ERP for Oil and Gas Companies | 5 Things To Consider

Oil and gas companies have seen their fair share of shake ups over the last six months. A large number of petroleum exploration and production facilities have already closed their doors to reduce supply, and changes in the regulatory environment have led to steep barriers to entry in new international markets. This has led more manufacturers and producers of energy-related products and services to become more efficient in response to the current backdrop of instability for oil and natural gas sectors. One solution that more and more organizations are evaluating is modernizing or upgrading to a new ERP for oil and gas; flexible enough to adapt to the unpredictability of this space. For companies searching for such a solution, our leading ERP implementation experts reveal the top things to consider during an ERP selection for oil and gas operations, and if a best of breed or specific system is a better fit.

Selecting an ERP for oil and gas

1. Localization for Financial Accounting

Companies in the energy sector overlap operations internationally and exchange services with an array of currency. Industry experts have found that the single most effective component of an ERP system is a well-developed financial suite; capable of handling a range of legal entities for each geographic area — otherwise known as localization. However, the success of this depends squarely on it’s implementation and alignment to the organizations desired practices. The ERP system requires configuration to docket, post and audit multilingual content for complete financial compliance in separate regulatory environments. An ERP for oil and gas should be capable of providing remote business users a complete costing structure that includes direct and overhead costs for each job in operation in multiple languages. This a more effective — and regulatory compliant — way to control procurement and supply chain costs for global energy projects.

2. Asset Management in Real Time

Energy companies utilize a wide range of machines, vehicles, people and other critical assets in their operations. Given the breadth of such a portfolio, business leaders across the industry are searching for a more effective way to manage these assets in real time. In the near future, investors of business software for petrochemical and oil and gas may look to implement a highly flexible ERP instance with the ability to connect to other systems and networks. Why? As more sensors are built into the machines and utilities in which these companies deploy on a regular basis, it will become essential for real time data from those sensors to be captured and audited inside the ERP system. The ERP system will need to be configured transmit this data to the proper systems. For instance, if the energy company is required to perform regular maintenance at multiple sites for compliance purposes, project managers can look to dashboards to see geographic location, machine use and remainder of useful life of an asset to ensure deliverables are completed and assets remain fully functional.  Additionally, it provides a high degree of control over team members for quality control purposes and resource planning. This new functionality could change ERP for oil and gas dramatically.

3. Agile Manufacturing and Quality Control

Any ERP  for oil and gas businesses should include a sophisticated engineering utility infused with advanced TQM functionality. Large scale projects require energy companies to own the ability to engineer a solution from for engineer to order, configure to order, make to order, and make to stock cases from a single ERP instance. The goal for these should be to deploy large scale situations and track these projects, phases, progress billing, engineering time, sales times and other processes from start to finsih. Energy companies will need to adopt an ERP instance that can be integrated with a quality control solution at each stage of the manufacturing process; including inbound inspection, throughout production and shipping. This instance of TQM is in addition to serial and lot traceability processes.

4. Integration

It is increasingly more vital that manufacturers and distributors adopt a services integration tool to sync data across the separate instances of their software ecosystem. This allows business users to share and review data from a single source in real time. This type of transparency inside the business streamlines a compete 360-view of day to day operational costs at a job level to demand forecasts for separate divisions upstream and downstream in the value chain. For example, sales leaders can create demand forecasts inside their CRM system which then instantly mirrors that information to production leaders and procurement officers to improve cost control and ready capacity for upcoming projects in separate locations from a single location inside the ERP system.

5. Edification Content Presented in Native Language for Users

ERP for oil and gas should include BPM’s, customizations, processes, and use cases that allow for multilingual translation. This should be voiced by business leaders to those leading the implementation. It is also a requirement for new user materials, so power users have the ability to communicate the technical and functional elements of the system to both technical and nontechnical users.  Leading experts in ERP implementation for petrochemical, oil and gas and other energy manufacturers say retention of ERP functionality and use is much higher when presented in a user’s native language.

Wrap Up

Industry leading ERP implementation experts for energy companies suggest finding an ERP solution that can be implemented around sophisticated business processes and international compliance narratives. It should have the capability to be integrated with other systems to streamline key information to project teams for planning and visibility of work in progress. It is highly recommended to source an implementation partner with a proven methodology for this type of high level work.

Investing in infrastructure — especially ERP for oil and gas — is an emotional decision that should be considered by many in an organization. One of the best ways to mitigate these risks is to invest in having an expert assist you during selection and implementation. Datix has helped hundreds of businesses successfully navigate these projects. Contact one of our experts today to learn more about how we can help.