MultiSight Case Study Boyett Petroleum October 2014 MultiSight Case Study: Boyett Petroleum
Convenience stores & fuel stations Established 1939 About Boyett Petroleum Boyett Petroleum is a fuel distributor and convenience store operator located in California. Boyett operates over 50 retail locations in the state of California using the brand name of Cruisers and KWIK SERV. Throughout various parts of California, Boyett is a distributor for Valero, Arco, and ConocoPhillips brand fuel. Their oldest station was acquired from the Barbour family and is a landmark in Ceres, CA that has been remodeled and is now a state of the art retail operation. It has served Ceres, CA since 1939. The Challenge Yes we have video, but I wouldn t call it a video solution. So began our first conversation with Scott Castle, Vice President of Retail Operations at Boyett Petroleum. Growing from 10 locations to 12 locations for a company the size of Boyett is relatively simple. We ve got the resources to scale up, acquire, invest, and operate retail locations all along the west coast. But for anybody, scaling from 10 locations to over 50 with a plan to grow further is a
challenge regardless of how you slice it...that s just the way it works. There s a lot of cooperation and effort that goes into that kind of retail growth, especially when retail is only part of your company s focus. Our biggest problem is managing that growth and making sure our retail operations are running at or above the Boyett standards. By 2013 Boyett had grown their retail operations to over 50 locations along the west coast and it continues to grow. For any business, deploying 50+ conventional video systems along with managing updates, users, system health, and future deployments becomes a problem. More specifically, Boyett was experiencing something that 90% of retailers experience when it comes to their video system...it turns into a reactive tool that is used rarely, rather than a proactive tool they use often. To design MultiSight, the cloud-based video service for multi-site retail, we spent a full year talking to people about their current experience with video what worked well for them, and what gave them trouble. We wanted to be sure we delivered a system that would address their most serious pain points. Operational issues confronted by Boyett included vendor delivery issues, traffic flow inside the stores, product placement, fuel theft, internal theft, vandalism, and liability claims in their car washes and in stores. At the top of Castle s list of requirements for his video system: reliability. After spending a lot of money on a PC-based video system, Castle was frustrated when he would go to retrieve video and find that the camera wasn t working, or the recorder wasn t recording. Remote access was also critical. Boyett s stores are spread throughout California, and at the majority of the locations, there was no way to pull video of an incident without driving out to the store. For some of the stores that did have remote access, maintaining connectivity was tough. Each site had different gear so there were 5 different ways to connect. And the bandwidth available in the more remote locations was so slow that video was practically unwatchable. Boyett s video systems were used strictly for forensic purposes, after the fact, either when an incident was reported, or when a significant exception appeared in the POS reports. In Castle's words, We just didn t look at video unless we had to.
Why MultiSight? Castle signed up to test MultiSight at a few of his stores. From his first login, Castle knew this was something new. Easy access. One username and password provides access to all of his stores; he doesn t need to remember store-specific credentials or IP addresses or load up specific client-software on his computer. He downloaded the app from the App Store and was up and running in seconds. Video quality. The video quality is fantastic the best I have seen on an ipad even from the more remote, bandwidth-constrained sites where a 200kbps connection is typical. Unique features. Castle likes being able to check store by store, or choose a view (like cash registers or fuel stations ) and see the same view across all of his locations a feature only available from MultiSight. And with MultiSight s cloud-based approach to video, new features and services (like heatmaps and people counting) can be activated with the tap of a button. Mobile friendly. Boyett s District Manager spends several weeks a month on the road, visiting stores. He appreciates being able to get to the video from his phone or tablet. The MultiSight app makes it easy for him to review video even when he is traveling, on the way to or from an in-person store visit. Ease of sharing video with anyone. With MultiSight s cloud-based approach, sharing video is easy. We had an incident at a store in California while I was on the East Coast. It was so cool to be able to pull the video I needed while I was sitting in a hotel room 3,000 miles away. The Benefits The ease of using MultiSight has led Castle and his team to conduct proactive, not just reactive, video monitoring. I ve looked at more video in the past 3 weeks than I have in the past 3 years and every time I do, I see something different that needs attention. I ve seen theft that I was able to share with police and I ve seen operational issues that I m able to share with my managers.
Most importantly, Castle is very comfortable with the service because he knows he s being taken care of. If a camera goes down, the MultiSight team replaces it for free, no questions asked. All of the MultiSight equipment is included for free and is guaranteed for the life of the contract, so customers can rest assured knowing if anything happens, they don t have to spend tons of money on hardware. And the MultiSight team has been great they are focused on delivering a fantastic customer experience, from the installation process to the apps and the equipment. Boyett Petroleum and MultiSight look forward to a long and productive relationship. Next Steps To learn more about how MultiSight can help you run your operations, please visit MultiSight.com or call 1-800-491-3014 to schedule a demo.