Network planning: Good, Better, Best in 2025

Some discipline’s core competencies change regularly, others are more static.

For network planners, the challenge today is navigating the proliferation of data and software platforms to find solutions that truly enable strategic decision making to achieve your goals.

Just as has been the case for decades, the fundamentals around understanding a particular site’s potential performance over another are key capabilities. What’s different today is the entry point.

We asked Simon Martin at Kalibrate to share his perspective. If you’ve attended any key industry event over the past 10+ years, you’ll know Simon, he had this to say:

I like to think of the toolkit of network planners in three compartments.

• First, the data inputs – that could be mobility data, traffic count, competitor intelligence, and demographics.
• Second, the solution – that centralizes these elements for the purposes of site forecasting, portfolio simulations or any other type of analysis.
• Third, the people – both internal teams and third-party partners – that interpret and leverage the insight to define and execute a strategy.

In years past, combining all these elements would have been the preserve of only the largest fuel retailers. Today, the proliferation of datasets and more affordable software places these capabilities in the hands of anyone involved in planning a fuel network. But even for the largest, most sophisticated network planning teams, insight continues to gain depth and diversity.

So how should those involved in planning decisions benchmark their application of insight to achieve their objectives? What does Good, Better, and Best look like in 2025?

Good

Depending on the maturity and complexity of the fuel network, ‘Good’ can take various forms. Good for a small operator can simply be the recognition that data is required to prioritize the next steps. In a mid-sized network, Good might be centralizing that data within a GIS-type platform. In a mature, complex network, Good would mean implementing sophisticated forecasting capabilities within a GIS platform.

Better

Smaller retailers should aim towards gathering as many data points as possible to support volume estimations. They should look at how investment in site reconfigurations or rebrands could impact volumes at their own and competitor sites. The mid-sized network may lean towards more complex simulations across multiple sites simultaneously enabling strategic management of the portfolio to yield greater volumes and market share. The largest operators should be doing all of the above as well as using a network planning tool to generate 5- and 10-year plans at a site by site and portfolio-wide level.

Best

For smaller fuel retailers, looking for specialist providers of fuel retail data analytics and volume and sales forecasting is often the most efficient and effective route to achieving best in class process and investment decision support outcomes. The right partnership enables operators to broaden their capabilities within a small team with a limited budget, for the quickest route to robust forecasting outcomes.

A mid-sized portfolio should aim for portfolio optimization through multiyear plans, which prioritize investments through strategic growth, managed within a planning solution. The largest operators should be doing all the above as well as expanding use of the solution at multiple levels of org – expanding to convenience team and sales territory teams.

Leveraging a tool across departments leads to a deeper understanding of competitors, market dynamics and greater alignment on common organization goals. To truly exceed as a department, network planners in mature company should also consider how a planning solution can be used as a training tool to futureproof the network planning discipline as personnel changes.

Seek solutions fit for your priorities

Sensationalized claims of a ‘silver bullet’ to answer all network planning questions are everywhere – yet the reality is a more mundane. Yes, mobility data is important. Yes, AI will play some role in how forecasts and simulations are generated. Yes, forecasting QSR alongside fuel gives a more complete picture of potential. But each technology or capability is one instrument of many that every network planner should have in their toolkit.

The Good, Better, Best tiers discussed here aren’t prescriptive.

The critical point at each phase is using data intelligently based on the capabilities of your team and the priorities in terms of growth or portfolio management.

Remember, Good is still good – there are many operators relying purely on instinct or gut feel to make decisions. It may work for some, but I’d back a data-driven network every day of the week. If you don’t yet see yourself in the Good category, there’s never been greater availability or diversity of data and software providers to support network planning decisions.

Look for solutions that scale as you do – ask questions like:

• How scalable is this?
• What if we need to do more complex simulations or plan over an extended time horizon?
• How can we share this insight across the company?
• When engaging third-party support, find partners that have a background in the fuel space.

Retail fuel is different to other verticals – as just one example, site reconfigurations are hugely capital intensive. Even seemingly small decisions around the right number of fueling locations require robust analysis to ensure investment is targeted effectively.

As a final takeaway – and to sneakily add a trait to the Best for each level of maturity;

1. Always be looking for what’s next.
2. Where are the blind spots in the analysis you currently conduct?
3. What critical capabilities are you missing?
4. What should you know that you don’t?

In my experience, the investment to fill those gaps is considerably cheaper than any misstep caused by them. Reach out to me on LinkedIn, if you’re up for having a conversation on this topic.