STUDY OF MANAGEMENT INFORMATION

SYSTEM IN PETROLEUM PRODUCT SALES

OPERATION (WITH CHANNELS)

Submitted to:
Prof. V.V. Nath

Submitted by:
Joydeep Mukherjee (20081017)

Hasumati Vankar (20081018)

Lalit Kunwar Singh (20081023)

Manish Kumar Sanadhya (20081026)

Manish Upadhyay (20081027)

Mohit Raj (20081030)

Executive Summary
Management Information Systems are one of the major tools available to business managers for
achieving operational excellence, developing new products and services, improving decision
making, and achieving competitive advantages. In the petroleum industry, especially in the
midstream and downstream sector management information system has streamlined the business
operations. Effective network systems for better connectivity, better IT infrastructure for
effective data handling, softwares for data analysis and future sales projections, efficient ERPs
(enterprise resource planning) has brought the organizations competitive advantage. We have
taken instances from around the globe in the oil and gas sector, players who have made a
difference in their business methodology by applying Management Information Systems.
Organizations like ENGEN, SURGUTNEFTE GAS, and ONGC have added these technology
features and reaped enormous benefits with respect to exploration and production, resource
optimization and sales maximization, which are the main goals of an organization operating in
the Oil and Gas sector.

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INTRODUCTION
A management information system (MIS) is a system or process that provides the information
necessary to manage an organization effectively. MIS and the information it generates are
generally considered essential components of prudent and reasonable business decisions.

The importance of maintaining a consistent approach to the development, use, and review of
MIS systems within the institution must be an ongoing concern of Oil & Gas Industry. MIS
should have a clearly defined framework of guidelines, policies or practices, standards, and
procedures for the organization. These should be followed throughout the institution in the
development, maintenance, and use of all MIS. MIS is viewed and used at many levels by
management. It should be supportive of the institution's longer term strategic goals and
objectives. To the other extreme it is also those everyday financial accounting systems that are
used to ensure basic control is maintained over financial record keeping activities.

Financial accounting systems and subsystems are just one type of institutional MIS. Financial
accounting systems are an important functional element or part of the total MIS structure.
However, they are more narrowly focused on the internal balancing of an institution's books to
the general ledger and other financial accounting subsystems. For example, accrual adjustments,
reconciling and correcting entries used to reconcile the financial systems to the general ledger are
not always immediately entered into other MIS systems. Accordingly, although MIS and
accounting reconcilement totals for related listings and activities should be similar, they may not
necessarily balance.

Many systems offer basic oil and gas operational processes such as data entry and transactional
processing. The key element in a quality system, at least from a user’s perspective, is the
flexibility and ease with which a program can generate reporting. In today’s marketplace
reporting is critical to competitive success.

An institution's MIS should be designed to achieve the following goals:

Enhance communication among employees

Deliver complex material throughout the institution

Provide an objective system for recording and aggregating information

Reduce expenses related to labor-intensive manual activities

Support the organization's strategic goals and direction

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Because MIS supplies decision makers with facts, it supports and enhances the overall decision
making process. MIS also enhances job performance throughout an institution. At the most
senior levels, it provides the data and information to help the board and management make
strategic decisions. At other levels, MIS provides the means through which the institution's
activities are monitored and information is distributed to management, employees, and
customers.

Effective MIS should ensure the appropriate presentation formats and time frames required by
operations and senior management is met. MIS can be maintained and developed by either
manual or automated systems or a combination of both. It should always be sufficient to meet an
institution's unique business goals and objectives. The effective deliveries of an institution's
products and services are supported by the MIS. These systems should be accessible and useable
at all appropriate levels of the organization.

MIS is a critical component of the institution's overall risk management strategy. MIS supports
management's ability to perform such reviews. MIS should be used to recognize, monitor,
measure, limit, and manage risks.

Risk management involves four main elements:

Policies or practices

Operational processes

Staff and management

Feedback devices

Frequently, operational processes and feedback devices are intertwined and cannot easily be
viewed separately. The most efficient and useable MIS should be both operational and
informational. As such, management can use MIS to measure performance, manage resources,
and help an institution comply with regulatory requirements. MIS can also be used by
management to provide feedback on the effectiveness of risk controls. Controls are developed to
support the proper management of risk through the institution's policies or practices, operational
processes, and the assignment of duties and responsibilities to staff and managers.

