July 31, 2007. OOO LUKOIL-INFORM and IBS announce the results of the project of building the corporate system of glossaries and references of LUKOIL Group. The system provided a common reference and information environment and thus resulted in much simpler information consolidation and analysis processes and lower costs of integration and support of information systems used.
LUKOIL Group, a major international vertically integrated oil and gas company, traditionally relies on a large number of information systems for its core and support business processes. However, running those systems was complicated by the lack of coordination in reference data cooperation. A comprehensive analytical survey examined problems such as:
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Duplicated work to maintain references of the same type;
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Time lost in agreeing and verifying reference data;
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Too much work involved in preparing consolidated reports;
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Extra costs of obtaining licenses to access information system references.
The project was initiated to remove those problems by providing a common reference and information environment and cutting costs of information cooperation between LUKOIL units through implementation of the corporate system of glossaries and references.
The project was carried out by OOO LUKOIL-INFORM and IBS and comprised three phases. In the first phase reference data maintenance and use business processes were reviewed, the core of the corporate system of glossaries and references was built, and over 60 references and operating documentation were developed. Centralized reference data maintenance included building standard references for each type of integrated data (customers, suppliers, finished products, service types, etc.). The corporate system of glossaries and references was integrated with SAP R/3 and other systems in this phase too.
In the second phase the range of references within the corporate system of glossaries and references was expanded, and integration with accounting and reporting information systems was provided. This enabled data integration for various management information systems in order to support efficient generation of common corporate reports in Moscow and across regions. The final phase brought integrated development of the corporate system of glossaries and references including making the system a LUKOIL Group wide standard for reference data maintenance, development of services and integration of the corporate system of glossaries and references with internal and external information systems that span 35 entities.
The corporate system of glossaries and references currently includes about 300 various references that are common to over 40 information systems. The system is used by over 950 employees of various entities within LUKOIL Group. Andrey Dzengelewski, Head of Reference Data Development Department, OOO LUKOIL-INFORM, noted: “Designing and building the corporate system of glossaries and references as a software product were just the first steps towards building a corporate-wide reference data system. A lot of hard work went into organizing, developing methods, building and agreeing procedures and also further development of the corporate system of glossaries and references, which allowed for the system to be used as an information and software service at most major entities within LUKOIL Group”.
Components of the corporate system of glossaries and references are run on MS SQL Server 2000, MS BizTalk Server and a web-based content management system. “Using an integration server as the platform of the corporate system of glossaries and references allowed for very flexible tools to be implemented for maintenance and guaranteed distribution of reference data in an heterogeneous information system environment. This provided for efficient integration between the corporate system of glossaries and references and various customer applications of whatever software and hardware platforms and locations, which is very important given the geographic distribution of LUKOIL entities,” said Alexey Sevastyanov, Deputy Director, Integration Solutions Department, IBS.
Valery Tikhomirov, Head of Corporate Information Systems Department, OOO LUKOIL-INFORM, said: “This project optimized the interoperation process between applications used, removed duplication, improved accuracy, integrity and consistency of reference data, and drastically reduced the amount of time and financial resources spent on reference data maintenance, system integration and report generation”.
OOO LUKOIL-INFORM is the principal entity providing information and process support for LUKOIL Group and a leading provider of ICT services and solutions in Russia and the CIS. OOO LUKOIL-INFORM has 12 branches in regions across Russia where entities within the Group operate. The company implements, supports and develops integrated information systems focused on business tasks, optimizes business processes to achieve strategic goals and improve efficiency in each area of the oil company’s operations, provides for uninterrupted running of applications, telecommunications and process equipment, provides world-class consulting and process services based on advanced technologies, products and solutions.
Aleksandra Loginova, Head of OOO LUKOIL-INFORM Press Service, Tel. +7 495 980-3995, Loginovaayu@lukoil.ru
IBS is the leader in the Russian IT and consulting market. It is part of IBS Group. For more information about the company please visit http://www.ibs.ru/
On April 17, 2007 IBS and Borlas Consulting Group announced merger and formation of the new merged company having estimated FY’2006 consolidated revenue of USD 380 million (US GAAP), the total staff size of over 3,500 (including over 1,500 certified consultants) and over 50% aggregate services proportion in the revenue. 84 of Russia’s top 100 companies are customers of IBS and Borlas Consulting Group. The merged company is the absolute leader in the business applications and management consulting market (over 20% of the market) and the largest IT services company in Russia and Eastern Europe.
For further information please contact Lada Scherbakova, PR Director, IBS, Tel. +7 495 967-8080, e-mail lada@ibs.ru.
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