The success of an SAP implementation relies on more than just the software. Ensuring your employees are one hundred percent behind the changes is just as vital. Together with Logicas SAP Practice, British Gas Hydrocarbon Resources Limited (HRL), a Centrica subsidiary, ran an ambitious project to move from their legacy systems to SAP Oil & Gas in only eight months.

The round-the-clock demands of the oil and gas industry require a reliable and flexible software solution. British Gas Hydrocarbon Resources Ltd (HRL) had a legacy system that ran their entire upstream business, from the offshore platforms in the East Irish Sea to the processing plants on land. When the support contract on these systems began to become less robust, British Gas HRL decided to start looking for a replacement, because some of the legacy systems were 17 years old and there was a high degree of business risk associated with that, explains Simon Clark, Head of Projects within the Centrica Energy Management Group.

This exploration process involved looking for a software solution that would not only replace their current one, but that would also provide them with more functions and support for their industry-specific needs. It also meant deciding on a project team and selecting a consultancy to work closely with them on the implementation.

After spending a lot of time identifying requirements and comparing those to solutions available on the market, British Gas HRL selected SAP and its SAP Oil & Gas industry solution (4.6C) to replace their back office, plant maintenance and logistics management systems. As Peter Oberholzer, project manager at Logica, British Gas HRLs partner for the implementation commented, they wanted a system that could take them into the future, give them benefits on the managerial side, and provide them with best business practices. This was SAP. British Gas HRL selected Logica after assessing several other firms. Clark emphasizes that they hired Logica based on the people they put forward and their commitment to the project. Both fitted very well with what we wanted.

Once the project team was assembled, they needed to move quickly to implement the software before the legacy systems support arrangements expired, which meant a very tight project timeline. Together with Logica, British Gas HRL decided on a May 1, 2001 start date and a go live of January 2, 2002.

Eight months to implement 11 SAP components, including Offshore Logistics, Financials (FI), Materials Management (MM), and Project System (PS), and 6 interfaces to other software packages was a very challenging time scale, Oberholzer emphasizes. And there were some problems along the way, with the most significant being the implementation of SAPs new Offshore Logistics Management component. They found that some business processes within that component did not match the way British Gas HRL conducts its business, and were therefore quite complicated to implement. Oberholzer also believes these processes need to be optimized within the SAP software itself.

So how did the project team of around 30 make it all happen in such a short amount of time? According to Clark it was the spirit and collaboration in the project team, that achieved a successful go-live not just on time, but under budget too. This included high levels of commitment from a very senior team member lead all the way down to the people who were actually running the project on a daily basis, says Oberholzer.

They also had buy-in from the business side, although meshing the implementation with the tremendous strain of doing business 24/7 did not always run as smoothly as they might have wanted. Clark recognizes the challenge, because you still have an ongoing business to run there is a conflict there. Also, many employees work out on the offshore platforms for two-week shifts, yet still need to be closely involved with the project as they are the users of the software on a daily basis.

Three months after the solution went live, the benefits are starting to be recognized and will reveal themselves more and more as the company becomes more familiar with the software. The benefits Steve Skelton, Business Services Manager at British Gas Hydrocarbon Resources Ltd and owner of the system post go-live, sees, are ultimately an increase in productivity, better inventory control, better business management tools, and a vast increase in customer service and responsiveness. My teams goal is to support the gas production safely and efficiently and I believe SAP will help us with this.

At the moment, though, British Gas Hydrocarbon Resources Ltd is still dealing with some problems related to the changeover to the new software. Clark recognizes, though, that it takes time to realize the full development potential. And as Skelton puts it, development of the SAP system involves radically altered work procedures and extensive employee training. To help ease the pain of switching to the new software, British Gas HRL employed a Business Change Manager. We have to move people from a basic transaction processing mindset to one of adding real value to their roles.

Now that they have the foundation of an SAP solution, they can build on it and expand on it. With SAP Oil & Gas, they have access to a huge data pool. Although this can actually slow down transactions compared to their legacy system, Skelton knows that the data provides rich functionality - and its part of my responsibility to ensure that everyone in the company understands what the data can do for them.

For the future, the Centrica group is looking at implementing a data warehouse solution on top of the SAP solution to manage the vastness of data. British Gas HRL may also implement this later, but they first want to maximise the potential of the current solution. Now its time to reflect, collect input from the entire team, and move forward from there.

BRITISH GAS HYDROCARBON RESOURCES LIMITED

British Gas Hydrocarbon Resources Limited is part of leading energy and essential services provider Centrica plc, operating the North and South Morecambe gas fields in the East Irish Sea. Processing takes place at the company's terminals at Barrow-in-Furness. In Britain, Centrica trades under the AA, British Gas/Scottish Gas, Goldfish and One.Tel brands, supplying gas, electricity, telecommunications, and a range of other essential home and road services to millions of customers, day in, day out. In North America, Centrica trades principally under the Energy America and Direct Energy brands. Centrica was formed in 1997 as a result of the demerger of British Gas plc into Centrica plc and BG plc.

LOGICA

Logica (LOG.L) is a leading global solutions company providing management and IT consultancy, systems integration, products, services and support. Logica's clients operate across diverse markets including telecoms, financial services, energy and utilities, industry, distribution and transport and the public sector. The company has revenues over 1 billion and operates in 34 countries worldwide. Founded in 1969, Logica is the largest IT services company listed on the London Stock Exchange. More information can be found at www.logica.com.

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