Oil And Gas Firm Refine On-Site Processes

Technology Category

Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Application Development Platforms

Applicable Industries

Oil & Gas

Applicable Functions

Business Operation
Human Resources

Use Cases

Process Control & Optimization
Remote Asset Management

Services

System Integration
Training

The Challenge

The customer is a large oil refinery in the UK, employing around 800 people and occupying nearly 1,900 acres. The size and complexity of the site presented many logistical challenges, especially for business processes around Health and Safety, HR and Finance. The company had been using Microsoft SharePoint® as a solution and had been migrating non-project documents into the repository for years. This brought to light hundreds of historic processes, particularly around Health and Safety and HR, that were very inefficient. They were almost always paper-based, depending on printed Microsoft Word® documents, spreadsheets and questionnaires. Typically, they would be handed around the site in face-to-face exchanges that could involve dozens of people. To improve and streamline workflows, they began looking for a business process tool that could supplement SharePoint, digitalize paper-based forms and bring new efficiencies to the business.

About The Customer

The customer is one of the UK’s largest oil refineries. It represents a critical part of the UK’s transport and energy infrastructure. The refinery employs around 800 people and occupies nearly 1,900 acres at its base. The size and complexity of the site presented many logistical challenges, especially for business processes around Health and Safety, HR and Finance. The company had identified Microsoft SharePoint® as a solution and had been migrating non-project documents into the repository for years. This brought to light hundreds of historic processes, particularly around Health and Safety and HR, that were very inefficient.

The Solution

The company chose FlowForma Process Automation tool to supplement SharePoint and digitalize paper-based forms. They availed of the FlowForma SureStart training program and were soon up and running. They found it intuitive to use and were impressed at how quickly they were able to develop workflows. The company embedded the FlowForma Process Automation tool in multiple business units, where people could identify processes that could be improved with electronic workflows. Adoption was quick and they had soon developed a team of 12 “superusers” across different business departments, including HR, Operations, Maintenance, Finance and Procurement. A central repository was set up in SharePoint for form development. When a process is approved and signed off by the steering group it is migrated into the SharePoint repository of the department using it, where it becomes their responsibility to manage and implement flows.

Operational Impact

Form-based tasks are typically completed at least five times faster
The old problem of losing documents and slowing down processes has been eliminated
The company’s audit capability has improved dramatically

Quantitative Benefit