Customer Solution Case Study
/ Leading Oil and Gas Company Increases Control over Project Costs
Overview
Country or Region: Austria
Industry: Oil and Gas
Customer Profile
OMV Exploration and Production extracts, refines, and transports natural oil and gas. The company, which is headquartered in Austria, operates 16 sites worldwide and employs approximately 1,600 staff.
Business Situation
Previously, project managers worked with a range of applications to access data on scheduling and budgeting. The company wanted to integrate this information into a single, user-friendly interface.
Solution
Pharos, a new mapping tool, integrates existing SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications with the project management features of Microsoft® Office Project Professional 2003.
Benefits
n Transparency of costs
n Better forecasting and cost planning
n User-friendly interface
n Minimised software training requirements
n Consistently accurate project data / “Previously, we had to work with a number of technology tools and files…to access the information we need. Now, everything can be called up quickly and easily from a single window.”
Harald Scheruga, Project Manager, Exploration and Production, OMV Austria
Leading oil and gas company OMV Exploration and Production manages a project budget of €100 million (U.S.$129 million) per year. To ensure that budgets are managed effectively, the company wanted to enhance its project management processes. Previously, scheduling and budgeting were handled separately, making it difficult to track project costs. Project managers had to work with a range of applications and as many as 12 subdirectories to get needed information. To address these issues, the company built Pharos, a new mapping tool. This integrates Microsoft® Office Project Professional 2003 with existing SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications. Project managers can now access all the scheduling and budgeting information from a single, user-friendly interface. They can also accurately assess the impact of changing schedules on project costs and plan more efficiently.
Situation
OMV Exploration and Production extracts, refines, and transports natural oil and gas. The company, which is headquartered in Austria, operates 16 sites worldwide and employs approximately 1,600 staff.
The processes of extracting and processing oil and gas require detailed project management at every stage. Harald Scheruga, Project Manager, Exploration and Production, OMV Austria, says, "When we have licenses to conduct exploratory drilling, our project management activities begin. Historically, we managed budgeting, time tabling, and other tasks using Microsoft® Project 2002. While this software was highly effective in terms of project schedules, we needed new tools to achieve greater visibility of costs across all areas of the business.”
OMV Exploration and Production GmbH manages a project budget of €100 million (U.S.$129 million) each year. With operations on this scale, budgeting is critical, not least because OMV is quoted on the stock exchange and constantly observed by market analysts and investors.
In addition, budgets must be carefully monitored over 12 months to ensure that funding is made available in subsequent years. Scheruga says, “Budgets that are not carefully allocated will not be available for projects in the next financial year. Where this happens, the progress of projects can be jeopardised.”
Project budgets were previously difficult to control because costs could not be effectively integrated with the corporate enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. OMV needed a solution that would provide new levels of visibility for both scheduling and cost control.
Scheruga says, "Projects are divided up into phases of time. At the same time, costs are viewed in terms of individual objects, such as equipment or manpower. To achieve the greatest possible consistency in our planning, we wanted to map scheduling and cost data together using a single, fully integrated solution.”
Solution
After careful analysis of available technologies, OMV developed Pharos, a new Enterprise Project Portfolio solution based on Microsoft software. The application, which was built and deployed in just three months, offers full integration between Microsoft Office Project Professional 2003 and OMV’s SAP ERP applications.
Project Professional 2003 is an integral part of the Microsoft Office System, so all project management data can be analysed and presented in Microsoft Office tools such as Microsoft Office PowerPoint® presentation graphics program and Microsoft Office Excel 2003. Planning and administration guides help project managers build project plans, assign tasks, and view project status. Alerts are generated when tasks are unlikely to be completed as planned.
Pharos is a mapping tool that acts as an interface between Project Professional 2003 and SAP. Data relating to scheduling and budgeting is stored centrally using a Microsoft SQL ServerTM 2000 database, part of Microsoft Windows Server SystemTM integrated server software. This data is analysed using Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services and reports are generated using the Microsoft Office System applications and Microsoft Reporting Services.
Scheruga says, “We can now monitor the interdependence of budgets and deadlines. We can also see how money is being spent over time and view the progress of projects at any stage of the life cycle. We can also see the impact of changing deadlines on costs and use this information to plan budgets more effectively.”
Microsoft is viewed as a strategic technology partner by OMV. Each product offers a clear upgrade path and a range of security features and updates to protect project management activities.
Benefits
A Single, User-Friendly Interface
Previously, project managers accessed information from a range of application interfaces. This required extensive knowledge of Microsoft software as well as SAP. Now, all information relating to project scheduling and budgeting is displayed in Project Professional 2003.
Scheruga says, “The simplicity of the new interface ensures that project managers have rapid access to all the information they need. It provides integrated access to a range of information, including costs and deadlines through a Web application.
“Previously, we had to work with a number of technology tools and files, and as many as 12 subdirectories, to access the information we need. Now, everything can be called up quickly and easily from a single window.”
Accurate Project Data
SAP applications update project-related information in Project Professional 2003 on a daily basis. This ensures that all project data is up-to-date at all times and that managers can make the best budgeting and scheduling decisions.
Scheruga says, “Now, project managers, including myself, can make decisions based on reliable, timely information. While different systems were previously updating project data at different times, we now have a consolidated view of project status across the organisation.”
Keen Interest from Other Divisions
The new solution has already attracted attention from other internal OMV divisions, including the Schwechat refinery and Gas and Solutions divisions.
Scheruga says, “We have implemented a solution that is already being recognised internally. In addition, we can replicate the solution easily without extensive development effort or cost. I believe that within two years the solution will certainly be delivering new project management efficiencies in other areas of the business.”
Microsoft Windows Server System
Microsoft Windows Server SystemTM is a comprehensive, integrated, and interoperable server infrastructure that helps reduce the complexity and costs of building, deploying, connecting, and operating agile business solutions. Windows Server System helps customers create new value for their business through the strategic use of their IT assets. With the Windows ServerTM operating system as its foundation, Windows Server System delivers dependable infrastructure for data management and analysis; enterprise integration; customer, partner, and employee portals; business process automation; communications and collaboration; and core IT operations including security, deployment, and systems management. For more information about Windows Server System, go to:
www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem