What is a data super-power?

As a technology user today, seeing your data collected and sold to the highest bidder to sell you everything from holidays to toothbrushes, you might get confused as to whether you are the customer or the product.

 Amazon got your data, Google got your data, everyone got your data. So why are we, EdgePetrol, asking for your data?

Is it to help you run your business, or to help us run yours? What are we going to do with it, what are our plans?

Many of the systems and products a petrol retailer uses every day enable the switched-on business owner to report and view the data they generate.

So what are Edge going to do, that you cannot already do using the systems you already have?

We are here to give you super-powers. That's right, super powers.

Let me explain how the Edge platform is going to give you the super-powers you need to run your business more efficiently, more profitably:

Right now, the Edge platform is connected to all those systems you have around your business and we are presenting insight in an awesome business-centric dashboard.

How is insight different to data?

Data is just numbers and words. Insight is understanding the questions you ask and showing you the information you need to get to the answers. We call that valuable insight.

As an example, we connect to your POS, we connect to your fuel supplier. We take that data and use it to create insight - your real-time blended margin. Your most important business metric, right when you need it. Not at the end of the month, but now.

Here is where the first super-power arrives. We are looking to sharpen focus by highlighting the exceptions. The things you really need to know about. 

OK, you have 10 stations and we show the margin for each. But if one of those dips under your margin target – maybe  mispricing, maybe an unexpected rise in the supply price – then we highlight that to you. You don't have to search for it, we send an alert, and you can act on it immediately. This enables you see everything – your first super-power– and mange by exception.

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Next, we are going to help you see into the future. We are developing models, and some are already in action, to predict what will happen tomorrow and next week at your stations, to your business. From sales volume predictions to cash flow predictions, from pricing sensitivity to customer behavior. Right now, Edge customers can see how long the fuel in their tanks will last, and what their ullage will be over the next 7 days, to enable them to make accurate orders.

Once you have an accurate picture of your business, you can respond rapidly to new events, and sometimes even before they happen. Here at EdgePetrol we want to build models to capture your responses to events, and save you time the next time the same event occurs:

• So, you always order when you have 5 days' unleaded left? Why don't you let us take care of that?
• You price at replacement cost price plus 5p, or blended cost price plus 5p? Leave it to us.
• You like to move pricing up quickly, and down slowly? Let us operate that parachute pricing strategy for you.

Now you can spend less time thinking about the day to day operations and more time thinking about and setting strategies.

Is that a super-power? I think so. But looking further ahead, we are going to do whatever it takes to make it easier for you to run your business, more efficiently, more profitably. We are going to help you read your competitor’s minds, take decisions before they are needed, and bring peace to the world…well, maybe not that last one. But standby, we have plans.