Technology advances have increased both the availability and volume of information
management and the directors have available for both planning and decision making.
Correspondingly, technology also increases the potential for inaccurate reporting and flawed
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decision making. Because data can be extracted from many financial and transaction systems,
appropriate control procedures must be set up to ensure that information is correct and relevant.
In addition, since MIS often originates from multiple equipment platforms including
mainframes, minicomputers, and microcomputers, controls must ensure that systems on smaller
computers have processing controls that are as well defined and as effective as those commonly
found on the traditionally larger mainframe systems.

All institutions must set up a framework of sound fundamental principles that identify risk,
establish controls, and provide for effective MIS review and monitoring systems throughout the
organization. Commonly, an organization may choose to establish and express these sound
principles in writing. The management fully endorses and supports placing these principles in
writing to enhance effective communications throughout the institution. Sound fundamental
principles for MIS review include proper internal controls, operating procedures and safeguards,
and audit coverage.

Companies within the downstream petroleum industry want to grow revenue and market share
while reducing costs. They face thin margins that limit capital spending for growth initiatives.
Efforts to drive down costs through line-item cutting have been effective, but many companies
are finding that there are fewer and fewer options remaining. Still, merger and acquisition
activities remain common, and most companies want to standardize their processes and operate
globally. These goals and challenges are no different from those in most other industries. What is
different, from a supply chain perspective, is the downstream petroleum industry’s reliance on a
volatile raw material, crude, coupled with a production and distribution environment that cannot
respond immediately to changing demand for product. Typically, companies that have recently
undergone merger and acquisition activity choose to operate duplicate, suboptimal supply chains
that are not demand-based. Often, companies have inaccurate information about how these
supply chains operate.

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 How MIS is used in Oil & Gas Industry?
THE BUSINESS PROCESS OF DOWNSTREAM MARKETING AND RETAILING

MIS for Oil & Gas solutions provide comprehensive support for key marketing and retailing
activities, including:

Marketing planning and execution – You can design, execute, coordinate, and
monitor all marketing initiatives. You can create personalized and segment-specific
campaigns and monitor enterprise wide profitability at the program, product,
customer, and partner levels.

Sales planning and account management – MIS enable you to streamline your
sales planning and promote your most profitable products to your most profitable
customers. You can also segment customers and target segments with well-
differentiated products and services.

Opportunity-to-cash management – MIS provide complete visibility into

opportunities – enabling you to convert them into contracts or customer orders. You
can take orders, create proposals, determine pricing, check product availability and
customer credit, and manage and track contracts across all interaction channels.

Customer service – You can deliver superior service through multichannel

interaction centers, including Web-based customer self-services. You can also ensure
optimum customer service levels with powerful tools to analyze service performance.

Terminal management – MIS enable you to monitor goods movements and

compare stock levels in terminal tank farms. By implementing terminal automation
systems, you can optimize internal processes for taking orders and managing tank
stocks and shipments.

Hydrocarbon products transportation – You can plan and execute bulk and
packaged-products shipments. You can calculate freight costs for bulk and non-bulk
shipments with evaluated receipt settlement for invoice processing with carriers. You
can also use end-of-day data collation to consolidate actual delivery quantities with
scheduled quantities.

Service station fuel management –MIS you to derive fuel sales quantities from
point-of-sale (POS) data or calculate them from meter readings that are reconciled

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 with physical dip readings. You can analyze and adjust fuel pricing throughout retail
networks to remain competitive.

Convenience retailing – You can manage pricing and promotions, merchandising

activities, and accounting at stores and headquarters. You can use POS data to
analyze customer loyalty, and store employees can access the system at headquarters
to optimize store operations.

Helping the Oil Company by Information System In Outsourcing

Many oil companies are returning to their roots or core competencies—focusing on finding oil
and gas. In taking that route, many other tangential aspects of their operations that do not add
appreciable value to the organization are being wholly or partially outsourced.

