Accenture Outsourcing Services to the Energy Industry
Introduction: State of the industry In this economic environment, controlling costs will remain a challenge for the energy industry, especially in the short term. For upstream companies rising capital costs have been a result of increasing demand and of capacity catching up with demand. Now that demand has softened due to the global credit crunch, we likely will see a drop in prices. Additionally, the recent shift in the industry to seek reserves in more expensive, complex and challenging operating environments will require greater technical expertise, a rigorous project-management capability and skilled personnel. Meeting these needs will be even more challenging, when considering upstream talent is already in short supply. On the refining and retail sectors, the current financial crisis is likely to create further cost pressures in the face of falling consumer demand and declining margins. Accenture can help energy companies earn quick wins to address immediate-term issues, as well as implement long-term strategies to help position them for high performance. We have experience working with international oil companies (IOCs), national oil companies (NOCs), independents and oil field service companies in global markets to address a range of business challenges. Are there strategies to address my energy company s unique challenges in developing markets? 2
Did you know? In 2008, Accenture was No. 1 on the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals' Global Outsourcing 100 ranking of the world's top outsourcing service providers. Common issues across market segments Although each segment of the industry has its unique challenges, many share some common issues. For example, oil and gas companies working in developing markets face geopolitical, economic and managerial challenges such as: Talent shortages Limited local skills availability and varying educational standards have resulted in stiff competition for limited pools of local skilled workers. Inefficient business processes Fragmented business processes, arising from the need to address local requirements and local management preferences, threaten data integrity and risk loss of transparency. The centralized corporate office is unable to gain a holistic view of processes across all local assets. Inadequate flexibility and scalability Rapidly developing business operations require flexible infrastructure solutions, but infrastructure in emerging locations may be fragmented, of variable quality and in short supply. Local content development The prospects for an energy company s growth often involve working in developing markets that offer access to major energy reserves in exchange for contributions to the broader economy of the host countries. As markets develop and mature, their national host governments want their countries to be involved in a wider range of business activities. Therefore, developing a skilled local workforce and competitive supplier base (referred to as local content ) are minimum requirements for doing business with host countries. 3
Outsourcing for high performance What does high performance mean, and how can energy companies navigate these challenging times and emerge positioned as high-performance businesses? Accenture defines high performance as the sustained outperformance of peers across business and economic cycles, and across generations of leadership, as measured by widely accepted financial metrics. Many companies appear to be high performers in the short run. But to be a true highperformance business, a company must survive and thrive across market disruptions. Outsourcing can be a proactive strategy that energy companies use to position themselves for high performance. 4 Outsourcing can help companies drive new growth and value to the top line of their balance sheets, not just remove short-term costs. Companies can leverage several outsourcing strategies to address urgent priorities such as cash flow and liquidity, cost management and growth. A wellexecuted outsourcing strategy can help oil and gas companies respond to these key situations (see Figure 1).
Figure 1 Sample responses to key business challenges Situation Cost reduction Response Realize savings in back-office support services Move from a fixed cost base to a variable cost base to keep back-office costs low, yet remain flexible to changing market conditions Business focus Outsource noncore support services to focus on core exploration and production activities Growth enabler Outsourcing enables a company to draw on more than 80,000 (without hiring) skilled professionals from the Accenture Global Delivery Network Having workforce flexibility enables a company to increase, reduce and/or redeploy personnel to address fluctuating needs To meet local content development requirements, local Accenture people may be deployed Have a local presence and develop local capability while still accessing more mature, highly developed and quality services 5
Accenture Global Delivery Network The Accenture Global Delivery Network (see Figure 2) is our integrated end-to-end network of delivery centers that provide energy companies with a full range of business process outsourcing and information technology (IT) outsourcing services. Our delivery centers are interconnected to ensure business continuity, consistency and flexibility. At Accenture, we are more than just dots on a map. Our global footprint enables us to work where our clients work to understand their local issues as well as provide a global perspective. We provide management consulting, technology services and outsourcing services via onshore, nearshore or offshore centers. Figure 2 Map of the Accenture Global Delivery Network Riga Almere Prague Warsaw London Toronto area (2) Montreal Nantes Brno Bratislava Chicago Madrid Bucharest Wilmington Cincinnati Málaga Naples Atlanta Casablanca San Antonio (2) Houston Mumbai (3) Pune Bangalore (5) Delhi area (2) Hyderabad Chennai Dalian Shanghai Guangzhou Manila (7) Cebu Rosario São Paulo Curitiba Buenos Aires Port Louis, Mauritius Notes: The core network of business process outsourcing (BPO) and technology delivery centers are shown. Other geographic and industry-focused centers exist as well as local delivery capabilities in all major markets. The numbers in parentheses denote multiple physical sites. 6
