Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (BPCL) and Accenture are collaborating to transform India’s second largest oil and gas company by digitally reimagining its extensive sales and distribution network. Accenture will use its capabilities in data, artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud technologies to build, design and implement a digital platform, called IRIS.

This platform will integrate real-time data from across BPCL’s countrywide network, including more than 18,000 fuel retail outlets, 25,000 tank trucks, 75 oil installations and depots, 52 liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) bottling plants and 250 additional industrial and commercial locations, to provide a consolidated view of its extensive operations.

Driven by analytics based on AI and machine learning technologies, the IRIS platform will subsequently trigger automated alerts and actions, including rapid response to equipment failures or hazardous situations. It will also empower the BPCL workforce of more than 100,000 across the country to make faster and more accurate decisions, including preventative maintenance. This can help increase sales at fuel retail outlets by minimising infrastructure downtime and ensuring consistent fuel quality, as well as improve the experience for customers, the company said in a statement.

By embedding intelligence in BPCL’s sales and distribution network, Accenture is helping BPCL optimise its operational performance and efficiency, enhance security and safety and deliver a superior experience for its retail and commercial customers across the country.

Arun Kumar Singh, Director (Marketing) and Director (Refineries), BPCL, said, “Digital transformation opens up new opportunities for the oil and gas industry. As an organisation passionate about embracing change and leading the charge, we look forward to leveraging technology to unlock tremendous value, sustainable growth, and improved efficiency.”

“With the deployment of this highly automated command and control platform called IRIS, we will not only bolster our digital capabilities significantly, but also improve customer experience and transform operations at scale. It will further ensure consistent and uniform delivery of BPCL’s brand promises of innovation, care and reliability to our customers,” said Rahul Tandon, Head, Digital Transformation, BPCL.

The new platform will be capable of accepting more than three million inputs per second from automated sensors, cameras and Internet of Things (IoT) devices deployed at all key locations, tracking performance based on key parameters such as fuel stock, safety, compliance, equipment health and boosting asset uptime. BPCL’s field workforce and partner network will have a seamless experience thanks to support from a portal, mobile app and call centres in Noida and Chennai.

The digital sales and distribution platform will use BPCL’s cloud infrastructure, making it more agile and scalable.

“The future will belong to companies that purposefully combine advanced digital technologies with human skills and creativity,” said Piyush N. Singh, India Market Unit Lead at Accenture. “We believe our industry expertise and extensive digital capabilities can help BPCL drive the next wave of growth and gain a distinct advantage in the market. The powerful combination of human and applied intelligence will facilitate transformative change to ensure BPCL’s operations are safer, more secure and more efficient.”