A Qualification System for the European Energy Sector

European Supplier of Oil & Gas Solutions

Location:

Industry:

Energy, Oil & Gas

Employees:

50+

About the Customer:

An oil and gas non-profit association and a governing body for the industry players in Europe that offers comprehensive solutions for effective procurement management. Its scope of work spans across the design and development of varied end-to-end offerings that help oil and gas operators and suppliers connect and comply with the local and international laws.

Business Challenge

Oil and gas operators perform a complex multiple-criteria search in supplier service, a list of companies that want to sell their products or services to oil & gas operators. To make purchases according to the EU legislation, operators had to look for the relevant suppliers in the system – those that are audit-compliant, respect human rights and freedoms, have mature processes in place, and follow industry standards.

Thus, a supplier registry and a service supporting qualification of suppliers were required. Anyone willing to operate on the local continental shelf must be in such a system. Just like oil & gas operators, suppliers would also be the users of the newly made service.

The legacy system neither fully met the users’ expectations nor did it take into account the stringent requirements for potential collaboration. The idea behind the project was to replace the existing legacy system and pair the search service with the new solution. Furthermore, operators would be able to use the qualification system to search for suppliers that possess certain attributes and comply with specific laws. Beyond that, additional objectives included system administration and tune-up, creating and editing users, companies, and roles, etc.

Solution

Infopulse implemented the project in several phases. On regular basis, Infopulse adds new functions to the service in accordance with the client’s requirements as well as supports and maintains the whole system, targeting the needs of several categories of users.

Our team worked on creating a registry of oil & gas operators and providing them with an option to search for suppliers, using different attributes and filters. Thus, the system helps users with different goals to register under a single service. Moreover, the system could self-search companies externally and invite qualified organizations to join the service.
Infopulse was engaged in product and service page development according to UNSPSC (United Nations Standard Products and Services Code) standards.
Infopulse laid the foundation for the audit feature of the system, where operators could nominate the suppliers for audit during the ongoing year, sort the list of potential candidate companies, and pass it further to audit organizations. In addition to the core functionality, the system contains historical data (post-audit reports) for the suppliers, operators, and audit firms. The latter, for example, can assign a score to a certain supplier after conducting an audit, which, when being monitored over time, allows operators to compare the performance dynamics of such supplier.

Looking ahead, another category of users will be added to the system soon: the companies that conduct a human-rights audit as a part of a comprehensive audit procedure.

For the Infopulse team, this project is a brainchild nurtured from the very cradle by 50 + teammates; it is an endeavor that shaped the professional skillset of many technical specialists and managers on our side, who have been trying different hats – from planning to execution. For the past 3 years, together with the client, we have developed a great rapport and had the project as an important lesson learned with great value for both sides.

Denys Shevchenko

Delivery Manager, Cognitive Computing at Infopulse

Business Value

Infopulse’s client was able to monetize the system and turn it into an end-to-end fee-based service, offering real-time insights, as well as accurate and up-to-date supplier information for oil & gas operators:

International markets access & geo expansion: the UNSPSC-compliant system allows operators to broaden their pool of subcontractors to the global supplier arena.
Minimized risks for oil & gas operators by using various audit information, including the credit rating of suppliers and their ability to conduct efficient procurement processes.
Operators can receive timely updates on any changes to suppliers of their interest
The system provides suppliers with insights into search statistics and analytics, which allows tracking and monitoring the ranking of their business and taking relevant actions accordingly.
Created an opportunity for all registered suppliers to showcase their profiles, which improves their ability to generate revenue through the system, following legal compliance.