October 8, 2021

ABOUT AUSTRALIAN TERMINALS OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT (ATOM)

Australian Terminals Operations Management (ATOM) operates and maintains bulk fuel terminals across Australia. Specialising in managing all aspects of terminal activities ranging from the storage and handling of bulk liquid fuels to maintenance and engineering services.

THE CHALLENGE

ATOM had a requirement for a central repository of information to enable reporting and data insights for stakeholders across multiple operational systems.

They needed to integrate minute-by-minute fuel inventory readings from 14 fuel terminals across Australia to provide a single, continuously updated view of inventory for their engineers.

OUR SOLUTION

Rapid Circle was engaged to design, build, test and deploy a solution. We proposed using the Microsoft Azure Data Factory for continuous insight on ATOM’s fuel inventory readings. ATOM hold Microsoft Office 365 and Azure services licenses, and as a result the Microsoft Azure Data Factor was a solution that would easily integrate within their current ICT environment.

A Microsoft Azure SQL server (PaaS), or data ‘warehouse’, was established on ATOM’s Azure tenant. It hosts three Azure SQL databases designed to capture the data extracted periodically from the on-premises servers on a timed schedule. Then stored the information in an Azure SQL ‘Database as a Service’ (DBaaS).

Power BI reports were produced to deliver data insights via a direct query connection to their respective data sources. Using Power BI, we were able to show a continuously updated fuel inventory report for ATOM’s engineers. The reports refresh every 15 minutes to ensure they read the most current data available in the data warehouse.

Azure Data Factory is a powerful and flexible cloud computing tool. By extending the existing fuel inventory solution, we were able to integrate multiple operational systems with Microsoft Azure. With the data now stored in Azure, ATOM have a range of cloud tools with which to analyse their data.

THE OUTCOME

ATOM now have a series of integrated and continuously updated fuel terminal reports they use daily to help them be more productive and gain insights into opportunities to improve ATOM’s business.

Cloud computing has opened many opportunities to integrate data between a company’s systems. ATOM now has a cloud-based solution that can scale up and down as business needs change. With Power BI reporting, ATOM’s engineers are spending less time performing manual data analysis in Excel.

Australian Terminal Operations Management (ATOM) have contracted Rapid Circle to extend the capabilities of their data warehouse which will pull data from Myosh in JSON format. This will enable ATOM to review historical data as well as live data via Power BI.