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BP AMOCO CANADA SAVES
MONEY AND TIME
OUTSOURCING TO XEROX
Concentrate on what you know – that’s
the profitable mantra of BP Amoco
Canada, part of the BP Amoco Group,
one of Canada’s largest energy-
producing companies.
Because the
thriving Calgary-
based group is
involved in so
many aspects of
the business –
including the exploration, production
and marketing of natural gas, natural
gas liquids, and petrochemicals –
there’s precious little time for handling
W O R L D W I D E I N D U S T R I A L B U S I N E S S
CASE STUDY
PETROLEUM AND
CHEMICAL
BP Amoco Canada
all the non-core but necessary tasks
that keep the business running
smoothly.
So in fall 1998, when British Petroleum
and Amoco announced that the two
companies planned to merge, BP
Amoco Canada seized the opportunity
to see if it could find a better way to
handle document management.
“We had been using Xerox copiers for
years,” says Joanne Aihoshi, Manager
of Office Services for BP Amoco
Canada. “And when we began
investigating our existing processes,
Xerox came to us and said, ‘We know
that you’re looking for solutions. Let’s
talk about outsourcing services.’“
With new corporate policies already
being established as the merger came
together, BP Amoco Canada knew that
this would be an opportune time to
introduce a new document
management model for employees.
Partnering With Xerox
After researching a number of different
competitors and print scenarios, BP
Amoco Canada hired Xerox to handle a
variety of internal services including
copier and printer fleet management,
central print management, mail and
courier services, records management,
fax services and electronic imaging.
But that was just the beginning.
What BP Amoco Canada was really
looking for was a document-
management partner, not just a vendor.
“One of our largest costs is managing
software,” Aihoshi explains. “It’s always
changing. It involves huge
infrastructure. And we didn’t want to
have to manage all the upgrades along
with the constant research needed to
stay on top of what was an appropriate
software tool.”
So Xerox agreed to establish a separate
and secure IT environment to support
BP Amoco Canada. This extranet has
allowed Xerox to offer a variety of
services that go far beyond what many
might consider Xerox’s “traditional”
areas of expertise.
“Xerox is currently managing
approximately 100 vendors for us,”
Aihoshi points out. “Xerox hires them,
pays them and then flows the costs
back to us. For example, Xerox
manages our scanning, records
management and mailroom.”
The ASP Model: A Total
Document Management
Solution
In offering such a wide range of
services, Xerox was exemplifying a
recent industry trend known as the
Application Service Provider (ASP)
model – a way of doing business that
holds tremendous opportunity for both
customers and vendors. It allows
customers to avoid the worries of large
technology investments, technology
refresh, and IT skill shortages. And it
gives vendors the opportunity to
provide more cost-effective solutions
and become more strategically relevant
to their customers.
One example of how Xerox has
implemented the ASP model at BP
Amoco Canada is its managing of the
company’s large – and growing –
inventory of engineering drawings.
“The drawings remain behind Xerox’s
firewall,” explains Aihoshi. “Our
employees can access and view them,
but they can’t modify the drawings.
Instead, employees redline the
drawings and send them back to Xerox
to have them modified.”
W O R L D W I D E I N D U S T R I A L B U S I N E S S
Perhaps nowhere is this capability more
important than in BP Amoco Canada’s
new Prairie Rose chemical plant,
located in Joffre, Alberta. As the two
companies discussed how best to
handle the thousands of engineering
drawings related to the project, Xerox
developed two scenarios. One was to
organize a traditional Documentum
Enterprise Document Management
System, in which Prairie Rose would
purchase and own the document
management software and necessary
hardware, and Xerox would be hired
only for development and
implementation. The second scenario –
based on the ASP model – focused on
Xerox providing a complete solution,
from hardware to software to Xerox on-
site know-how. BP Amoco Canada
chose the second option, resulting in an
associated cost savings of 50 percent.
Xerox is now on board with Prairie
Rose as its complete document-
management provider.
“What Xerox brings to the table is
expertise – especially with their ability
to drive document management tools
like Documentum and FileNet,” Aihoshi
points out. “And as a result, they’re
finding a lot of interested parties
throughout our company. After they
negotiated to work with Prairie Rose,
they began providing services to our
Natural Gas Liquids Unit. Now, Health
and Safety is talking to them as well.
And they’ve successfully negotiated a
mail and print service contract with
Price Waterhouse, to whom we
outsource accounting services. In every
case, Xerox has had to come in on its
own and negotiate as the experts. And, I
have to say, they’ve created quite a
network of connections here.”
Managing FileNet
Technology
Another way Xerox has implemented
the ASP model is in managing BP
Amoco Canada’s legacy FileNet
imaging system. Today, the FileNet
image server resides on the Xerox
network, with BP Amoco Canada’s 1200
employees accessing the FileNet server
through the secure firewall that exists
between the two computer networks.
Employees access the FileNet server
primarily for finance support, accounts
payable, and contract management on
projects such as surface land
agreements.
W O R L D W I D E I N D U S T R I A L B U S I N E S S
“For me, the
number one
benefit of
having Xerox
here is that
it lifts the
burden of
document
services off
my shoulders.
”
The process, says Aihoshi, has gone
well. As part of the outsourcing
agreement, Xerox hired 22 of BP
Amoco Canada’s existing employees, a
move which helped to maintain
continuity for the group. As with all
such complicated undertakings, there
have been obstacles along the way, but
everyone, notes Aihoshi, is willing to
shoulder the burden to make things
move ahead.
Clearly, outsourcing with Xerox has
proved a good business decision –
especially because BP Amoco Canada
no longer has to worry about large
capital investments, updating
technology or retaining knowledgeable
staff. In fact, Xerox can deliver a
document management application in
25 percent of the time it would normally
take a customer to handle the same
application.
Educating Internal
Customers
“But there’s something else Xerox
provides – that is, the kind of expertise
you may not even know you need until
a particular question presents itself,”
says Aihoshi.
“Their expertise is critical when there’s
an issue,” she points out. “Our internal
customers are constantly challenging
the outsourcing model. They’ll say, ‘We
can go across town and get this price.’
And Xerox has been good about
communicating with the customer.
Everyone is learning that walking copy
across the street to get it one cent
cheaper isn’t really less expensive,
once you factor in the time involved
getting it there and back – when you
could e-mail it over to Xerox and have it
taken care of.”
Future plans call for further enhancing
relationships with BP Amoco Canada’s
other outsource providers. BP Amoco
Canada also has asked Xerox to assess
the company’s field offices regarding
document management.
But for now, Aihoshi and her colleagues
are savoring being able to concentrate
on other pressing projects. “For me,”
she says, “the number one benefit of
having Xerox here is that it lifts the
burden of document services off my
shoulders. They’re the experts.
I rely on them.”
©2000 XEROX CORPORATION. Xerox®, The Document Company®,
and the digital X® are trademarks of XEROX CORPORATION.
All rights reserved.
610P704020