Standard methodologies for seamless transitions The Accenture Delivery Suite for Outsourcing is our innovative approach that enables us to deliver high-quality outsourcing services and solutions reliably and predictably. Our standardized, flexible framework consists of integrated methods, tools and metrics to aid design, solution development and transition processes, such as: Accenture Transition Management Development and execution of plans for shifting services, people and assets while maintaining business continuity. It includes use of the Accenture Rapid Transition Suite to guide teams through knowledge transfer and enable information sharing across different locations. Accenture Service Delivery An integrated set of assets for managing, controlling and adhering to agreed-upon service levels to minimize risk and maximize opportunities for continuous improvement. Accenture Performance Management Automated views of service-level performance, trend analyses and delivery of reports from (and for) users, managers and executives. Accenture Service Optimization Outsourcing isn t just about transferring management of a process or technology it s also about improving the technology or process. Our experience in rationalizing and optimizing business processes, applications and technologies not only reduces operating expenditures and the total cost of ownership, but also drives step-change improvements to transform a company s IT and business processes. Did you know? Accenture provides outsourcing services to more than 650 clients in 100 countries, serving nearly every industry sector. 7
Part 1: Business process outsourcing Accenture offers oil and gas companies a comprehensive portfolio of business process outsourcing (BPO) services such as procurement, finance and accounting, and human resources that can help them focus on developing core competencies, achieving operational excellence, outperforming the competition and achieving high performance. Procurement BPO Energy companies are revisiting their procurement function with an eye toward cost management, liquidity and preserving capital. Accenture Procurement BPO Services can help companies with category management expertise and market insight, and by leveraging our economies of scale to achieve a rapid, sustainable improvement in procurement performance enterprisewide. This translates into improved cash flow and sustainable sourcing savings that can improve the bottom line. 8 The global reach of our procurement BPO With more than 2,300 procurement professionals in our outsourcing and consulting businesses worldwide, and more than 7,000 consultants with broader supply chain experience, Accenture has a significant global reach. From across a broad range of industries and geographies, we have 700 clients who draw on our deep sourcing and procurement experience. For example: We delivered 35 percent savings over the previous year to a global technology company through buy centers established in 50 countries, virtually eliminating noncompliant spend and greatly improving its control and buying power. We generated savings of 23 percent across seven categories of spend at a services company and improved compliance levels by implementing a new procurement system and leading practice processes. Can outsourcing our procurement function help my company control strategic spend? Finance and accounting BPO Accenture has more than 15 years experience in delivering finance and accounting BPO services to more than 45 clients. Our finance and accounting BPO services can help energy companies redefine finance operations to increase effectiveness and enable more efficient compliance. In addition, our services provide improved management to help finance executives adopt a more strategic role and enable a growth agenda. Drawing on our proprietary finance and accounting BPO tools and industrialized (that is, standardized) global processes, we help energy companies:
Facts and figures: Global scale of our finance and accounting BPO services: Accenture process Accenture cash collect Accenture reconcile More than 25 million accounts payable invoices per annum with a combined value of over $100 billion More than 10 million accounts receivable invoices per annum with a combined invoice value of over $60 billion More than $50 billion per annum in over 100 countries More than 10,000 accounts per calendar month tion Address immediate concerns, such as improving cash flow. Order-to-cash improves working capital by speeding cash collection. Procure-to-pay improves working capital by paying invoices on time to reduce penalty payments and secure early-payment discounts. My company has fragmented finance and accounting operations. Can outsourcing help to integrate multiple systems and processes? Position for growth with rapid and sustained cost management. Integrate back-office finance and accounting functions. Achieve better financial transparency and cash performance. Continue to realize cost efficiencies. 9
