Ways for asset owners to digitalize to improve business efficiency

Reduce cost and secure asset uptime with built-for-purpose supply chain management

Assets must be kept operational to maximize throughput and revenue generation while maintaining best in class standards for safety and environmental management. To reduce cost and increase buying power, it’s essential that all procurement is done though Frame Agreements and with a collaborative approach with partners that ensures minimal administration overhead.

Delivery of equipment and spare parts is a critical activity for all asset owning companies, especially in complex offshore environments. Even if operation requires a standard part or consumable, that part or consumable may be in a supply chain far removed from the unit, and simply transporting it to the required location may consume valuable days or weeks. To successfully face these situations, it is essential to use an ERP system with rigorous spares and repairs inventory functionality. Software must also streamline material transfer to reduce shipping costs and planned or unplanned downtime. It should also include management of palletized inventory, intermodal containers and other load carriers for on/offshore deliveries. To support offshore processes, functionality for efficient transport order management is essential in order that visibility and transparency is always available to all stakeholders.

An often-unappreciated element of supply chain management offshore is specialized, certified equipment or tools that are used in the repair or maintenance activity, regardless of whether these items are rented or borrowed from an offshore company’s own yard, the costs associated must be accounted for in the work scope definition/ project plan and where necessary accrued against the revenue-generating project in question.

With IFS Cloud, asset owners will have the right solution to:

Reduce procurement cost with frame agreements
Optimize inventories (capital/spares equipment, cross-warehouse overview)
Enable corporate standardization
Improve offshore operation delivering faster supply and accurate deliveries
Reduce unplanned downtime
Increase completion percentages of planned maintenance work, avoiding delays due to part unavailability
Lower tax exposure through spares and repairs inventory—which is either reduced through better visibility of demand or allocated to different assets to minimize assessments.

Advanced Finance Management

Joint Ventures (JVs) are essential for the energy industry due to the nature, complexity and size of investments made, and are the most common business arrangement for energy players such as oil and gas or utility companies engaged in exploration, appraisal, development and production operations. Joint ventures provide better access to funding in capital intensive operations, but also to mitigate risk and help to develop and share insight, competence, and expertise.

A Joint Venture partnership typically consists of an operating partner and one or more non- operating partners. One of the partners, normally the operator, defines and manages the accounting for the JV on behalf of the other partners. The operator records all the incurred expenses and allocates these to the partner(s) according to their ownership shares. This is managed seamlessly incurring minimal overhead admin costs within IFS.

IFS Cloud for the finance organization includes:

Monitoring of cost, revenue, assets, and liabilities, on multidimensional and multi-company level
Support for IFRS and US GAAP accounting principles
Project, fixed asset, and lease accounting
Automation of processes i.e. requisition to pay and inter-company handling
Support for functional currency as well as local currency
Embedded group consolidation with high level of automation in the closing process for shorter time to report, i.e. elimination of inter-company transactions and ownership relations
Business planning for both operational and strategic planning
Timely and accurate data in real-time to support business decisions in a fast and reliable way
Traceability and visibility throughout the value chain and across companies and countries

Increased collaboration across the value chain

IFS helps overcome these challenges, with solutions that include sub-contract management and web-based collaboration portals. Sub-contractor agreements, for example, can define service scope and subsequent performance monitoring steps for complex installations, culminating in the service invoices.

In addition, IFS Cloud:

Provides lifecycle management of a contract from bid and tendering through to completion and handover.
Allows flexible invoicing and manage variations to scope.
Handles simple or complex sub-contractor activities that are critical for improving follow-up of suppliers and enable better cost control.

Collaboration in all aspects of the value chain is increasingly crucial for success, so suppliers and contractors can reduce and manage costs efficiently to deliver mutual shared benefits for all parties. Silo operation, plus the lack of visibility and traceability between finance, supply chain and service contractors, will inhibit this best practice approach.

A collaborative system is critical to offering the required control and maintaining an open value chain while working with vendors. With multiple contractors and service vendors working together on major projects, complex coordination is more crucial than ever in large energy assets. Joint ventures, outsourcing and sub-contracts all test managers’ ability to retain control of projects and operation.

Reduce maintenance and operational costs

In asset operations and maintenance in heavily regulated industries such as energy, a strategy that focuses on health, safety and environment, and asset reliability is a foundation that all organizations must embed in their day-to-day working processes. In the event of an unplanned equipment failure serious consequences will ensure involving cost, revenue and reputational damage. The health and condition of all assets and resources must be maintained at an optimal level.

IFS offers asset owners an industry solution for more effective processes, increased service revenues and—ultimately–reduced downtime. With IFS Cloud, it’s easy to manage your service and operation with integrating project management, material management/logistics, maintenance planning, work/service order management, resource allocation, document management, business intelligence, as well as HSEQ.

With IFS Cloud, asset owners will have the right solution to:

Reduce procurement cost with frame agreements
Optimize inventories (capital/spares equipment, cross-warehouse overview)
Enable corporate standardization
Improve offshore operation delivering faster supply and accurate deliveries
Reduce unplanned downtime
Increase completion percentages of planned maintenance work, avoiding delays due to part unavailability
Lower tax exposure through spares and repairs inventory—which is either reduced through better visibility of demand or allocated to different assets to minimize assessments.