives fuel dispensers a voice

Stakeholder interviews
57
Of interviews conducted
33 hrs
Prototype willingness to pay
8.8/10

Challenge framing

"How might we deliver a suite of remote dispenser monitoring capabilities for both customers and service organizations in a way that optimizes dispenser performance and improves service efficiency, so that both stakeholders can maximize ROI?"

Research at a glance

Data points from previous VOC
54
Stakeholder interviews
57
Of interviews conducted
33 hrs

Alongside a full day shadowing technicians in the field, in true safari style.

Voices from the field

A cross-section of retailers and operators across the European forecourt network.

01

Circle K

Nicholson Christiansen

02

BP Germany

Andreas Fuchs

03

OMV

Krnjaic Vanja

04

Tesco

Nic Tribble

05

ASDA

John Welham

06

ODR Iceland

Jonas Kristinsson

Discovering pain

Interview themes clustered by stakeholder group, sized by how often they came up. Hover a bubble to bring it forward.

Customers
15 signals · 4 themes
  • 01

    Dispenser operations

    6
    Meter driftFlow rateHardware failuresPoor UXVapor recoveryFilter issues
  • 02

    Lack of predictive maintenance

    3
    Higher costsUnplanned downtimePoor UX
  • 03

    Issue reporting

    4
    No detailManual taskUnable to trackDelays
  • 04

    Unmanned sites

    2
    Downtime is criticalFix time is long
Service providers
13 signals · 4 themes
  • 01

    Inefficient operations

    4
    First time fix is 75%No fault foundCould fix issues remotely 10-20% of timeWasted truck tolls
  • 02

    Profitability

    3
    Some service contracts negative marginPlanned visits 50% cheaper than emergency visitsNFF invoice is less than visit cost
  • 03

    Lack of logs

    3
    Want predictive analysisTriage faults remotelyCan see fix history
  • 04

    Issue reporting

    3
    Incorrect infoConsumer is first to find faultMultiple issue reporting paths

From the field to the wall

Shadowed service visits across the European network, then took every observation, quote, and photo back to a wall of notes to cluster the pain points that drove the design.

01 · Site visits
GVR van and technician servicing a dispenserVisit 01

Forecourt · service visit

Rode along with a GVR technician on a scheduled call-out.

Open dispenser electronics panel during serviceVisit 02

Dispenser internals

Opened the cabinet to see which faults left no digital trace.

Technician laptop connected to a Circle K dispenserVisit 03

Circle K, on-site diagnostics

Watched the fault-triage flow from the technician’s laptop.

02 · Synthesis wall
miro · pain-point synthesis
3 visits · 982×839
Customer synthesis affinity board clustering interview notes and themes
The affinity-mapping wall that turned raw field notes into the pain-point clusters above.

Prototype testing

Figma prototype flow for the connected dispenser dashboard

High-level low-fidelity screens tested with customers and service providers, earning an average willingness-to-pay score of 8.8/10.

Key insights

Feedback from the open-ended interviews and testing sessions, clustered and synthesized into what each stakeholder group valued most.

What do they like?

Customers

  • Depth of data collected
  • Look and feel of the prototype
  • Relying less on site personnel
  • Critical for unmanned pumps
  • Preventive maintenance

Service providers

  • Ability to monitor service providers
  • Remote access to pump logs
  • Look and feel of dashboard
  • Remote reboot of pumps
  • Scheduled visits
  • Can triage service requests

What do they want to see?

Customers

  • Full site monitoring
  • Details of previous root causes
  • True predictive maintenance
  • Meter drift monitoring
  • Integrated service ticketing

Service providers

  • Hardware monitoring and sensors
  • Remote software update
  • Vapor recovery data access
  • True predictive maintenance
  • Include CRIND monitoring
  • Integrated service ticketing
  • Extra sensors to detect issues

Competitive analysis

Mapped by complexity of offering against threat level, from point enablers to full-site monitoring.

Enablers

Generic IoT remote monitoring platform

+ Already have fuel retailers as customers.

− No experience in dispensers yet.

L&T retrofit sensors

+ Could transfer to non-L&T dispensers.

− Only works for L&T dispensers today.

Home grown

Customer-developed solutions

+ Reduces SAM for third parties.

− Low data complexity.

Full site monitoring

GVR Advanced Uptime

+ Dispenser and FCC agnostic.

− Log-file installation is expensive.

Dover DX Monitor

+ Strong brand recognition.

− Only works for Dover dispensers.

Astro Baltics

+ Offers full site monitoring.

− Low brand recognition.

Product roadmap

A three-horizon rollout, expanding from core dispenser monitoring to full-site coverage.

1

8 months

Horizon 1

  • Scope: all dispenser brands, DOMS FCC.
  • Remote reboot, alarms and alerts, SLA performance.
  • Asset info, flow rate, remote parameter setting.
  • Sales pattern analysis.
  • €10M SOM.
2

14 months

Horizon 2

  • Scope: all dispenser brands, all FCC (Ghost DOMS).
  • Preventative maintenance analytics, vapor recovery.
  • Detailed flow rate monitoring.
  • Log files (GVR dispensers only).
  • €41M SAM.
3

15 months

Horizon 3

  • Scope: full site monitoring, Ghost DOMS.
  • Preventative maintenance analytics, vapor recovery, detailed flow rate monitoring.
  • Log files, Ghost PSS, DOMS, power cycling, installation.
  • €78M SOM.
Open to senior & staff roles

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