Blossman Gas, Inc.

About the Client

From its early days in 1951, Blossman Gas, Inc. (Blossman) has grown from one office and one truck in Mississippi to 76 branches and over 700 employees across the Southeast. LPGas Magazine now ranks Blossman as the 8th largest propane dealer in the country and the largest independent dealer. Headquartered in Ocean Springs, MS, Blossman offers propane delivery services for residential and commercial customers; provides temporary heating equipment and fuel for construction applications; and engages in supplying appliances, as well as offers installation and maintenance services for central gas distribution systems and other appliances. Blossman Gas is also a founding member of Alliance AutoGas, the nation’s only complete program to help fleets shift from gasoline to propane autogas. Stuart Weidie, the CEO for Blossman, was instrumental in its formation. Propane autogas powers over 23 million vehicles worldwide. It’s less expensive than gasoline and offers significant reductions in harmful emissions.

Challenges the Client Faced

Blossman supported its day to day JD Edwards EnterpriseOne system through its internal staff, but when it came to the more complex CNC, technical and functional requirements, it needed the help of a certified Oracle partner that specialized in providing a broad spectrum of services centered on JD Edwards. As part of these requirements, Blossman wanted to stay current on the latest release of JD Edwards EnterpriseOne so they could fully leverage its latest capabilities. Coupled with the upgrade, they also needed to address the complexities associated with the related infrastructure including various servers, peripheral software, desktops, etc. A partner that could provide the plan, experience and resources to address these interdependencies was absolutely critical. After evaluating several vendors, Blossman decided to move forward with GSI, Inc. based on their extensive experience, broad skill set and their reputation in the industry.

GSI's Solution

“We are extremely pleased with the results that we have achieved over the past 7 years through our partnership with GSI. Their highly skilled staff has provided us with the knowledge and experience essential to support our JD Edwards system. They also provide an excellent knowledge transfer for our staff”, stated Phyllis Ishee, Systems Analyst. GSI assisted Blossman with a recent upgrade after it was determined that the browser being used by the end users was not compatible with the current tools release causing many issues. The EnterpriseOne upgrade also included a new tools release, new Windows servers running WebSphere, new IBM iSeries database server running DB2, E1 Pages setup as well as moving their platform from single to multi-foundations to address mobile usage. GSI continues to provide ad-hoc functional and technical support through its AppCare program with the accounting department being the most recent beneficiary. “Over the past 1.5 years, GSI has been providing functional support for our accounting department including extensive training, troubleshooting and fixes. We absolutely could not have been successful without their help. Our partnership with GSI is absolutely crucial.” Phyllis went on to say.