At the same time, a demographic tide of change is occurring in the industry’s workforce. In
recent years, knowledge transfer has become a significant issue for a pragmatic reason. A large
chunk of experienced people is disappearing through senior worker attrition, igniting a frantic
need for development of freshmen and sophomore successors.

Although that has created an industry hurting for experienced people, service companies have
stepped in with innovative solutions, most specifically new technology, to help oil companies
over the human resource hump. Fortunately, hiring of petroleum engineers, geologists, and
related professionals is again on the cyclical uptick, but it always takes a while before new hires
are successfully integrated into the workforce from the standpoint of being genuinely productive.

In other words, service companies are helping oil companies of all sizes—from small
independents to large, fully integrated organizations—to bridge the gap in the experienced
personnel shortfall by developing and providing creative technology that increases operational
efficiencies. This includes not only electronically gathering data about the drilling process, but
also integrating all that information with mission-critical business applications as well. Another
example involves development activities to optimize performance drilling applications by taking
that drilling information (e.g., weight on bit, revolutions per minute, torque, and other
measurements recorded on a daily basis) and feeding it through algorithms to compute
mechanical specific energy (MSE) to help drillers, contractors, and operators drill more
efficiently.

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And the process can work various ways. Depending on a service company’s size and its breadth
of competencies, the service company may generate new ideas and techniques, then bring them
to operators and drilling contractors. Or, new techniques and methodologies may be jointly
developed between service companies and oil companies. For example, on some current projects,
oil companies are collaborating on MSE applications with a service company to understand how
to apply the measurements to their daily drilling activity. On a single-well basis, savings and
efficiencies may seem somewhat minimal at first glance, possibly up to USD 15,000 total, but,
aggregated across a field in a domestic drilling program, it delivers a significant impact on an
operator’s business.

Productivity from Many Directions

New technology’s value, of course, is not about its bells-and-whistle looks, but about what it
actually brings to the table. It is extraordinary how far oil companies have stepped into the
future, just from the perspective of the instrumentation side of the business. Productivity can be a
value-add from several different directions: in terms of the drilling aspect with performance
drilling solutions, business integration solutions, asset management solutions, or through
communications solutions. Notably, some efficiencies on the drilling instrumentation side are
being adapted to the work over and production side of the business.

One of the primary ways to solve the dilemma of a lack of trained people in the industry is by
helping companies essentially help themselves by automating as much of the daily operations as
possible. That includes new technology that assists directional drillers by sending information to
their down-hole tool automatically or even remotely. Similarly, there is ongoing development
with MSE to enhance the value of remote monitoring capabilities.

While it might be concluded that these efforts are designed to reduce a company’s workforce, the
emphasis remains one of building greater efficiencies rather than lowering head count—and
“remote” is a key. More and more companies are monitoring operations, changing
configurations, and troubleshooting—all remotely. Rigs monitored remotely feed information
into a service centre manned 24/7. Technicians’ well-monitoring duties include making sure that
sensors are functioning properly, that software is current, and that the appropriate command is
electronically sent if it needs updating.

All these developments are delivering the clear message that the days of adding unlimited
personnel to a company’s work-force are gone. Certainly, viewed in a generalist way, E&P rigs
and operations look the same as they did years ago. Yet, in many ways not visible to a typical
observer, the industry is changing in quantum leaps, and companies must be prepared to change
with the times. In an industry contradictorily brimming with new technology yet highly
conservative and somewhat reluctant to change, stepping into the next dimension is not always
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the obvious next move. However, companies must adapt to today’s economic environment by
becoming more efficient and productive or absorb the adverse effects.

That means looking past a healthy oil and gas economy today to be positioned for times that may
not be as bright—investing now to have those efficiencies and gains in place when the inevitable
downturn occurs. This applies not only to large, integrated companies, but especially to small
independents that may not think such an investment is feasible since they do not have
comparable resources. However, as noted earlier, when service companies can bring smaller oil
companies significant performance improvements, investment for the future should not be
dismissed out of hand.

