Oil Company Environmental Remediation – Restoring the Environment Globally

GreenData.io | Environmental Remediation

Upgrading a legacy work management system with a more cohesive, modern solution and better analytics saves a large oil company 20% in resource costs.

Executive summary

The environmental remediation department of a global top 5 oil company completes thousands of remediation activities daily. Each of these activities rely on detailed tracking and complex management supported by a custom system. However, this system was no longer meeting the department’s needs and it was determined that a new cloud-based system was needed. The GreenData team carefully evaluated the remediation processes to design and deliver a new, human-centric solution that maintained the proper requirements while improving flexibility and reporting capabilities. The solution enabled this department to cut about 20% of the time spent on remediation activities and greatly increased cost control abilities.

Situation

A top 5 global oil company performs thousands of environmental remediation activities daily, removing pollutants and contaminants from water and soil at over 1500 sites around the world. Remediation tasks are conducted via an array of engineering approaches that rely on complex scheduling and resource management, with each task monitored and tracked by the company’s environmental remediation department.

Although a system had been custom built for the department to monitor these remediation and project management activities, this legacy system was not able to advance quickly enough to meet the department’s needs. Some of the missing capabilities were integration between more detailed project management work and the remediation management tool, remote access capabilities, and generating useful reports for leadership decision-making. With these needs in mind, an analysis of alternatives was conducted, identifying an opportunity to build the department’s new system upon an existing cloud-based platform.

Solution

Tasked with building an upgraded system for complex business processes, the GreenData team began by assisting the client in identifying which capabilities the current system was supporting. The team carefully assessed data usage and workstreams to uncover the wide variety of functions the remediation department performed, such as scheduling, resource assignment, effort identification, and budget approvals.

By completing iterative, agile design sprints, the team crafted a human centric replacement system. The new solution supported the remediation processes with outstanding user experiences. As a cloud-based system, the upgrade aimed at meeting not only current, but future needs as well. Additionally, the final designs were able to leverage historical information in reporting to minimize costs and maximize productivity.

The new solution was comprised of multiple Microsoft systems working in concert. It preserves the key details required for completing the remediation activities, while also including more efficient workflows and improved visibility for leadership. Microsoft SharePoint, Project Online, and Power BI worked together to form the new system. SharePoint provides space to gather some of the required data and documentation, while Project Online offers a way to manage remediation projects on the task, project, and portfolio levels. Power BI leverages data from the other tools to generate meaningful reports and dashboards such as portfolio reporting, to accommodate the needs of many stakeholders. The Microsoft cloud-based system was configured to go beyond the standards of the earlier system, offering far more flexibility and insight.

Results

This platform-based solution embraced flexibility; it integrated unique role-based user experiences to increase departmental efficiency for this top oil firm. The new system enabled the department to realize a time savings of approximately 20% in their project management activities by embedding automated processes where they would be most effective. The change also improved cost control due to increased executive insight and methods of project evaluation. The environmental remediation department did not simply upgrade its tools for successfully completing existing projects, but with the help of GreenData consultants, they set up a system prepared to support future requirements.

Technology Profile

SharePoint Online

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The cornerstone of the Remediation Management Solution. The platform provides support for workflow automation, business case identification/submission, and document collaboration, financial approval and more. These capabilities enable thousands of participants across the globe to work together on environmental impact.

Project Online

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Key to enabling multiple vendors, contractors, and company personnel to focus on getting the job done. By connecting task management, project forecasting, and team communication, Project provides the pipelines necessary to maximize the achievement of remediation goals.

Power BI

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Enables visibility into where effort is most critical. It provides leaders, managers, and contributors the data & insights to evaluate on-going performance, to look for gaps in the process and to identify blockers to success.

Office 365

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Rounds out the Remediation Management solution providing the supporting productivity tools necessary to perform project financial estimation, to manage regulatory and contractual documentation and to maintain project briefings.