Speaking at the combined IRM-UK Enterprise Architecture/Business Process Management conference in London last month, Matre Nyberg described how ConocoPhillips Norway uses BPM to ‘support operations, promote corporate harmonization and global excellence.’ CPN has developed a four level process hierarchy, inspired by the AQPC*’s upstream industry framework. This is embedded in a custom Norway business unit process model template, a.k.a. a collaboration map, showing process ‘swim lanes’ from different perspectives, along with related applications and procedures. The templates are color coded to show interactions between different organizational groups and provide drill down into the process hierarchy.
CPN is now deploying the process template across all business and IT improvement projects. Nyber observed that resistance to change can be reduced by involving the right people, but there is no need to ‘sell’ BPM, just to tell folks, ‘this is your job.’ Users can improve their own work processes by participating in the BPM network and managers now have a better view and understanding of their responsibilities and how these relate to other processes. The ISO 9004 compliant system is used for, inter alia, emergency preparation documentation and training on greater Ekofisk.
In a double slot presentation, Shell’s Dan Jeavons and Kathy Young described the BPM-based approach behind Shell’s onshore growth enterprise architecture program (OGEAP). Enterprise architecture is taking hold in Shell where reusable reference architectures are being used to develop architectures for specific operational segments. Shell is also moving from compliance-oriented policy documentation to a more dynamic approach involving BPM, lean methods, Kaizen workshops and more.
OGEAP, a five year program, sets out to wean Shell’s users from plethoric Excel spreadsheets by delivering a trusted data warehouse. The project leverages IP from the Shell/Exxon Aera joint venture and promises a Bill Inmon-inspired ‘corporate information factory’ by 2014. Great thought has been given to governance—with an elaborate structure of process councils and plethoric swim lanes and other diagrams. The starting point was the Upstream Americas process model, now being adapted for deployment at the corporate level. More from IRM-UK.
* American productivity and quality center.
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