Therefore, it is important to build and maintain a continued focus on a partnership and active
collaboration between operators and service companies to push technology toward gaining even
more efficiencies and reducing costs. That may be better or improved integration of wellsite
operations with the back-office functionality, streamlining those activities on site and together
allowing the driller and tool pusher to concentrate more on drilling hole than on being ad hoc
administrators. That allows operators to get back to their core business of finding oil and gas, and
being less concerned with administrative issues surrounding that process, by automating
that, too.

There are few bigger challenges than finding and producing oil and gas. That is precisely why,
even when traditional methods work fine, better ones are always right around the corner. And
they are usually born of cutting-edge technology that accomplishes the old-fashioned objectives
of efficiency, productivity, and profitably better than yesterday’s methods ever will. Technology
is one of better management’s best friends.

Managing the Business of Drilling

As the oil industry enters a new economic environment with increased introduction of new
technology, the message to operators stays on course: making them more efficient and better at
managing both risk and E&P operations. Pivotal to this approach are solutions designed to
provide more accurate, timely information from the wellsite to the corporate office and critical
business applications. In other words, the issue remains how senior executives can best manage
or streamline business operations, manage their drilling budget as a business investment, and
improve their return on investment. These points or challenges call for solutions directed not
only at the head office but at drilling crews, rig managers, and operations managers, along with
key management.

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What to look for in a website information system:

On-demand Web access to all drilling data, including reports for remote/corporate office
access

Dedicated email accounts for easy communications between sites and home office

Standardized communications across all rig operations

What to look for in a business-integration system:

Corporate office drilling process data collection and mining capability

Integrated function to automatically feed critical business applications

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 EXAMPLES FROM THE INDUSTRY

I. ENGEN PETROLEUM

Situation

Engen Petroleum (Engen) is a leading African oil company headquartered in Cape Town, South
Africa. The company employs approximately 4,800 people in 12 production sites and 100 depots
throughout Africa. A subsidiary of Petronas of Malaysia, the company has the largest market
share (27 percent) of the South African petroleum industry and operates 1,258 service stations.
The company generates annual revenues in excess of U.S. $2.9 billion and has a net asset value
of U.S. $700 million. It owns and operates its own refinery that produces more than 130,000
barrels of oil per day.

Due to its large number of offices and the high mobility of its workforce across the continent,
messaging is a critical function for the company. Engen previously used multiple messaging
platforms that included four different systems and four different sets of tools to access them. The
company used Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 for e-mail, Right Fax for sending and
receiving faxes, Iron Mail for spam and antivirus mail filtering, and Call Xpress for voice
messaging. This combination proved unwieldy and complex to administer, so the company
decided to consolidate its communication infrastructure for voice mail, e-mail, and fax. “Engen
had to license multiple servers to run the applications and had multiple maintenance contracts
with the vendors. There were also integration problems between the systems—for example,
when the company upgraded its voice-mail desktop messaging application, the e-mail messaging
system blocked voice-mail messages from being delivered to the desktop,” explains Christophe
Hollander, Microsoft Consultant, and Dimension Data. Multiple systems also required
administration by IT staff specialized in each application. During deployment or as part of the
normal refresh cycle of the company, technical staff needed to install each application onto
individual desktops, which was a large drain of time and resources. Furthermore, ensuring
migration of the applications from one computer to another without losing data proved difficult.

Another drawback of this multiple-platform system was that mobile employees had limited
access to messages and communication. For example, when employees were working remotely,
they could not access voice mail, view calendar information, or make use of telephone directory
services—thus hindering their productivity. In addition, faxes could be viewed only when

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employees had access to a fax machine. Because of the financial transactions between Engen and
its vendors and dealers, security was important. The company also needed a robust, safe
messaging solution with built-in antivirus and antispam programs to protect its users, its system,
and its intellectual property. “We wanted a secure, single point of contact that would enable our
employees to click on one application for all their messaging requirements,” says Trudy Kumalo,
Team Lead, Microsoft Competency Centre, Engen Petroleum. “Our key requirement for
upgrading to a new messaging platform was its ability to provide a safe collaborative
environment, with integration between the different messaging tools. We also wanted to make
sure employees could find out exactly where the person was whom they were trying to contact
and whether that person was available or not.”

