Situation

Fast decision-making is important to the success of any company, but it’s particularly vital in the upstream oil and gas industry. A global energy company that produces more than three million barrels of oil per day was keenly aware of the industry’s key challenges, from maturing oil fields and a shortage of skilled talent to volatile prices and increased pressure to reduce greenhouse gases. With operations in more than 70 countries, the company had massive volumes of data relating to its integrated production system. To make decision-making easier, faster, and more effective, the company was eager to improve data sharing and collaboration across business functions.

Collaboration

Wipro partnered with the energy leader’s Project and Technology Innovation team to develop new ways of connecting and enabling different functions to work seamlessly in real-time. The effort included creating new high-performance, cross-disciplinary teams along with new workflows and processes; Wipro also worked on space planning. and redesigning facilities to promote collaboration regardless of geographic location.

Change management and leadership coaching were critical parts of the solution, designed to drive a shared understanding of the why and how of the new collaborative environments from the executive level on down.

Wipro also handled the technology-related transformation, deploying new analytical and productivity tools, targeted visualizations, KPI dashboards for situational awareness, and a system for real-time monitoring and surveillance of wells and production facilities.

Outcomes

Ultimately, Wipro deployed more than 100 collaboration rooms around the world, which enabled the client to reduce travel to field locations by more than 15% and boosted equipment availability to more than 90%. The project also reduced annual support costs. The initiative also positively impacted the company’s Health, Safety, Security & Environment exposure. Significantly, the program won several industry accolades including the Aecus Innovation Award and the ISG Global Award for Best Transformation Program

Most important, though, was how the collaborative environments gave the client the ability to make better, faster decisions. The company estimates that reducing unscheduled product disruptions will boost its production by 1-5% and increase availability by a similar range. Moreover, the new approach eliminates thousands of hours of non-productive time. Improving operational efficiency and reducing operating expenses should result in an annual benefit of more than $75 million.