Case Studies > Circle K's Facility Optimization with Nuvolo's Connected Workplace Solution

Circle K's Facility Optimization with Nuvolo's Connected Workplace Solution

Technology Category

Functional Applications - Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS)
Functional Applications - Enterprise Asset Management Systems (EAM)

Applicable Industries

Buildings
Retail

Applicable Functions

Facility Management
Maintenance

Use Cases

Asset Health Management (AHM)
Asset Lifecycle Management

About The Customer

Circle K is a global convenience store and gas station chain, founded in 1951 and headquartered in Tempe, Arizona and Montreal, Canada. The company operates a global portfolio of convenience stores and gas stations and was acquired by Alimentation Couche-Tard, a convenience store chain with revenues of $5.3 million in 2021. In September 2015, Circle K became the worldwide brand for Couche-Tard’s convenience stores, replacing Mac’s, Kangaroo Express, and Statoil Fuel brands. The company now has over 100,000 full-time employees across the globe. Circle K's real estate portfolio is composed of office buildings, fuel pumps, convenience stores, and electric vehicle charging stations, with over 15,000 sites across Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Hong Kong, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Sweden, and the US.

The Challenge

Circle K, a global convenience store and gas station chain, faced several challenges in managing its vast real estate portfolio, which includes office buildings, fuel pumps, convenience stores, and electric vehicle charging stations across over 15,000 sites in multiple countries. The company had a large roster of internal and external technicians, making the task of scheduling maintenance programs and capturing work order data from hundreds of distributed technicians complex. Circle K needed a scalable and flexible solution to manage the various operations of sites across different regions. The company was also seeking a single software solution to manage its global portfolio and workforce, and to gain a holistic view of spend across maintenance and assets.

The Solution

Circle K implemented the Nuvolo Connected Workplace solution, built on ServiceNow, for facilities management. The solution included modules such as vendor management, maintenance management, and a technician mobile app. The Nuvolo solution helped Circle K improve communications and data capture from staff, simplify vendor service delivery and management, replace existing siloed IT and maintenance solutions, and gain a holistic view of spend across maintenance and assets. The platform enabled Circle K to digitize existing manual workflows, making it easier for staff to report maintenance issues. It also provided a vendor portal for technicians to receive and close off requests, and in some cases, process invoicing for work orders. Circle K was able to create digital records for its assets in Nuvolo, ensuring that all relevant asset information was stored on a centralized platform.

Operational Impact

The implementation of the Nuvolo Connected Workplace solution has allowed Circle K to streamline maintenance management across the globe. The solution has enabled Circle K to reduce asset downtimes with preventative maintenance plans, customize work order routing workflows by asset and location, monitor and improve technician performance and productivity, identify differing maintenance strategies across business units, benchmark maintenance costs and operations, and more easily follow up on insurance claims. The solution has also provided Circle K with a holistic, consolidated view on maintenance operations, allowing executives to compare how various business units are running their maintenance operations. Circle K plans to continue onboarding sites, implement Nuvolo’s capital project planning module, and bring energy and real estate data into the Nuvolo Connected Workplace platform.

Quantitative Benefit

Circle K receives around 1.4 million service requests per year and the implementation of Nuvolo is expected to reduce the time helpdesk staff spend managing phone calls and dealing with inquiries by 60%.
After implementing a preventative maintenance plan for pressure washing equipment in Norway, Circle K reduced unplanned asset downtime from 28% to 8% of the asset’s total operating time.
Circle K plans to have 4,000 active sites by the end of 2022, initially focusing on stores in the Rocky Mountains BU (Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas), Poland and the West Coast BU (California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington).