Team Information

Members:
Adam Hidalgo
Arnaldo Rivera, Project Manager

Team Meatings:
Will be online Mondays and Wednesdays at 9pm via skype

Project Background:

Project: Industrial Fuel Dispensing Control System
Antecedents:
In industrial and government environment, usually fuel is bought in large quantities and dispensed in small quantities as the need arises. This model of distribution results to be convenient for this type of environment, but leads to other problems that must be controlled in order to have a successful operation and avoid losses.
Problems that may be found in the operation of this model:
• Use of resources by not authorized entities.
• Misuse or abuse of resources by authorized entities.
• Accountability problems – Resources cannot be tracked or assigned as cost to specific projects.
• The responsibility of storing the fuel becomes part of company or government’s responsibility. Making it necessary to create check and balance systems in order to avoid bleeding of fuel.
• It becomes difficult for paper systems to compare data with historic data in order to establish systems, which may lead to avoid abuse of resources.
• It is difficult for remote parties to coordinate fuel purchases.
There are in the market several systems addressing these problems, but in the past had been unpopular because of several reasons among we may find:
• There are huge restrictions in the dispenser equipment that may be used with the system.
• These systems usually are too expensive for the benefits they provide.
• There is lack of software tools to analyze the data collected.
• The currently available systems don’t provide methods for accessing the data through the Internet or exporting data in order to be used in currently popular accounting systems used by these companies.
• If there is more than one dispensing unit, they may not communicate with each other in any way.
• The software and hardware of currently available products work with proprietary hardware and software, creating the disadvantage of having to replace equipment that may still be used.
Deliverables:
• A system capable of controlling and dispensing fuel products in industrial environments.
• A system capable of handling several dispensing units independently of their location.
• Modules that can be integrated with currently available dispensers.
• Powerful reporting tools.
• User account control with privileges.
• Internet connectivity for accessing data and/or reports.
• Data export utilities making it easy to integrate with other software or hardware products.
• User accounts, privileges, vehicle information and other information may be controlled and edited off-site.

Competitive advantages:
• Remote data management tools.
• Lower TCO, using open source software, widely available hardware and giving several options to the users.
• Possibility of integrating with other hardware or software, to customize the system for the needs of the company.