Solution

To meet its collaborative messaging needs, Engen chose to work with Microsoft Gold Certified
Partner Dimension Data. Ultimately, Engen decided to migrate from Microsoft Exchange Server
2003 to Exchange Server 2007. “Our company has consistently used Microsoft products for
many years and we’ve been very happy with them,” says Kumalo. “It was a logical move.” The
initial phase, begun in April 2007 and completed within the month, included 102 employees
using Exchange Server 2007, with 54 employees enabled for unified messaging. With Exchange
Server 2007 Unified Messaging, users can receive e-mail messages, voice mail, and faxes in
their inbox, which they access using the Microsoft Office Outlook® 2007 messaging and
collaboration client. Plans are in place to increase these numbers after October 2007 to 1,800 e-
mail–messaging users and 100 unified-messaging users, respectively. Dimension Data was
responsible for supplying technical skills to upgrade to the new messaging technology, ensuring
system integration, and training IT staff to administer and maintain the platform. The Exchange
Server Unified Messaging solution allows employees to listen to, forward, and reply to e-mail
messages, and to make, update, or respond to meeting requests over the telephone. Users can
also flag messages for follow-up, skip to the next unread message, hide or delete conversations,
and even find messages from particular users. All these functions use either voice navigation or a
standard touchtone keypad (DTMF). “In addition, employees no longer have to be at their desks
to access the telephone directory, e-mail messages, or their calendar,” says Kumalo. Previous
communication systems at Engen delivered messages into several different types of storage
systems, including voice-mail systems, e-mail message servers, and stand alone fax machines.

Now, with Exchange Server Unified Messaging, all types of messages are stored in one highly
accessible system. Even voice-mail messages are delivered directly into the user’s inbox,
offering powerful new ways to collaborate more effectively. The solution also enables mobile
employees to access their messages through Microsoft Office Outlook Web Access using a Web
browser, and Office Outlook 2003 or 2007, outside the firewall. Users have flexible access
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through a variety of mobile devices, including the option to use a standard phone line using
Microsoft Office Outlook Voice Access with speech recognition. “Now with integration between
the communications client and the Private Automated Branch Exchange (PABX), employees
know who is calling them, and any missed calls go straight into their Outlook inbox,” says
Kumalo. Previously, IT staff had to be trained on different voice, fax, and e-mail messaging
systems. They had to monitor and troubleshoot in multiple places, provision accounts for each
employee in multiple directory infrastructures, and manage the security and maintenance of all of
these essential systems on an ongoing basis. With Exchange Server Unified Messaging, the IT
department has significantly fewer demands—for both installation and maintenance. In addition,
the Exchange Server 2007 environment includes built-in antivirus and antispam protection.
Engen is also piloting unified messaging with 100 users running Microsoft Office Live
Communications Server 2005 Enterprise Edition. Live Communications Server will deliver both
instant messaging (IM) and user presence features as part of a total, scalable solution, giving the
company enhanced security, integration with other Microsoft products, and an extensible
development platform for all 4,800 employees.

Benefits

Using Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging, Engen employees can be productive from
almost anywhere at any time, using a broad range of devices—including a simple telephone.
Unified messaging has simplified and streamlined communications for the company and greatly
reduced the complexity of managing its messaging needs.

Improved Collaboration

With the introduction of unified messaging, Engen employees can access messages and calendar
data respond to meeting requests, flag messages, and respond to requests—no matter where they
are or what device they are using. Engen has realized significant performance improvements,
increased security, and improved employee productivity. The solution has also resulted in
improved collaboration and integration that supports the needs of mobile employees.

“By using the flexible access that unified messaging allows, our employees can now connect
with each other from any location at any time. On the road they can use their mobile phones, and
in the office it’s even easier to get hold of someone using presence information,” says Kumalo.

