NNPC plans paperless operations -Baru

By Etuka Sunday

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is poised to go paperless in its operations within the shortest possible time.
Giving the disclosure in Abuja yesterday during the inauguration of two committees: The Systems Applications and Products (SAP) Steering Committee (SC) and Group Process Council (GPC), NNPC Group Managing Director, Dr. Maikanti Baru, said the committees would be responsible for a holistic implementation of SAP and emplace enterprise resource planning which would serve as enablers for the achievement of the corporation’s success.
A paperless going concern represents a work environment wherein the use of paper is eliminated or greatly reduced. This is usually achievable through conversion of documents and other papers into digital form.
Dr. Baru said SAP was the platform for driving the transformation agenda of NNPC and the 12 Business Focus Areas (BUFA) which include: Ensuring Security of the Industry assets, Developing New Business Models, Providing viable alternative funding to JV Cash Calls, Increasing the nation’s Production & Reserves base and Growing NPDC oil and gas production.
Others are: Effecting Refinery Upgrade & Expansion, Embarking on Renewable Energy Drive & Frontier Exploration, Rehabilitating the nation’s Oil & Gas Infrastructure, Strengthening NNPC Ventures & Common Services, Enhancing Staff Professionalism & Accountability as well as their Welfare.
The Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Ndu Ughamadu in a statement quoted him to have stated that the platform had the potential to significantly influence the corporation’s ability to compete, operate effectively and create value.
“We have commissioned a new re-delivery project to address the existing SAP challenges we are facing, we are implementing new solutions to manage some of our existing processes not currently on SAP. It will also enable us obtain value from our investments in SAP and provide a working environment where our strategic focus areas are managed in an efficient and effective manner,” Dr. Baru stated.
He declared that the Project Steering Committee would be responsible for the overall success of the project and would provide oversight on management of project issues and risks, approve strategic decisions on SAP, ensure such decisions align with the strategic objectives of NNPC, and most importantly, act as SAP ambassadors across the NNPC group to ensure business commitment and ownership of processes deployed on the platform.
The NNPC GMD added that the Group Process Council was accountable for ensuring that processes are optimized and end-to-end assessment of processes are carried out before implementation on SAP.
He charged members of the two committees to firmly establish SAP as the single source of truth for the corporation’s business transactions, stressing that as leaders at various levels, they should take ownership of the process areas, and drive User Adoption of SAP Solutions in those process areas.
Earlier, the Chief Operating Officer, Corporate Services, Mr. Isah Inuwa, said the NNPC SAP journey had been very eventful with the rollout of finance and materials management processes on SAP solutions since 2007.
“To that effect, we have commenced re-implementation of some SAP solutions that have experienced challenges in delivering their value proposition such as Crude Oil and Gas Allocation, enhanced Purchase to Pay (P2P), Business Intelligence and SAP solutions deployed in some SBUs,” Mr. Inuwa posited.