Steve Merrill, vice president, joined Overlake Oil in 1982. Several years later, Steve and his brother-in-law, Jim Jessen, began managing the business on their own.

THE CHALLENGE

"We soon realized that demand for home furnace oil was rapidly declining," Merrill recalls. "There was also a trend away from private underground fuel tanks because of environmental concerns. Our markets were changing, and we had to respond."

Adopting the latest technology was part of the answer. In 1982, Overlake Oil computerized its business operations, installing a UNIX-based system. By 1988, they had outgrown it and had to upgrade. At that point, Overlake chose to implement MAS 90 on a Novell network, customized for the petroleum industry by Steve Murphy at DM2 Software.

Murphy had long experience with both computer programming and the petroleum industry. He knew that the software programs available at that time could not provide a satisfactory system that accomodated both accounting functions and the special needs of the industry.

Instead of starting from scratch to develop his own integrated accounting/ petroleum package, Murphy decided to seek an existing accounting package and add his own petroleum component onto it.

THE SOLUTION

Murphy soon discovered that MAS 90 met his criteria for flexibility and ease of use. Best Software, the developer of MAS 90, and his company, DM2 Software, subsequently entered into a vertical market partnership. DM2 Software develops customized modules for the petroleum industry that seamlessly interface with MAS 90, providing a powerful package that offers petroleum distributors numerous business management advantages.

The Sales Order module with DM2Overlake Oil installed its most recent upgrade, MAS 90 for Windows, in 1998. "We wanted more people to have access to the PC-based system, and to be able to interface with MS Word“, Excel“ and the Internet," Merrill said. "MAS 90 with the DM2 modules has allowed us to accomplish with only a few employees what would otherwise require a lot of people. It’s been a key building block of our growth."

The Sales Order module with DM2 modifications is the linchpin of Overlake Oil’s MAS 90 system. When a customer calls in an order, the request is entered into the Sales Order module, a notice sent out to the delivery truck, an invoice generated, inventory relieved, and the general ledger updated. Reports and details on the customers, vendors and inventory are always only a few key strokes away.

Another key component for Overlake Oil is the Fuel Tax module. Since every state and locality has its own tax rate, and the price of fuel can change more than once a day, the Fuel Tax module is critical for keeping track of and accurately billing the differing rates. If an order is placed today and delivered next week, the billing may need to be updated to reflect a new price. MAS 90 monitors this activity and modifies invoices accordingly.

The third, and possibly most critical module for Overlake Oil, is the Card Lock module. Card Lock might be compared to a bank credit card. Cards are issued by individual companies, such as Overlake Oil, but customers are not limited to obtaining fuel at only one location. They can insert the card and fuel up at any of the hundreds of sites around the country affiliated with Pacific Pride network. However, they are invoiced for all transactions by the company that issued their card.

Overlake Oil has more than 500 accounts that use the Pacific Pride network. Many thousands of transactions are invoiced twice each month. As a result of the Card Lock module’s seamless interface with the network, Overlake Oil is able to calculate relevant costs for payments to the network and percentage markups for invoicing to its customers.

"MAS 90 with the DM2 modules is ultimately flexible," Merrill says. "We can customize each account, calculate real costs by monitoring price fluctuations, and both pay our bills and invoice in one powerful, but easy to use system. We couldn’t be where we are today without it."