Integrate and extend
BW Offshore gains control over joint venture billing operations with Genus
Shorter process
monthly close and reporting process due to automation
Save days
every month with new application
7 weeks
to be fully up and running
Intro
When a world-leading provider of floating production services, BW Offshore, chose to extend their business venture into the development of proven hydrocarbon reservoirs, significant changes were required in their organization, business processes, and supporting IT applications. This included an application for Joint Interest Billing, efficiently distributing costs between the Joint Venture partners involved in the reservoir development.
By adopting the Genus platform, BW Offshore was able to provide both new and existing business areas with an application that fits seamlessly into their current application portfolio, helps them save time, and increases their control over the process.
“The Genus platform provides the efficiency and flexibility we need in order to keep our IT application portfolio up to date with the constantly changing business requirements. It complements our current ERP system perfectly.”
-Ole Ivar Gundersen, Manager ERP systems at BW Offshore
Challenge
Venturing into new business
In 2017 BW Offshore founded BW Energy as a joint venture with BW Group. The new company is an exploration and production (E&P) company formed to unlock values that traditional oil & gas companies are not addressing, by leveraging BW Offshores FPSO availability and the considerable field development competency inherent in the company. The E&P business was also a natural extension of the business model of building, leasing, and operating FPSOs.
Unsupported business processes
Venturing into new areas of business often requires considerable changes in an organization. In addition to new business processes and an organization with expertise to support these, the new venture also required IT support for areas not covered by the existing application portfolio.
Major oil & gas fields are often run as a joint venture, where several companies co-own the field and thus share the cost of exploration, development, and production. Typically, the field is operated by one of these owners, who in turn is responsible for distributing the operating costs. This distribution process is known as Joint Interest Billing (JIB).
“We explored the possibilities of implementing an off-the-shelf system, but quickly realized that the market could not provide a stand-alone JIB application,” said Ole Ivar Gundersen, Manager ERP systems at BW Offshore. “We needed an application that could solve the problem without implementing a new ERP system.”
No-code to the rescue
Realizing they needed to build a tailored application, BW Offshore started looking for alternative approaches. They wanted a system that was reliable and secure, but at the same time providing the flexibility required to evolve with a changing organization. Time-to-solution was also a considerable factor, as the complexity of managing the cost distribution grew with more projects and involvement of larger parts of the organization.
BW Offshore chose Genus as the platform to create their own JIB application. The platform integrates seamlessly with their existing ERP system, can automate the critical parts of the business process, and supports all types of reporting necessary for issuing the billing statements.
“The choice of using Genus was a joint effort between IT and the business side,” said Ole Ivar Gundersen. “IT sees it as a strategic tool for further application development, and the business side sees that it helps solve day-to-day challenges in the organization through speed and flexibility.”
Improved efficiency and a future-ready platform
The application was implemented in less than 7 weeks and worked seamlessly from day one. Automating the JIB process has eliminated sources of error and freed up time for a growing organization. The financial controllers have estimated to save several days each month due to the new application.
Through automation, BW Offshore has also been able to increase the granularity of cost reporting, making the whole process more transparent and easier to control.
“With the implementation of the new JIB application, our monthly close and reporting process is now shorter, yet more efficient and automated. The application has supplemented our internal controls, and made the cost allocation process more transparent.”
-Ali Athar, Financial Controller – Dussafu field
About
BW Offshore is a leading provider of floating production services to the oil and gas industry. They are represented in all major oil and gas regions worldwide and have a fleet of 15 owned floating production, storage, and offloading vessels (FPSOs). The company has more than 30 years of production track record, including 40 FPSO and FSO projects.