Wilson Oil & Propane was introduced to Cargas Systems through Saul Cohen, an energy software sales representative the team had worked with in the past who had joined Cargas. Although Cargas did not have an energy solution at the time, O'Connell shared that he and others at Wilson felt confident in Cargas's abilities.  

After considering three different vendors, Wilson Oil & Propane asked Cargas to develop a custom solution for their fuel operations. The company collaborated with Cargas to create the software that would later become known as "Cargas Energy." 

According to O'Connell, one of the most significant benefits that Wilson Oil & Propane has gained with Cargas Energy is having seasonal K-factor forecasting built into the software. Prior to the Cargas solution, they were limited to only a "summer" and "winter" model to forecast customer fuel needs. Cargas Energy software uses a formula that more precisely predicts delivery needs during the variable weather conditions in the spring and fall. 

"Our other vendor didn't believe in that method for calculating deliveries," explained O'Connell. "Having that was crucial for the delivery operations of our business and to maintain customer confidence in our abilities." 

Wilson Oil & Propane also uses tank monitors and a business analytics platform to take their forecasting abilities to the next level. 

O'Connell said that the delivery management oversight they have with Cargas Energy has allowed them to increase their gallons delivered per stop—and they currently rank in the top 10 percent within the industry for that metric. 

One of the features that Wilson Oil & Propane helped Cargas pioneer (in approximately 2010) was batch loading of customer payments made by credit cards. 

"Receiving payments that way wasn't widely adopted back then in the fuel industry. With our Cargas Energy software, we could import a file out of the credit card processor system and update our customers' accounts in a mass batch. Prior to that, we had to manually create a transaction in the credit card system and then manually post payment info in our customer accounts," said O'Connell. "Fast forward to today, the Cargas Energy solution now has a fully automated credit card payment process." 

He also mentioned that Cargas Energy allowed them to email statements to customers. "It sounds so simple, but it was a revolutionary capability back then." 

O'Connell shared, "Looking back at the very beginning, the Cargas Energy core product was very good, and its tried-and-true foundation remains largely intact. That's a testament to all involved in the process. The solution was not only built for Wilson, but also for the benefit of the whole industry." 

He said that Cargas Energy has developed many enhancements over the years to progress with the companies it serves. From advanced routing and dispatching features to the mobile delivery app and more, the software has adapted to changing industry needs. 

"The software has evolved with us as we grew from a heating oil company to one that offers  propane delivery and other products and services. Cargas Energy has never restricted our ability to grow," said O'Connell. 

Wilson Oil’s partnership with Cargas—and Cargas Energy—didn’t stop there. 

In 2015, Wilson Oil implemented the accounting solution Sage Intacct to help streamline its financials. The team had been using Microsoft Dynamics GP for accounting with the Cargas Energy solution. “It was functional but not user-friendly,” O’Connell described.  

Cargas had only recently become a Sage Intacct partner, but when they showed the solution to Wilson Oil’s controller, the company felt that it would be easier to use, more flexible for fuel delivery needs, and would ultimately cost less than Dynamics GP. 

With this integration, Wilson Oil can export transactions from Cargas Energy to the general ledger in Sage Intacct, giving a clear view of the latest financial data that users can access from anywhere.  

Sage Intacct has the added bonus of being a multi-entity solution, meaning Wilson Oil can automatically collect and consolidate financial data from multiple business locations.