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Part 2: Talent management outsourcing Addressing the well-known talent management issues in the energy industry will continue to be a key differentiator in a tightening global market. Our approach to talent management services including recruitment, performance and progression, learning and compensation supports the talent life cycle strategy by: Defining talent needs. Discovering and attracting talent and hiring the best qualified. Developing that talent through learning and collaboration. Deploying it through the management processes that put the right people on the right tasks to maximize business impact. Human resources BPO Regardless of market pressures, some energy companies are finding opportunities for growth either by expanding into new markets or through mergers and acquisitions. Accenture human resources BPO services can help speed growth by improving workforce productivity and assisting with post-merger integration. We help our clients optimize their workforce performance and productivity while enabling their human resources organization to become more scalable and capable of addressing their business requirements. At Accenture, we place an emphasis on employee experience, not just transactional efficiency. We deliver human resources and learning outsourcing services to nearly 1.7 million people in approximately 100 countries, and have a focus on continuous improvement and investment in next-generation solutions. How can my company communicate with our employees more effectively as a means to improve retention of top talent? Learning BPO Accenture s learning BPO services help the employees of energy companies improve their productivity, achieve faster time to proficiency and develop critical talent and skills all of which contribute to increasing revenue. We have six global content-development centers and more than 8,000 learning, human resources and talent management professionals. To help energy companies and their employees, we provide support 24 hours a day/seven days a week through our five learning call centers and a global Accenture Learning Management System, which is deployed in nine languages. 11
Part 3: Information technology outsourcing Accenture helps oil and gas companies by offering a full range of IT outsourcing services, ranging from application outsourcing to infrastructure outsourcing. Application outsourcing Accenture s comprehensive approach to application outsourcing helps energy companies reduce costs, increase the value derived from limited IT investments and industrialize capabilities for the long haul. It seems too great a challenge to retire legacy systems. Can a rationalization of our applications portfolio really save costs? For more than 15 years, Accenture has worked with more than 600 organizations around the world to address critical business application systems that manage markets, energize supply chains, drive operations, maintain customer relations and report to stockholders and enable high performance through application outsourcing. Accenture offers a full complement of application outsourcing solutions We tailor our outsourcing engagements to meet a company's specific needs. Whether deploying skilled IT professionals to supplement a company's staff or providing a range of services and applications, Accenture provides a combination of specialized capabilities that are cost competitive and flexible, including: Application management Ongoing support of an existing set of applications. Application development and maintenance Full scope of development, implementation and ongoing management services for new and existing applications. SAP, Oracle and Microsoft application outsourcing Enhancement and ongoing management services for these applications. Transformational application outsourcing Detailed focus on the transformation of an organization's IT capability to more effectively enable strategic business objectives. Design, build, run Managing a new custom or packaged application beyond the initial implementation. 12
Did you know? Fortune named Accenture America s most admired IT services company for the third year in a row. ( Copyright Fortune Magazine. America s Most Admired Companies 2008. March 2008.) Case study: Application outsourcing for a supermajor Business challenge A supermajor launched a multiyear program to harmonize business processes across its North American refining and marketing organization on a single instance of SAP enterprise resource planning software. The client saw this program as critical to accelerating growth in the United States. How Accenture helped Accenture was engaged to design, build and run a harmonized business process for the US refining and marketing business. This included a 10-year contract for the total outsourcing of the company s SAP environment. The scope of services included base maintenance and support, as well as project and enhancement work. High performance delivered With a harmonized business process supported by a stable SAP environment, the client s workforce has increased its productivity and been empowered to focus on service. The new environment supports more than 3,000 users managing more than $60 billion in annual revenue. Accenture has helped the client achieve high performance with a 45 percent reduction in baseline SAP applications management costs. 13
Infrastructure outsourcing Accenture is a global leader in infrastructure outsourcing services. We have more than 13,000 people worldwide providing infrastructure services to more than 200 clients daily. Drawing on unbiased technology solutions, our infrastructure outsourcing services offer executives more control over their IT value chain, performance and investment focus. I know my company needs an improved IT infrastructure to grow. But how can we get a better handle on services delivery and cost control? With Accenture s asset-independent approach, energy companies retain ownership of the hardware, software and physical assets, and fund all capital investments directly. We take responsibility for running IT infrastructures and managing third-party relationships. This model of collaboration enables the greater efficiencies made possible by outsourcing services, while providing a company with full visibility of its technology investments and infrastructure costs. 14
