REFERENCE: CONNECTION TO MARKET TRANSPARENCY AUTHORITY (MTS-K) FOR FUEL PRICES
Since the introduction of the Market Transparency Authority for Fuels (German abbreviation MTS-K) in August 2013, all companies that operate public filling stations or set their prices are obliged to report price changes for the common fuel types to the Federal Cartel Office "in real time" via the MTS-K.
Our customer, a mineral oil company with a network of more than 1,000 filling stations, commissioned us to transmit the fuel prices and basic filling station data to MTS-K in accordance with the legal requirements.
The process analysis revealed that the customer's existing system could not deliver the necessary data within the legally prescribed time frame. The solution design, therefore, concentrated on implementing this requirement. In addition, the requirements for the quality of the basic data, such as opening hours and geodata, as well as their relevance, such as temporary closing times, were taken into account in the context of information management. IT security was ensured through encrypted communication, and data availability through targeted integration in information chains.
We developed a server application for receiving, validating, converting, and sending price change notifications. The filling station systems report directly to the MTS-K via ITS systems. We developed and programmed the interfaces for the connection. A test system was set up in our laboratory, which is still used today for quality assurance in the event of software changes or adaptations.
The implementation required an update of the POS software, the rollout of which we managed at more than 1,000 filling stations over a six-week period. Since 2013, we have been hosting and monitoring the server application that was developed. Error messages from monitoring are forwarded internally to our colleagues in Operations and Support.
Result
- Successful introduction of a price reporting system in accordance with antitrust requirements
- High-performance and a virtually 100% fail-safe solution (availability since commissioning in 2013: 99.99%)