MOTOR OIL
Nick Giannakakis , Group CIO at Greece ’ s Motor Oil , discusses accelerating digital strategy , digitising manufacturing processes and the customer experience
In the months since the Covid-19 pandemic began , numerous industries have reported a fast acceleration in terms of moving to digital processes . This certainly rings true for Motor Oil , an oil refinery based in Greece that is one of the largest in Europe . “ In the last two months we ’ ve seen two years ’ worth of acceleration ,” its Group Chief Information Officer Nick Giannakakis says . It has also been a complex endeavour , as Giannakakis describes the company as “ one of the biggest , most complex manufacturing refineries in Europe ”.
Motor Oil has a strong export branch , with 78 % of its operations coming from export sales that need to be facilitated via loading ports and vehicles .
As well as being an oil refinery they have a large retail operation , with hundreds of petrol stations selling non-fuel products as well as petrol , making up a large part of the business .
A key aspect of the acceleration caused by COVID was ensuring employees could continue to perform their daily duties remotely . “ We had to address the end user computer experience for staff , to make sure they could still work collaboratively from home and get the best possible performance ,” Giannakakis says .
While the pandemic of course brought challenges , Motor Oil decided to not stop any of its investments in technology , which meant much of its digital programme could continue and it also ensured a good , continued relationship with their partners . That also meant it didn ’ t have to delay its digital transformation .
Giannakakis is a believer in resilience in the face of adversity . To handle the challenges of COVID to the business , he says Motor Oil showed great resilience . They demonstrated this by creating new solutions . “ At the peak of the crisis we developed a digital planning tool that allows our employees to perform their daily business ,” says Giannakakis . “ When you have an organisation that needs to communicate by making hundreds of calls on a daily basis and do their jobs from home , having the same quality in terms of communication is a very important aspect .” For the retail side of the business the company used advanced analytics to deep dive into sales models , identifying relevant models that could predict future sales . This helped them develop solutions to scale up , such as a new pay at pump service which eliminates the need for customers to step inside a shop to pay .
76 May 2021