Figure 3: Accenture s infrastructure outsourcing services Consistent delivery of services is assured through a framework that governs service levels and uses common processes, procedures and work instructions built on the protocols: IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL ) for service management, and Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT ) for compliance and business alignment. IT spend management Service desk Data center services Security services Network services Workplace services Asset management, managed procurement and technology spend management to reduce overall IT non-salary spend. Help desk, single point of contact for support and online portal services to resolve frontline issues. Hosting to support development and production environments, storage services, database management and messaging services. Identity management, intrusion and firewall protection, end-user device and messaging security, and policy and awareness. Data and voice network management, optimization and converged services. Life cycle management for desktops, field services and mobile devices, and file and print services. 15
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Case study: Infrastructure outsourcing for a global natural gas company Business challenge Since 2001, Accenture has been working with a global natural gas company (with operations in more than 25 countries) on a phased and systematic transition approach for Accenture to handle the company s network services, service desk operations, security, data center operations and workplace/desktop services. How Accenture helped Under this arrangement, Accenture implemented a consolidated, standardized wide area network (WAN) infrastructure and an upgraded, high-capacity local area network (LAN) infrastructure in network services. In the help-desk arena, we have drawn on our onshore consultants and Accenture delivery centers to provide cost-effective support 24 hours a day/seven days a week for the natural gas company. We have helped the company introduce standard help-desk tools that eliminate the need for manual hand offs of requests and enable the rapid, one-contact resolution of problems. We have also helped establish a consolidated system that provides more rigorous trend analysis in support of service improvements. High performance delivered Such efforts have led to improved management and simpler administration, resulting in better managed IT costs. They have enabled more proactive monitoring of the infrastructure, better disaster recovery capabilities, greater resilience in critical services and improved security that reduces the vulnerability of the corporate network and the company s knowledge assets. In 2008, the original five-year infrastructure outsourcing agreement was extended to 2010. During that time, Accenture will continue to manage and improve the company s IT infrastructure. 17
Why Accenture? Drawing on our management consulting, outsourcing and technology services, Accenture helps oil and gas companies with an integrated approach to strategy, process, technology and people. With deep energy industry experience, we use proprietary methods and tools and leverage the resources of the Accenture Global Delivery Network to help energy companies enter new markets, increase revenues and improve operational excellence on their journey to high performance. Industry focus Accenture understands the energy business. We combine our global presence (see Figure 4) with local understanding. In addition, we have created energy hubs in strategic global locations to better serve our oil and gas clients. The purpose of the hubs is to serve as a network to quickly respond to account team needs, package local thought leadership to highlight emerging trends, and test Accenture s industry assets for client relevance. We support a 18 range of energy companies across the energy value chain: Accenture s upstream consultants work with IOCs and NOCs throughout the world on strategy, operations, information technology, geotechnical processing, enterprise solutions, and the transformation of IT, human resources and finance. Accenture s gas group covers the processing and transport of natural gas by supermajors, energy merchants, pipeline operators, marketers and distributors, focusing on areas such as business capability development, liquefied natural gas commercial optimization, gas operations, trading and risk management, and the management of capital projects. Accenture s downstream energy group helps companies improve and manage refining, wholesale and retail marketing, lubricants operations, plants and assets, and the hydrocarbon supply chain. Extensive investment in business process initiative Accenture s business process initiative focuses on leading industry processes and a comprehensive model for the energy industry that spans all segments and includes industryspecific business processes, process flowcharts, key performance-indicator frameworks and capability assessment models. Assets, skills and capabilities Accenture has an integrated, full spectrum of capabilities, including strategy and organization, operations performance improvement, systems integration, and technology and outsourcing. Our thought leadership is widely recognized by clients, industry groups and the media for deep insight and innovative approaches. We have skilled people in all the information technologies relevant to the energy industry, and we continually invest not only in new assets and capabilities, but also in training of our people to provide a skilled global workforce with low attrition levels.
Figure 4 Accenture has a presence in many key energy geographies Calgary Houston Stavanger Aberdeen London Amsterdam Moscow Beijing Doha Kuwait City Abu Dhabi Bangalore Lagos Luanda Jakarta Rio de Janeiro Perth 19
About Accenture Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become highperformance businesses and governments. With more than 186,000 people serving clients in over 120 countries, the company generated net revenues of US$23.39 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2008. Its home page is www.accenture.com. Contact us We help companies become highperformance businesses, by drawing on our deep industry experience and the findings from our High Performance Business research. To learn more about how Accenture can help your energy company on its journey to high performance, visit us at www.accenture.com or call us at +1 312 737 7909. Copyright 2009 Accenture All rights reserved. Accenture, its logo, and High Performance Delivered are trademarks of Accenture.