Streamlined Manageability

Unified messaging has reduced the time that IT staff needs to perform administrative tasks, and
improved the efficiency of the IT administrators. “The ease of use of the administrator interface
is especially helpful to us. We now have one system instead of three to administer,” says
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Kumalo. Instead of administering three disparate and totally isolated systems, IT staff can
manage all messaging requirements through a single, easy-to-use, and consistent interface. “This
means our administrators can consult and see everything that they need to from a single screen,”
explains Kumalo. “The amount of training required is also less than with three separate systems,
and our backups and any forthcoming upgrades will be much easier to manage too.”

Optimized Performance

“The company has witnessed a significant performance improvement. Access to e-mail from
Outlook is faster, with a better response time from the server,” says Dylan Owen, Microsoft
Systems Engineer at Engen. Engen no longer requires performance-sapping Virtual Private
Network (VPN) access into the company network for employees who need access from remote
locations. All employees can now use Office Outlook Web Access to view and work on files
located on internal servers with a corresponding increase in speed and convenience.
Additionally, the option to use faster 64-bit hardware means more-effective use of capacity than
with the original systems. “There can be more users per individual server without affecting
performance now,” adds Owen Moreover, the upgrade to Exchange Server 2007 was seamless;
employees were not subject to any change or disruption, and could continue using the familiar
Microsoft interface and menu structures—a significant improvement over the previous setup.

Tightened Security “We are definitely more confident of our communications security,” says
Kumalo. “Exchange Server uses encryption technology to help keep messages confidential inside
the organization and over the Internet, and actively protects our users.” The Exchange Server
environment also offers integral protection for the company’s valuable intellectual and financial
property, with built in security technologies, including antivirus and antispam software and
services for email and instant messaging, to protect against the latest security threats. This is vital
for Engen, as security is a major consideration in the highly competitive energy industry. The
frequent and automatic updates to junk e-mail filters and antivirus signatures ensure up-to-date
protection for all Engen employees, no matter what their location or hardware platform.

Enhanced Productivity

The company’s mobile employees can now stay connected through quick access to all of their
communications—including voice mail, e-mail, and faxes—from Outlook 2007, Outlook Web
Access, and mobile devices. “Our employees don’t have to be at their desks to get integrated
access to all their various communication tools,” comments Kumalo. This means that no matter
where employees are—on a rig, at the refinery, at their desk—the work of keeping the gas
running can go on without the need to run for a phone, computer, or fax machine when they need
to access a particular type of message. “Now our employees can be productive even when they

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are on the road. They can access everything they need without waiting. The introduction of
unified messaging is making a big difference to the way we work,” adds Kumalo.

II. SURGUTNEFTE GAS

Situation

Surgutnefte gas is one of Russia's largest oil companies. The company conducts exploration
work, as well as constructing and developing oil and gas fields. It also extracts and refines oil
and gas, and produces oil and petrochemical products. The organization employs 85,000 people
and operates 80 branches. Its sales represent 13 percent of the Russian oil market. The company
historically supported its operations with a complex IT infrastructure. This was distributed over a
wide geographical area and served more than 10,000 users at 100 sites. As new branches were
added, the number of server domains in use at Surgutnefte gas grew to 100. The company needed
114 separate Microsoft Exchange Server version 5.5 applications to manage the company’s e-
mail messaging requirements. Administrators could no longer manage this infrastructure
effectively. It was also impossible to implement common IT policies across the entire
organization. Unplanned downtime was also causing disruptions to normal business operations
and reducing end-user productivity. Because the server environment was distributed over a wide
geographical area, costly on-site maintenance was also required. To address these issues, the
company wanted to deploy a new, centralized IT infrastructure and update the e-mail messaging
system, on which many of the company's managerial and technical processes depend. Another
key goal was to integrate existing SAP enterprise management systems with the new
infrastructure.

Solution

The Surgutnefte gas IT department began discussions with Microsoft Services to scope the
requirements for the new IT infrastructure. In August 2003, the infrastructure refresh began in a
limited segment of the Surgutnefte gas network. The first phase was to deploy the Microsoft
Windows Server TM 2003, Enterprise Edition, operating system. This incorporates Active
Directory service, a comprehensive, centralized catalogue that can be used to view, manage, and
amend each element of the distributed IT network. Active Directory operates independently of
existing applications and hardware servers, and thereby maximizes the value of previous
technology investments. Microsoft Services also helped Surgutnefte gas to migrate its existing
Exchange Server version 5.5 messaging system to Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. This now
supports a consolidated, centrally managed server cluster that handles messaging requirements
reliably and effectively across the enterprise.

