The idea of a common operating environment is tried, tested and proven, but even within a small organisation implementing such standardisation can be demanding. When the organisation concerned has bases in over 100 different countries, with a multi-lingual workforce and over 65,000 desktop users, the challenges become dramatic.

When BP faced this challenge, it decided to call on a professional to manage the logistics and implementation. The organisation chosen was ICG ( International Computer Group), an alliance of 51 specialist partners covering 53 countries around the globe. ICG offers central co-ordination and the global delivery of IT services through these local representatives.

ICG was founded by Computacenter, who themselves handled BP’ s implementations in the UK, France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.

BP creates its own environment

When BP created its first common operating environment (COE) in 1996 it migrated from a heterogeneous mix of PC and Apple Mac technology in order to reap the rewards of standardisation. These included lower maintenance costs, reduced training needs and much simpler asset management. Four years later, COE1 had proved its value, but its Windows 95 platform had been significantly superseded, so the decision was taken to migrate the company lock, stock and barrel to a Windows 2000 platform during 2000/ 2001.

However, before the migration began, BP had to undertake a major upgrade of its existing IT estate. “It became a huge project” recalls Mike Bond, BP’ s Project Manager in charge of hardware logistics and implementation. “Although we run a 25% per annum refresh programme, we soon realised that over four fifths of the equipment we had would simply not be up to the demands of running in Windows 2000. Many sites saw an opportunity to consolidate to a single vendor solution, so we invited proposals from the vendors and after a long and tightly competed process, chose IBM.”

Technological commitment

IBM was chosen as the supplier for a number of reasons, not the least being the company’s commitment to technological development, as Mike explains. “They were a clear winner. We wanted a company that was different from the rest, that took its R&D seriously. One with whom BP would want to be associated. If anybody’s going to find the next killer technology it will be IBM, and we want to be one of their key customers when that happens.”

Although there were strong technical reasons for choosing IBM, one area where BP felt the company could get best value from working with a third supplier was logistics and implementation. Mike explains. “We had to maintain business as usual while getting to grips with the individual needs of each division, identifying what assets they had that could run the new platform, agreeing a base specification for replacements and upgrades, negotiating deliveries with IBM, and guaranteeing that installation to the desks of 65,000+ employees in ninety plus countries would happen precisely when it was scheduled.”

“The theory was that IBM would build and ship the hardware and that Computacenter would configure and store it, before shipping it to the BP user locations around the world to match with their implementation flow,” he continues. “Then Computacenter would be able to use its stockholding capabilities to align production schedules and orders with the deployment dates. However, because the specifications we were buying from IBM were so up to the minute, and the project deadlines were so tight we pretty much hoovered up all the company’s output.”

Excellent relationship

The schedule called for 90% of the project to be completed within six months. Most companies would allow over three times as long for such a major task, but despite the tight timeframe, and the additional complexities of BP’ s acquisition of Burmah Castrol and Arco during the project, it still kept to time. Largely this was down to the high level of co-operation between IBM and the ICG / Computacenter team, as the IBM team explains. “We played to each other’s strengths by making sure that IBM worked on manufacturing and deliveries to smooth the logistical path. Computacenter took the lead on managing the flow of information and monitoring schedules to ensure that deliveries were achieved and the customer kept fully informed.”

Unusual requests

Once the equipment was delivered by IBM to the ICG partners in the designated countries, much of the implementation project was managed by the Computacenter/ICG team. Mike recalls that although he had two people working full time with him to co-ordinate the project within BP, the process of administering and controlling the project was handled largely by Computacenter/ICG.
“ They did it extremely well, especially when we encountered unusual requests. For example, we have a lot of expatriates working overseas in our operations, who don’t immediately fit standard user profiles. We had to establish whether they were local people who would be perfectly at ease with a local keyboard, of which we had over thirty variants, or an expatriate that wanted the keyboard from his or her home country!”

Absolutely right

In Mike’ s view the decision to use the Computacenter/ICG team was absolutely right. “They have an intimate understanding of the differences needed to manage logistics in every geography in which we operate. Not only do they understand the users’ needs, they have an excellent understanding of how to harmonise the delivery of multiple products with different lead times and availability. Just about everything arrived in the right place at the right time on almost every occasion. The Computacenter/ICG team just smiled and said ‘That’ s our job’. To us it would have been a nightmare!”
“ What you have to remember,” he continues, “is that every country is different. Things that we take for granted, such as loading bays, power supplies, keyboards, customs regulations, airfreight schedules, can be absolutely the opposite in one country from its neighbours, and the only way you can get around that is to have an intimate understanding of the language and culture of each country in which you operate. ICG has all of those skills, as well as one of the most sophisticated logistics and EDI systems, and a complete ‘can do’ attitude from the top down.”

Weekend working

This approach was clearly apparent on several occasions. One that Mike particularly remembers was when a site in Hull took delivery of 300 desktops which inadvertently arrived with no CD drive. “IBM could have recalled the boxes and swapped them out for replacements, but that would have taken up to two weeks, so was a non-option. Instead, Computacenter (ICG’s UK partner) picked up 300 CD drives, went into the office on the Friday evening, and by Sunday night all the equipment was up to specification. It was a text book exercise in solving the customer’s problems, seamlessly and without any obvious effort.”

Looking back, Mike agrees that everybody involved in the project accepts that the Computacenter /ICG team was invaluable to its success. “Quite simply we could not have done it without them. As a company we do not have the logistical strengths to manage such a project, and frankly I doubt that any other third party would be as competent. Working with Computacenter/ICG has given us not only an extremely successful project, but a real comfort level right around the world.”

Computacenter & ICG added value to BP by its close relationship with IBM Computacenter/ICG is an IBM International Business Partner (IBP) and has a large staff of IBM trained technical consultants as well as dedicated relationship managers who specialise in leveraging IBM’s resources to solve cus-tomers’ problems. With such a large number of systems, being manufactured at seven different global locations, Computacenter/ICG allocated a full time team to working with IBM and ensuring the continuity and accuracy of deliveries.

Global management, local representation. ICG provides a single point of contact, central management and co-ordination worldwide for all products related to the COE project.
However, because it is an alliance of local service providers cultural differences are understood and observed. It also means people on the spot are empowered to solve any unforeseen problems, resulting in very much smoother implementations than those managed remotely.
Advanced on-line systems At any time in the project, BP’s managers could go on-line into the Computacenter/ICG system to check progress on any part of the project, right down to individual level. This not only made the process of reporting much more efficient, but also gave the project team early insights into any potential issues, allowing them to implement solutions before they disrupted the project.

 

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