The recent development and integration of high-value, industry-specific e-business solutions is designed to reduce customer inventories, streamline pricing procedures and capacity utilisation, and condense cycle times. And, as Sean Ottewell reports, projects in oil, gas and petrochemical industries throughout the Asia region are among the first to benefit.

In the latest round of global e-business ventures, Accenture, the US$10b global management and technology consulting organisation formerly known as Andersen Consulting, has announced a global expansion of its strategic relationship with SAP in the energy industry. With more than 13 000 customers and 30 000 installations worldwide, SAP is a leading e-business applications provider for the new Internet economy.
The alliance will capitalise on Accenture's industry knowledge and e-commerce delivery capability coupled with SAP e-Business innovation and thought leadership to deliver mySAP.com solutions focused on the oil, gas and petrochemical industry.
With this alliance, SAP and Accenture renew their commitment to work together in bringing value-added solutions to the industry. As such, a key component of the alliance is the enhanced ability to develop new e-business solutions. These e-business solutions will leverage web efficiencies to condense cycle times, reduce inventories and streamline pricing procedures and capacity utilisation.
"SAP and Accenture have an exceptional track record of teamwork to the benefit of our clients in the industry," said Paul Fockens, lead partner for Accenture's global energy practice. "We look forward to introducing this alliance to our clients and together we will jointly provide services and solutions that reduce time and total costs for web-enabled enterprise systems."
"In an increasingly competitive oil and gas industry, thought leadership and proven e-business solutions are critical ingredients to success," said Peter Zencke, member of the executive board for SAP. "SAP looks forward to expanding its alliance with Accenture in the energy industry, and providing end-to-end, cost-effective, powerful e-business solutions that dramatically improve business for our global oil and gas clients."
Accenture and SAP have enjoyed a strategic relationship and first joined forces in the energy industry to develop IS-Oil in 1993.
In a separate development, Accenture has teamed up with intelligent process solution provider Novistar in a marketing alliance to provide comprehensive outsourcing solutions for the energy industry. This collaboration will leverage e-commerce efficiencies to reduce costs in exploration and production (E&P). This relationship will extend Accenture's commitment to upstream industry leadership and enhance Novistar's position as an Internet-based delivery solution for E&P companies.
As a dedicated provider of accounting services, information technology services, and integrated transactional support software to the upstream energy industry, Novistar is ideally positioned to help clients succeed in the virtual marketplace.In this alliance, Accenture will provide e-commerce business integration services to enhance Novistar's software applications and service delivery. This relationship will facilitate complete coverage of the upstream petroleum industry from planning through consolidated financial reporting, whether companies are large or small, domestic or multinational.
"Novistar's software and client support deliver value to the upstream market," said Ken Theut, a partner specialising in upstream markets with Accenture's energy and natural resources practice. "Their business process outsourcing model offers affordable access to state-of-the-art upstream software by reducing application deployment and maintenance costs."
Novistar is building on its upstream solutions to deliver a website that automates information exchange, transaction processing, and workflow among business process participants. Accenture and Novistar will work with the industry to use this technology to provide more efficient distribution of critical data to improve decision-making processes. This solution will serve as a central information portal, continuously updating and delivering operational data and reducing upstream transaction costs.
"Novistar's legacy lies in its products and services, which reduce the costs of conducting business in the upstream oil and gas industry," said Trip Ray, Novistar president and CEO. "When you combine our product with Accenture's industry reach and delivery knowledge, you create an alliance that empowers customers with the enhanced capabilities to make more informed business decisions. Together we are the solution provider of choice for the upstream market."
Asian companies will also be among the first to make use of a new version of the Aspen Manufacturing Suite, which enables process manufacturers to have immediate access to key plant information in order to make better, quicker decisions.
The Aspen Manufacturing Suite is an integrated suite of products that supports manufacturing execution, decision-making and optimisation for the process industries. The new version incorporates a number of significant additions that enable real-time plant data to be analysed and viewed via the Internet from both inside and outside of the organisation. The ability to share accurate plant information with staff and with key customers is vital for process companies wishing to implement e-business strategies and have the responsiveness to react to market opportunities.
"AspenTech's real-time web solution speeds up access to key manufacturing information and increases the productivity of our decision makers," said Ray Walker, alliance manager for DuPont. "The web solution also reduces our training and desktop software maintenance costs."
By providing the manufacturing agility required to conduct efficient e-business transactions with customers and suppliers, the Aspen Manufacturing Suite enables quicker execution of production plans, minimal deviation from those plans and revisions to the plans in real-time, based on actual asset performance.
"With the new release of the Aspen Manufacturing Suite, process manufacturers will be able to combine a wide range of capabilities in order to optimise manufacturing performance," said Larry Evans, chairman and CEO of AspenTech. "This latest release reinforces AspenTech's position as the one company that possesses all of the necessary components to provide an integrated manufacturing solution. This integration enables our process industry customers to more efficiently execute on their e-business initiatives."
Other enhancements in the new release include:
* Full integration of the information management and production. Management solutions based on Aspen Framework, the common integration platform for all AspenTech software that supplies critical links between plant systems and enterprise business systems, including ERP systems.
* Upgraded batch manufacturing solution, Aspen Batch.21, which combines with Aspen Web.21 to make key batch quality and manufacturing information available via the Internet.
* Upgraded advanced control solutions including enhanced neural network modelling tools in Aspen IQ, event monitoring and customised calculation capability in Aspen Watch, enhanced model identification in DMCplus, and a new viewer that enables interaction with DMCplus online controllers via the Internet.
* Introduction of Aspen Process Order, a new solution that provides the key link between scheduling, execution, and accounting processes.
* Introduction of Aspen Transition Manager. It integrates with Aspen Process Recipe to deliver recipe information to process control systems, operators and other applications that depend on grade-specific data. It improves quality and throughput by making product transitions more consistent and efficient.