In order to ensure that payment for Murco’s expanding fuel and non-fuel retail offering can always be taken via credit and debit card, Murco has added 3G capability to its already highly reliable Timico Wide Area Network. Through Timico’s new Mobile Access Management (MAM) service, systems in all of Murco Petroleum’s fast growing network of service stations throughout England, Scotland and Wales, will now automatically switch to the failsafe wireless back-up if connectivity is lost during business hours.
An earlier enhancement to Murco’s systems meant that management staff at the organisation’s petrol stations no longer had to manually complete a hardcopy daily report sheet and post it to head office for input into a central database. To replace the old and inefficient method of performance reporting, a bespoke online application was developed to capture the same details in a fraction of the time. The system is supported by a business-strength IP network from Timico, ensuring reliability, speed and accuracy. As a tier one fuel retailer there were many options open to Murco, with Timico chosen due to its outstanding products, services and price point; as Umar Bajwa, Manager UK Networks, Murco Petroleum Limited confirms:
"We chose Timico because they understood our technology requirements and could provide the kind of innovative, robust and secure IP infrastructure we needed to run our applications and keep our sites connected. They are able to do all this at the best cost for us and they are a good fit with our business. We can interface at the right levels for whichever services we need, something which can be more difficult with larger organisations."
Timico has provided Murco with a Private Wide Area Network (PWAN) to connect all of its retail sites to head office for 7 years. The network gives Murco fully redundant breakout and managed access to the Internet, keeping all of its sites fully connected 24 hours a day. Timico integrates new retail sites as Murco expands, and also manages the company’s business telephone lines and mobiles, delivered with a bespoke system of billing.
The addition of the wireless technology will be greatly beneficial for Murco, and with non-cash payments becoming increasing popular, will be an important advancement for all retailers; as Trefor Davies, Chief Technology Officer at Timico explains: “The MAM service is enabled through high-speed, private access into O2’s network using an Access Point Name (APN) to deliver business-grade connectivity with all the features required to keep our retail customers fully connected 365 days a year. This includes back up connectivity for payment systems and the very rapid deployment of communications at small or temporary retail sites.”
"The Timico network has made us much more efficient and has allowed Murco to manage a large and increasingly growing network of retail sites without significantly increasing our staff or costs. The new Timico 3G payment failover service has already paid for itself many times over." concludes Bajwa.