As a key part of the project, Microsoft Services worked with Surgutnefte gas to integrate human
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resources (HR) software from SAP into the new infrastructure where the software can be
centrally managed by Active Directory. At the same time, Microsoft Identity Integration Server
2003 (MIIS 2003) automates the process of creating and maintaining personnel records and
offers a companywide address book. Central management features of Windows Server 2003 also
provide rapid, reliable access to a range of business applications. End users can rapidly and
securely open all the technology tools they need by using a single sign on process. The new
system is constantly monitored with Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2000 to ensure the
highest levels of network security and performance. Fedor Zubanov, Senior Consultant with
Microsoft Services, says, “Initially, the new infrastructure served 3,000 users within a specific
section of the network. Now, we are expanding it on a companywide basis and increasing
integration between old and new infrastructure elements. We are also working with IT
professionals at Surgutnefte gas to ensure they can continue rolling out the new software to
regional sites by themselves.”

Benefits

Among the benefits that Surgutnefte gas is realizing are more efficient IT management and
business continuity supported by fault-tolerance in the data centre. The solution is proving to
provide protection for corporate data, and employees are benefiting from single sign on service.
Integration for single sign on Surgutnefte gas previously operated a UNIX platform to support
some of its SAP applications. Because this technology uses distinct standards, Microsoft
Windows operating system users could not previously access all the software tools they needed
with a single sign on authentication process. Using the Kerberos protocol, a standard that is
available with Windows Server 2003, Microsoft Services and Surgutnefte gas were able to
deliver a single sign on service for all applications across the network. This capability results in
significant time savings for end users.

High Systems Availability

The new technology tools offer business continuity supported by fault tolerance across the data
centre. In addition, constant monitoring of the new solution ensures maximum performance and
minimizes unplanned downtime. Zubanov says, “There is no single point of failure in the data
centre. This ensures reliable access to critical applications and data at all times. For example, the
mail system is built using two-node clusters, ensuring business continuity. At the same time, the
data storage system is backed up using mirrored RAID [redundant array of independent disks]
arrays on HP [Hewlett-Packard] EVA 5000 hardware, and e-mail data is protected using
Microsoft Cluster Service.”

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Automated HR Management Processes

The new solution has integrated the HR module of SAP with the central management features of
Active Directory. As a result, many processes that previously required intervention from IT staff
are now automated. Personnel records, for example, can be created by the system when a new
member of staff joins the company. The system sends an alert to the new employee’s manager
when the profile has been set up. In addition, users’ records can be modified when their personal
details, such as surname, place of work, position, or home address, change. Records will be also
removed from the Active Directory and e-mail profiles when an employee leaves the company.
Ivan Bobrov, Head of the Microsoft Services Department at Microsoft Corporation says,
“Automating HR processes has lightened the load on IT staff at Surgutnefte gas. It also helps to
ensure the security of the system and reduce human error by handling personnel records
automatically.”

Microsoft Windows Server System

Microsoft Windows Server System TM is a comprehensive, integrated, and interoperable server

infrastructure that helps reduce the complexity and costs of building, deploying, connecting, and
operating agile business solutions. Windows Server System helps customers create new value for
their business through the strategic use of their IT assets. With the Windows Server operating
system as its foundation, Windows Server System delivers dependable infrastructure for data
management and analysis; enterprise integration; customer, partner, and employee portals;
business process automation; communications and collaboration; and core IT operations
including security, deployment, and systems management.

III. ONGC
If we take the India’s Oil and Gas Company we will find that they are also facing a lot of
problem and they are also using the MIS to deal with this situation. Here we are taking the
example of ONGC.

