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Dover Fueling Solutions Launches DFS DX

Dover Fueling Solutions Launches DFS DX

By Angela Altass

Dover Fueling Solutions (DFS) recently announced the launch of the DFS DX connected solutions platform, proclaiming that it enables digital transformation for the global fueling and retail industry by delivering operational cost reductions, increased sales, and an enhanced customer experience through a combination of intelligent connected cloud solutions.

“The DFS DX platform provides a common set of cloud-based services that are leveraged across all DFS DX applications to drive increased time-to-value for our customers and lower cost of ownership,” says Matt Tormollen, vice president and general manager, Dover Fueling Solutions. “Not only are these applications implemented in a true edge computing IoT model to drive value closest to the point of impact, but we’ve built it from the ground up to enable third-party customers and partners to easily integrate their clouds and applications, which is a real game-changer to radically transform the face of the fueling industry.”

DFS, part of Dover Corporation, delivers advanced fuel dispensing equipment, electronic systems and payment, fleet systems, automatic tank gauging, and wetstock management. DFS DX is the industry’s first open, global, and common cloud platform that harnesses advanced analytics and IoT, delivering five core innovative solutions focused on customer experience and asset optimization. These five core solutions span wetstock management, remote asset monitoring, targeted advertising and media at the dispenser, fleet fueling site management, and point of sale management.

Tormollen says DFS DX provides solutions that deliver easy, convenient, actionable insights to track and manage day-to-day business activity on the forecourt and, ultimately, transform the customer experience and optimize site asset performance.

“The two key takeaways, optimizing site assets and improving the consumer experience, are the pillars of what we are trying to do with the platform,” says Tormollen, noting that the solutions platform has been tested at several locations prior to the official launch announcement.

Whether clients have one, a few or many sites, Tormollen says DFS DX is a good fit.

“One of our early adopter customers for the platform is a single site owner,” notes Tormollen. “Pre-pandemic it was easy for a small site owner or a person who owns a couple of sites to just drive between the sites and physically keep an eye on things, whereas in pandemic world, being able to remotely monitor the site has become more of a topic that our smaller multi-site owners are also interested in.”

Tormollen says he is pleased with the feedback coming in regarding the DFS DX platform.

“We already have a few case studies, even though we are still in the early days, and it has been very exciting for us,” says Tormollen. “On the media offering side, we’ve received some really great feedback from early adopter customers and equally so on the DX Fleet side as well. Across the board, we’ve been pleased with the feedback. From a strategy standpoint, we really wanted to test the value proposition of these products in the field before we launched, just to make sure we are meeting the expectations from a customer value perspective with the way we are positioning the product.”

The pandemic has driven a lot of discussion around the future of mobile payments and the ability to do contactless payments, says Tormollen.

“If you were to look at mobile payment adoptions pre-pandemic, it stayed at similar levels for a few years,” he notes. “Then, the pandemic elevated it and I think that once someone gets used to that as a mechanism, they’re going to stick with it.”

Site diversity and cloud solutions can be a challenging combination, notes Tormollen.

“You know that you’re going to get heterogeneous equipment and different version levels of software and embedded systems and things of that nature,” states Tormollen. “Since we are doing this as a global strategy, we’ve had to look at our own internal diversity in terms of the way that we’re bringing the solution to market, which enables us to create more of an open platform.”

DFS notes that the solutions platform empowers fuel retailers to identify fuel loss in real-time, optimize dispenser uptime, increase sales through targeted advertising at the fuel dispenser, centrally manage point of sale solutions and control an entire fleet from a single interface.

The digital transformation connected solutions platform has been tested at sites in the United States, but Tormollen says there is also keen interest on the Canadian site of the border.

“We have lots of interest from our Canadian customers,” he says. “We have a pretty strong penetration from the dispenser market perspective in Canada. We have some DS Fleet sites that are going to implement the platform this week in Canada and we have some long-standing engagements that we’ve been working on related to the media and monitoring side as well. The interest is keen and we are currently moving forward on the DS Fleet side in Canada. From the early engagement we’re seeing, I’d say that there’s some really exciting stuff coming relative specifically to the Canadian market.”

DX Fleet enables customers to quickly reconcile transactions across multiple sites, while ensuring sites stay up and running at peak condition.

“We were excited to introduce DX Fleet as the first solution as part of the DFS DX solutions platform,” says Michael Boyd, director of product management, fleet solutions, Dover Fuel Solutions. “Offering end-to-end solutions to our customers that will help them access real-time data insights, unlock alerts and notifications, and ultimately save time will give them the confidence they need to ensure their fleets are running at optimal efficiency.”

Access to site generated alerts gives owners and operators the ability to manage assets to help ensure any error can be easily diagnosed and resolved from anywhere at any time.

“Using traditional polling methods, it could take as long as 45 minutes to retrieve all of our transactions,” says Jeff Rowden, director of Cardlock, Coleman Oil. “Having notifications from the sites gives us the ability to know there is an issue without having to wait to be notified by a customer that there is a problem.”

DX Promote, part of the DFS DX connected solutions platform, provides retail fueling owners and operators with a centralized rich content management platform that transforms fuel dispensers into automated selling machines featuring locally targeted advertising at each fueling point.

“In addition to helping our customers drive engagement, differentiate and showcase their products, the DX Promote user experience has been designed to streamline operations by creating a simple process to upload and change the promotional and media content customers see at varying stages of the fueling process,” said Reggie O’Donoghue, senior director of product management at Dover Fueling Solutions. “This is part of our company’s core mission – enabling the evolution of the consumer experience.”

Driven by Microsoft Azure, DX Promote leverages next-generation technology to centrally manage and deploy day and time appropriate advertisements, boosting in-store sales, on-site carwashes and other services, and ultimately increasing overall average per-visit revenue and profit, says a press release from DFS.

“DX Promote on the Anthem UX platform is by far the biggest technology leap we have seen in gas pumps since we got into this industry 25 years ago,” says Marvin Poota, owner and operator, Wixcom BP. “We highlight our food service from our kitchen, individual product promotion and pictures of inside the store. It has been refreshing to see this shift in technology.”

DFS DX utilizes Microsoft’s Azure IoT platform to gather and process a multitude of secure data points to deliver real-time information that helps fuel networks drive efficiencies and cost savings while providing security and scalability, says Tormollen.

“It is exciting any time you can set a vision and then execute it over a multi-year period,” states Tormollen. “The reception from the market, so far, has been fantastic. Now, it’s about execution and making sure that we deliver on our promise. As we work toward our goal of being the leading global provider of enhanced technologies in the fuel retail and convenience sectors, we continue to focus on delivering innovative products that exceed expectations, like the DFS DX platform.”

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