How much time and money would your company save by maintaining all of its terminal data worldwide from a single Web site?

Grand Central Server is a Web-server application that enables companies to manage their risks and activities at bulk product distribution terminals, replacing the need to connect to dozens or hundreds of standalone automation systems.

Grand Central is the most effective supply chain management tool for:

• Companies that own terminals.
• Companies that store products at terminals.
• Petroleum marketers.

High Value For Your Business

• Nothing to buy, nothing to install.
• Centralized file maintenance, management and reports across all terminals.
• Globally enforced allocations and credit controls.
• File exchange with ERP and back-office systems.
• Elimination of costs for third-party data services (e.g. Petroex, TDS)
• Centralized e-mailing of reports to anyone.
• Elimination of redundant data entry.
• Greater data security.
• Universal order entry and order management.
• Reduction in training costs.
• Immediate information on all transactions, allocations, orders, and inventory.
• Unlimited company-wide access.

Running on a computer server at GA-ESI or within your company, Grand Central is a secure data clearinghouse that exchanges information with terminal automation systems, back-office systems and ERP systems to provide Users with near real-time, centralized control of their terminal activities. GA-ESI’s powerful TMS3000 terminal automation system is the engine for Grand Central. In general, Grand Central is TMS3000 managing the data of multiple terminals.

A major leap over services like DTN’s Petroex and Toptech’s TDS, which simply send BOL files, Grand Central gives you the ability to maintain the database, control your credit risks and distribute data the way you want to.

Information in Grand Central can be updated either automatically through file exchanges or manually using its Web browser screens. For example, your back-office system could use FTP to send files containing updates to allocations, credit, orders, and customers. Grand Central would then distribute the information to the individual terminals. Your back-office system would get a new transaction file from Grand Central every time a transaction occurs.

System access is configurable, so you can set up authorizations for everyone within your company to maintain the files and create the reports they need. And they can do it from any PC, anywhere.

Grand Central is user-friendly enough for even untrained personnel to be productive maintaining many of the files. Users who are familiar with terminal automation systems are immediately comfortable and anyone who works with TMS3000 is right at home. Training can be done over the phone while students are on-line with Grand Central. You’ll want some training to take full advantage of global management and the system’s more complex features, such as allocations, credit control and order management.

Unlimited Usage For A Flat Monthly Fee
Unlike other data service providers, GA-ESI lets companies choose whether to run the Grand Central software on their in-house computer servers or utilize GA-ESI’s servers, which is done by subscribing to the inexpensive, month-to-month service. The flat monthly fee gives subscribing companies:

• Unlimited number of users (individual access is configurable).
• Unlimited access 24/7.
• Unlimited number of transactions.
• Unlimited reports.
• Unlimited file exchanges.
• Unlimited BOL file transmissions.

No mysterious access charges, no unpredictable storage fees and no data transfer charges. You get everything you need for the flat monthly fee.

Terminal Owners Profit With Grand Central
Terminal owners - especially owners of public storage terminals - face the increasingly complex challenges of maintaining files and distributing information for dozens of Shippers and hundreds of their Customers.

Fax machines at many terminals run overtime receiving updates to allocations and customer files, which terminal personnel then type into the local automation systems. When a new customer has to be added at 40 terminals, 40 faxes are sent and 40 entries are made. Terminal teams, often just two or three people, are kept busy faxing bills of lading (BOLs) all over the country while fielding phone calls asking if they’ve gotten the latest faxes and when they’ll enter the updates.

Some companies use dial-in access (a nice 1980s solution) to the automation systems to update files and to create reports. Others pay hefty fees to outside data services companies to gather their transaction files. Things start to go haywire when a terminal has so many Shippers dialing in that they have to maintain several phone lines, a bank of modems, and schedule the dial-in times for each Shipper.

These methods of managing multiple terminals are more typical than the sleek, seamless integrations you see featured in magazines and at industry conferences. If you own multiple terminals, these labor-intensive methods of data distribution are eating away at your bottom line, month after month like a slow leak.

With companies investing millions of dollars in integrated supply chain management systems, they’re rightfully demanding immediate access to their transactions and file updates. Grand Central gives terminals and Shippers the effective data management they need while improving reliability and cutting costs.

Grand Central Gives Control To Shippers
Shippers or Shareholders are owners of products at a terminal. Many Shippers own terminals and also store products and load trucks at third-party terminals.

If you’re a Shipper, your profits depend on controlling your credit risks and inventories. Your risks multiply when you have to wait for someone at the terminal to fax bills of lading to let you know what your customers loaded. And your costs skyrocket if you’re still paying an outside service for every electronic BOL. Grand Central lets you manage your terminal business as if you own the terminals. You don’t have to install anything to achieve company-wide access.

Let’s say your company owns 30 terminals and stores products at another 20 terminals that are owned by others. For you to get transaction information today, you’re probably dialing into a PC at each of the 50 terminals, or you’re paying a service to do it for you. When you need to update allocations, you’re again dialing in to each of the 50 terminals and typing the information 50 times, or your back-office system is dialing in 50 times to download files. Even worse, you might be faxing the updates to 50 terminals and hoping they’ll react immediately.

Instead of managing each terminal individually, Grand Central gives you all of the transactions and lets you maintain data at all 50 terminals with a single connection. Your ERP and back-office systems can exchange data while everyone in your company has configurable access from any PC.

Whether you have a sophisticated ERP system or a use a set of Excel spreadsheets, Grand Central is the most comprehensive solution for managing your terminal activities.

Marketers Finally Get Empowered
Marketers, jobbers, wholesalers, and distributors are involved in the majority of transactions at petroleum terminals, yet their needs for transaction information are too often neglected. Many of these companies cater to niche markets and small accounts that number in the thousands at some terminals.

If you’re a Marketer, you’ve probably been told that entering all of your customers into a terminal’s automation system is too much work, and instead of entering your individual accounts, the terminal will enter one account per state or one per county. Then, because your BOLs say only that a load was delivered to an account named “Illinois”, you have to do some detective work to match each BOL with the correct customer.

Using Grand Central, you can enter all of your customers using your own account numbers and order numbers. BOLs contain the info you need and the terminal folks are happy to be out of the data entry loop. Customer allocations, credit controls, transaction files, and full reports are all yours with Grand Central.

Perfect For Unautomated Terminals Too
Terminals that don’t have automation systems may achieve the highest return on investment with Grand Central. All that’s needed is an Internet PC. The terminal would load trucks as it does today with the transaction data being typed into Grand Central’s browser screens. Once the transaction is in the system, you have all the power of a fully automated terminal – professional BOLs, inventory and customer management, allocation and credit controls, data distribution, and reporting. You get it all without installing anything. Low-volume terminals and terminals that handle asphalt, propane, chemicals, and fertilizers experience huge leaps in efficiency using Grand Central.