Business Needs

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), an India-based public sector petroleum company
with 31,000 employees, is responsible for 77 percent of India's crude oil production and 81
18
percent of India's natural gas production. ONGC exploits hydrocarbons in 26 sedimentary
basins of India, and owns and operates more than 11,000 kilometers of pipelines.

ONGC has a complex, heterogeneous IT infrastructure composed of desktop

computers running a mix of Windows operating system editions, Microsoft Office programs,
and various line-of-business applications. ONGC wanted to standardize its operating system
image in order to simplify IT management and improve IT security. In addition, the company
wanted to replace its desktop computers with new portable computers to help improve
productivity and employee satisfaction.

Solution

In June 2007, ONGC began exploring the idea of deploying Windows Vista Business across
the organization. With productivity and security paramount, the company exhaustively tested
Windows Vista in its IT environment. It evaluated several security features, including the
Microsoft Phishing Filter in Windows Internet Explorer 7.0, Windows Defender, and secure
wireless configuration; productivity features, including Instant Search, Windows Sidebar, and
simplified networking; and compatibility of its mission-critical business applications before
initiating Windows Vista deployment in December 2007.

In over four months’ time, and with the help of Microsoft Services, ONGC issued 18,000
new portable computers from Toshiba, Lenovo, and Hewlett-Packard to employees across all
operations of the organization. Each portable computer included Windows Vista, the 2007
Microsoft Office suites, and the Windows Internet Explorer 7 Internet browser. By June 2008,
the company expects to deploy another 2,500 portable computers, for a total of 20,500 new
portable computers running Windows Vista. As part of the deployment process, the company
also offered training to its employees to help accelerate acceptance, smooth the change-
management process, and improve overall productivity.

Benefits

As a result of the new deployment, ONGC has already realized several benefits that are
critical to the company’s continued success, including enhanced security, easier IT
management, and increased employee productivity.

Enhanced security. “Because we are a public sector organization and bound by

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 regulatory compliance, theft of confidential oil exploration data is one of our top
concerns," explains M. Thyagaraj, Chief Information Officer at ONGC. The company is
taking advantage of several security enhancements, including Windows Defender, to help
it safeguard sensitive information. In addition, the company plans to deploy Windows Bit
Locker Drive Encryption—helping to ensure that even if an employee’s computer is lost
or stolen, user and system data is still safeguarded against unauthorized access.

Easier IT management. ONGC now has a single, hardware-independent operating

system image. By standardizing its operating system, the IT staff at ONGC can accelerate
deployment and will be better equipped to easily manage IT assets. “With Windows
Vista, we are able to effectively take inventory of our laptops—capturing hard disk drive,
RAM, battery, and other details—and can easily carry out proper maintenance,” says
Thyagaraj. In addition, the company can now take advantage of Zero Touch Deployment
capabilities in Windows Vista.

Increased employee productivity. As a result of implementing Windows Vista and the

2007 Microsoft Office suites, ONGC anticipates an uptick in employee productivity. “We
expect to see an immediate 5 to 10 percent increase in productivity,” explains Thyagaraj.

One of the key features well received by employees is Instant Search. “Now employees can
quickly locate the important information they need to do their job—files, e-mail messages, and
key data,” says Thyagaraj. Instead of browsing through extensive menus and folders, users can
simply type what they are looking for in the embedded search box in the Start menu and let
Windows Vista quickly do the work for them. In the future, ONGC also plans to develop gadgets
that will provide critical business updates to employees, making it possible for users in remote
locations to easily stay in touch with the state of the business right from their desktop.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Homepage: Springerlink. (n.d.). Retrieved 12 01, 2008, from Springerlink Website:
http://www.springerlink.com

2. Citation: ACM. (n.d.). Retrieved 11 25, 2008, from ACM Website:

http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm

3. BPX pdf: IEI . (n.d.). Retrieved 11 30, 2008, from IEI Website:
http://www.iei.liu.se/content/1/c6/11/42/77/BPX%20misqpap.pdf

4. Articles: World Energy Source. (n.d.). Retrieved 12 03, 2008, from World Energy Source
Website: http://www.worldenergysource.com/articles/pdf/longwell_WE_v5n3.pdf

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