It’s been a busy year for OATS – not least celebrating our 30th Anniversary and appointing a new COO. We rarely use the OATS Bulletin to publicise our own achievements, but our revolutionary new platform, earlFUSiON, is a milestone which we are very proud to announce.
earlFUSiON is a platform which will support applications for future generations of lubricants information. It is powerful, versatile and – we firmly believe – will transform the relationship between oil companies and their customers, delivering improved speed of product matching, customisation of user experience, and variety of presentation.
Designing innovative solutions that add value for our clients has always been our passion, demonstrated by our launch of the world’s first online lubricants recommendation website in 1998. Now, we manage more than 400 websites in over 25 languages including Chinese.
However, no company can rest on its past achievements and the lubricants market is dynamic, demanding and constantly innovating. earlFUSiON is a platform that will allow us to help our customers meet those challenges. It provides a digital tool box that can enhance sales efforts and support product lines by bridging the gap between business functions including technical, marketing and sales. Equally, it enables customers to select the right oil for each application in every region they serve, taking into account a variety of factors including, but not limited to, location, temperature, fuel quality, environmental conditions and marketing preferences.
earlFUSiON comprises components designed to be integrated using industry standard open interfaces and file formats rather than relying on proprietary systems or software. This approach significantly enhances our ability to deliver flexible outputs tailored to each client’s needs, with impressive user experiences and futureproofing to meet tomorrow’s challenges.
The system behind earlFUSiON has been developed by exceptionally well qualified and talented experts at OATS, who possess a diverse skill-base totalling more than 400 years of experience in the lubricants and software industries. They have worked tirelessly to develop and enhance OATS’ original EARL (Equipment And Recommended Lubricants) database. Comprehensive coverage of cars, motorcycles, commercial vehicles, off highway, agricultural, industrial and proprietary equipment includes over 650,000 applications, which are constantly being augmented and enhanced.
For lubricants marketers, providing users with access to timely, geo-targeted product recommendations will always be challenging. Harnessing local data and providing information on how and where to purchase their products will require responsive and accurate technology. What will make companies exceptional is the ability to serve the right marketing message to the right consumer at the right time.
Meeting this challenge will require embracing all the digital platforms now available. According to a recent report by iResearch, around 80% of the 618m internet users in China log-on via a mobile device. Companies looking to target Chinese consumers will need to optimise their sites for mobile devices and have the flexibility to integrate functionality, such as lubricant selection, with online retail sales outlets.
One person who has definitely honed his marketing messages to perfection is Jack Ma – founder of Chinese e-commerce website Alibaba. Investors keen to see how a 15 year-old Chinese firm would fare on international markets were certainly not disappointed. Alibaba Group’s IPO took its place as the largest ever in history, raising over $25bn on the New York Stock Exchange. Those buying into the Alibaba innovation and investment promise weren’t simply funding a company that already enjoys over 80% of China’s e-commerce market, on track to hit $540bn in 2015, but also access to China’s tech-savvy middle class.
Clearly the earlFUSiON platform could not be better timed to help lubes producers and marketers take full advantage of this e-commerce revolution. This innovation provides a fantastic start to our fourth decade and the potential for future application development excites me about the future for OATS, earlFUSiON and the oil industry as a whole. To find out more, or to comment on anything you read in this Bulletin, simply contact Diana Shen. We look forward to hearing from you.
Sebastian Crawshaw
Chairman