Inoapps Helps Companies in the Oil and Gas Industry Minimize Volatility with Award-Winning Accelerate Solution

Volatility is a challenge no matter what industry you’re in—but it’s a critical issue for petroleum and gas companies because their industry involves resources that are in high demand around the globe and that are sought after in isolated and sometimes dangerous locations and difficult work environments. Increasingly, petroleum and gas companies are looking to information technology (IT) to help manage operations more effectively. Inoapps, a U.K.-based Oracle Platinum Partner, is taking advantage of this trend with its award-winning Oracle Accelerate solution for the Oil and Gas industry.

The solution features Oracle E-Business Suite–based modules that can be quickly implemented by oil and gas companies to improve supply chain management, joint venture accounting, financials, projects, and asset management processes and manifesting. Inoapps’s innovation and success was recognized in September 2010 when it was named the Oracle Accelerate Partner of the Year for the 2010 Europe, Middle East, and Africa region in Oracle PartnerNetwork’s Partner Specialization Awards.

A September 2010 article in Offshore Magazine suggests that oil and gas companies need to invest in technology to mitigate economic and technical risks. These risks include remote operations in locales such as Western Siberia and Iraq, deeper waters, more-difficult logistics, and increasingly complex geological settings. Research presented in IDC’s August 2010 Energy Insights Study predicts that oil and gas companies will increase spending on advanced analytics software and enterprise asset management systems in response to regulatory changes resulting from the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Andy Bird, managing director of Inoapps, says, “Oil and gas companies are still spending money in the recession. We’re involved in a lot of global projects, with implementations in Bangladesh and Azerbaijan and a potential project in Iraq. You have to go where the oil and gas are.”

He adds, “Companies in this industry collaborate together to drill and look for oil and gas, and they come together in joint ventures. It’s also very important to make sure the right goods and equipment are in the right place at the right time. It’s a challenge managing the logistics.”

When Bird founded Inoapps in 2006, the goal was to take his background in the oil and gas industry and Oracle E-Business Suite and do lots of fast implementations. He was an early fan of the Oracle Accelerate program because from the beginning it complemented his company’s goals. He says, “We have a fantastic relationship with Oracle Accelerate in the U.K. and at Corporate. We’ve been lucky to be tied to the Oracle Business Accelerators development team because they’ve taken our feedback and input into future releases, and it’s been a huge benefit for us and them, I believe.”

Bird says, “What Oracle Accelerate allows us to do is quickly build a framework that meets perhaps 80 to 90 percent of what the customer is looking for in a template-type solution, with the addition of modules that we’ve built dedicated to the oil and gas industry.”

Inoapps’s Oracle Accelerate solution for the Oil and Gas industry breaks new ground because it features an optional module to improve the management of joint ventures by helping to calculate the cost and revenue by each partner in a specific project. A second optional module tracks materials loaded onto helicopters and flyboats as they are transported offshore.

Inoapps is busy building new Oracle Accelerate solutions for the Utilities and Manufacturing sectors. It is also working to achieve Specialized status for Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle Accelerate, Oracle Database, and Oracle’s Primavera and enterprise project management solutions in Oracle PartnerNetwork’s Specialized program by the end of 2010.

Bird believes winning the Oracle Accelerate Partner of the Year award will definitely open doors. He says, “It’s a fantastic achievement and will allow us to communicate a clear message to EMEA oil and gas organizations and compete where we couldn’t before.”